Paul Lydon: Kinlochleven to Fort William, The Finish

After breakfast at 08:00, we left the Bed and Breakfast at 09:05 in the unsurprising rain to follow the West Highland Way out of Kinlochleven.

Soon the path left the town via a gradually-rising and zigzagging path bringing us to a track which runs along one side of the broad valley containing Loch Leven.

The track passed the ruins of Tigh-na-Sleubhaich after a couple of hours so we sat in the shelter of one of the walls of an adjacent sheep pen to to have a hot drink and snack.

Luckily the rain had mostly stopped but the clouds were still covering the hill tops. This section of the walk was more crowded than other days and we were passed by several familiar and unfamiliar walkers, and we could see more walkers in the distance as there was a good view of the path for several kilometres ahead.

The track, and old military road, was the usual story of rough and undulating gradually as it followed one side of the wide valley.

After a few kilometres, the valley and the track turned North and soon entered a wooded area.

In a clearing, we sat on a couple of tree stumps and ate some of our packed lunch then, as a few midges made their presence known, we set off again.

After a cleared are we entred a wood again and then another cleared area then back into wood again. All the time drizzle or light was starting or stopping.

The path then joined a forestry track which gradually dropped us down towards Glen Nevis which we could see below in the distance. Unfortuntely, there was not much of Ben Nevis to see because of the cloud.

Tramping along the hard surface of the forestry track soon had our feet complaining. Up to now it had been a very enjoyable walk with lovely scenery despite the weather.

Following a sign, we quit the forestry track and followed a footpath for a few hundred metres to join the minor road in Glen Nevis.

This road seemed interminable as our sore feet got sorer as we followed the pavement or the road into Fort William after a couple of kilomteres or so.

We paused at a small bridge for a final rest as Karen checked the location of the Bed and Breakfast and as we did this, the two Belgians came past.

We followed them and a few hundred metres later the Belgians celebrated as they saw the sign marking the snd of the West Highland Way.

Photos were taken and an American walker who was sitting on a nearby bench waiting for his friends to arrive took our photo using Karen's camera. I placed my camera on a convenient rubbsh bin and used the self-timer to take more photos of ourselves. It was 16:30, which was exactly the time I had estimated we would arrive in Fort William when we set off in the morning.

Tem minutes later we were climbing some concrete steps up to our Bed and Breakfast at Rhu Mhor Guest House and after ringing the bell and removing our boots, we went up to our room. We removed our dirty Paramo Cascada trousers so that we sould sit down on the bed until our “travellong bag” would arrive.

The bag arrived not long afterwards and wew were able to have showers and get changed.

Later we walked into the centre of Fort William to get our final stamp in the West Highland Way log books and collect our certificates at the Grog and Gruel Pub. We found the pub had an excellent restaurant upstairs so we stayed to have a meal as well.

In the morning we walked to the train station which was luckily fairly near and caught had an early train. The train was following the West Highland Line and was a very picturesque route often following the route of the West Highland Way, or close to it, passing a lot of our route for the previous few days. We saw plenty of sheep as we trundled past and some small herds of red deer.
We arrived at Glasgow Queen Street station about four hours later. From there we got a taxi to the nearby Glasgow Central station to catch a train to Birmingham New Street station, then a train to Derby and finally a train to Matlock from where we were picked up by a taxi brining us home to Winster.