Day 3 West Highland Way: Kingshouse to Tyndrum

Recently I walked part of the West Highland Way in Scotland on a short 1-week break from work. Since I flew to Inverness, I decided to walk the trail in reverse, which was kind of cool since I often had the experience of hiking totally alone. I combined hiking with and without a backpack; camping, wildcamping and hostel beds and short and long walking days. If you want to know more about my general experience on this trip, read this blog. In this series of blogs I'll tell you about each section of the West Highland Walk and how I experienced it, today talking about section 2: Kinlochleven to Kingshouse (Hotel). 

After a comfortable night in my tent at MacDonald Hotel & Cabins and a true outdoor breakfast consisting of a bag of cereals mixed with some water, I was ready to pack up and start the second day of the journey. This section would be around 15 km, so easy peasy compared to my first day. This sections also features the Devil's Staircase, a part you'll probably have heard of before, but, since you're walking the trail in reverse, this means no climbing up the 'staircase', but actually climbing down :). 

The day starts with a short walk through the town of Kinlochleven, a beautiful tiny Scottish village. Here you can find a supermarket in case you need some provision for the day, and even a cool indoor ICE climbing center! Also, this town makes for a nice stop to take part in several outdoor activities such as MTB, hiking, trailrunning, kayaking etc. After leaving the campsite, you'll follow the trail towards the River Leven and make your way to the left before crossing it. This river supports populations of sea trout and salmon, and because of their strict fishing rules, if you're there in the right season you might even be able to spot some! Continuing your walk, you'll eventually cross the river towards the old military road that goes up the hill. To me it wasn't the most interesting walk since it's a simple road through the forest that just goes up and up and up. You'll pass a big water reservoir with extensive warnings about not swimming in it, and before you know it you'll be out of the trees and out in the open again! 

From here on, you'll be super exposed to the weather until you reach Kingshouse, so there's plenty of time to test your rain gear if you have the chance. The path is easy to follow, well marked, but stony in some places such as the Devil's Staircase. However, it is beautiful and the views are simply amazing. For a while you'll just feel like you're the only person in the world. After walking across this Moorland, you'll reach the top of the Devil's Staircase, the highest point of the WHW at 550m. 

After going down the Devil's Staircase (and watching people struggling to get up), you'll be presented with a beautiful view of Glen Coe, the famous site of the MacDonalds Clan massacre in 1692 and Buachaille Etive Mor, one of the most famous mountains of the Munro Peaks. From here, the trail will be quite close to the motorway and quite flat, but the views totally make up for this. Eventually, you'll reach Kingshouse Hotel where you can either take a break in the Pub before you start the next section to Inveroran (another 16 km) or you can make this your overnight stop and either sleep in the hotel/hostel or in your tent on the other side of the bridge. For 1 pound you can take a shower in the building attached to the hostel (here you can also use the toilet and fill up your water bottle), and you can even use the drying room behind the hotel if you need to dry anything. I arrived at Kingshouse around 12.30, so if I hadn't booked the luggage service, I would have continued my walk to Inveroran since I still had plenty of time. All in all, however, staying in the pub, reading a bit and drinking cider was nice as well, and in the evening it's a great place to meet fellow hikers. 

TIP! When wildcamping, make sure you don't put your food in your tent. Sometime during the night, rodents apparently gnawed through my tent and ate all my food. It wasn't really a nice surprise the next morning, to find this whole in my tent. And since I hardly had any food left, I had to combine my next to days of hiking into one, which you can read about in my next blog! 

Click here for the next stage!

Two weeks ago I went on my first solo hike, to Scotland. While I initially wanted to go to Norway, the high price in the country and the rough terrain made me decide to go with Scotland instead, a country I had been to before and which would maybe be a little more friendly for my first ever multi-day and solo hike! 

I thought it would be nice to get away for a while, after lots of things happening in my private life, I needed a break from it all. Get away and into nature, and some time to myself. I bought, borrowed and packed my tent, sleeping bag and pad and all the other essentials, and booked my tickets to Inverness. Two weeks later I arrived in the cold and rainy highlands, at the tiny airport with only one luggage belt. I stayed in the highland backpackers hostel for one night and made my way to Fort William the next morning. After an amazing busride past Loch Ness, Urquhart castle and countless of beautiful Scottish houses I arrived at Fort William. Luckily a Lidl supermarket was only 50 meters from the bus stop, which made a good stop for a cheap vegan lunch. A proper Scotsman loaded the conveyer belt with tons of beers and whiskey, and after noticing me stare, told me: "I wish me wife didn't like alcohol so much". We had a short conversation about the beers and whiskeys in Scotlad, of which half I couldn't understand, after which I made my way towards my next destination; Glen Nevis Youth Hostel, a 5km walk from Fort William. 

The 5 km walk with my 14 kg backpack was quite a tough one, and since no one wanted to give me a ride (I tried hitchhiking) it took me about 45 minutes - 1 hour to get to the hostel. On the way I met many hikers on their last few km of the West Highland Way, energetic, relieved and tired of this 154 km walk. I was walking the WHW in reverse, and so far, was the only one walking in the other direction. 

The hostel provided a great starting point for my next four days of hiking. With the beautiful view of Ben Nevis, and the surrounding walks, I could warm up a bit to my 21 km walk the next day. After a nice pint of cider, a conversation with a Belgian chemist, now construction worker, and a good nights' rest, the big vegan Scottish breakfast the next morning came as a welcome addition to my day of hiking. 

Since I started having back aches before I left the Netherlands, and because I was a bit worried about carrying 14 kg of luggage during 20km walks for the first time, I decided to arrange luggage transfer service. This is really easy along the WHW, although walking it in reverse provides some challenges. Many carriers don't provide luggage transfer in reverse, and if they do, it costs quite a bit more. Eventually, AMS carried my luggage for me from Fort William to Tyndrum. Even though it's quite a cool challenge to carry your own luggage, I was happy that I didn't. This way I was much more free and able to enjoy the hikes and the landscape so much more. 

The first day of hiking was around 21km (including a bit extra I did because I wanted to find a burnt down castle, which I didn't find....), and I was just in aww throughout the whole hike. I felt like a hobbit in Middle Earth. It was amazing, beautiful and sometimes really lonely. While I met many hikers going the other way, most of them I met during midday, when we were both halfway. In the morning and afternoon I was alone most of the time, which was quite a special experience. The hike was a bit tough because it was quite long and going up and down a lot, but the trail was easy and I had no difficulties finding my way. After about six hours I arrived in Kinlochleven, a beautiful small town, where I stayed at MacDonald hotel and cabins campsite, which has an extremely georgous view of Loch Leven. Opposite to the hotel is a wildcamping spot where I saw many people camp for the night as well, and filling up their water bottles at the MacDonald Hotel. I enjoyed a nice Wild Pig Cider (absolutely delicious) and cooked my freezedried food. Listening to the tawny owls in the distance, I finally fell into a long, deep sleep. 

The next morning it was time for a quick breakfast, so that I could continue my journey to Kingshouse, my next overnight stop. I left relatively early, and expected that it would take me a while. The walk out of Kinlochleven was quite a long way uphill, and honestly a little bit boring. The most interesting part was my walk past a water reservoir and dam, which was not that interesting. Finally the path left the big road and took a turn for a much smaller path just for hikers. From here, it was absolutely amazing. I felt so alone, had the most amazing views and just couldn't believe I was actually here. The rolling yellow-green-brownish hills, the dark black lakes, and just open landscapes as you would never see them in the Netherlands. Eventually I started meeting people again, and realised it probably wasn't too far anymore towards Kingshouse.

Unfortunately I arrived there at 1 p.m., so I barely had anything to do for the rest of the day, except wait for my luggage and set up my tent for wildcamping on the other side of the bridge. Eventually I was surrounded by fellow hikers and we decided to have a night out in the Kingshouse Pub enjoying each others' company and the local beers and ciders. It was one of my best night, full of interesting conversations and talks about Brexit. The next morning, however, I woke up to a nasty surprise, realising there was a hole in my innertent, through which some animals had gotten to my food supply. I had to throw out all my food, and decided to walk my next two stages in one day, since I had to get to a supermarket in Tyndrum for some food supplies. This meant I had to get up early since I suddenly had a day with 30km! 

It took me around 8.5 hours to walk from Kingshouse through Inveroran, Bridge of Orchy to Tyndrum. Again, it was a beautiful hike and not too strenuous. Also, having a tea break at Bridge of Orchy hotel (halfway) was nice to regain some energy for the rest of my hike. This day I walked large parts by myself, also because I arrived quite late at Tyndrym. But eventually, tired of the 30km, I found my way to a hostel and spent the rest of the night relaxing on the couch with some English men, again talking about Brexit. Since I was able to put two days of hiking into one, I had a spare day before I would make my way back to Inverness. Why not add an extra 24 km of walking? This last day I would carry my backpack, since I arranged the luggage service until Tyndrum. That would be a challenge. 

Even though the last day of walking was the easiest so far in terms of elevation, and started of with me thinking ah it's easy with a backpack, after about three hours I started to become more and more tired. Even though my backpack was now down to 12 kgs, it was still quite a challenge for me to walk such a long day with a heavy backpack, new hiking boots and increasing back pain. I have to admit I shed some tears and my feed were broken when I arrived at my end point, the Drovers' Inn in Inverarnan, but it was totally worth it. The hike was very different from the days before. I walked through forests for large parts of the way, while the other days I walked through bare mountain landscapes. And having a drink at the 300-year old Drovers' Inn was also an experience in itself. Since I had a train booked the next day from Tyndrum, I took the bus back to my hostel and camped there for the night before heading back to Inverness the next day. 

The trip back to Inverness was amazingly beautiful again. I can highly recommend the train rides in Scotland. You go through landscapes where you'll see no one, or nothing else. It reminded me much of the Harry Potter movies and gave me this impressive feeling of being such a minor being in this world full of natural wonders. Followed by a bus ride from Spean Bridge to Inverness, I arrived at Highland Backpackers again and was warmly welcomed by the staff and an evening with new friends from New Zealand (Hayden), Scotland (Chris), England (Donald), Australia (Thomas) Canada and the US (Paul). Saturday I spent a nice day in Inverness, hiking a bit more with Chris from the hostel and his dog on the Ness islands, and buying some food and souvenirs. Sunday morning marked the end of my trip when I left Inverness at 6.30 a.m. to arrive back in Amsterdam at 9 a.m..

It was a tough, rewarding and beautiful experience. Hiking alone for multiple days is something I always wanted to do, just to see if I could do it. While this wasn't the hardest hike, I did walk 94+ km in 4 days, so I'm proud. Whether I'd do it again? Definitely. Alone? Not sure. Even though it was cool, the evenings and mornings were sometimes a bit boring and it would have been nice to have someone there with me at those times. All in all, I can recommend this to anyone who is up for a first solo-hiking challenge, it is safe, beautiful and really gives you the experience of hiking in the wilderness, without it being too far from civilisation.