Featured Walk This Way .....

Nah, nothing to do with Steve Snake Hips Big Lips TYLER .... but the WEST HIGHLAND WAY.

That's this one :-

https://www.westhighlandway.org/

It's 96.5 miles long, runs (walks?) through some of the most beautiful Scottish countryside and scenery you could wish to behold, between Glasgow (well, Milngavie, but that's pretty much a northern Glasgow suburb, really) and Fort William on the north west coast of Scotland and by the end of the Caledonian Canal. It is a fantastic facility; a stunningly beautiful route; a challenging achievement and an enticing, enchanting experience. Well, it's ALL of those things WHEN the weather is good ....... luckily, for us, it was!

So, what's this got to do with a motorcycle forum? Well, to be honest, not a lot, really. BUT, I can claim some slight connection - insomuch as I managed to combine the trip up to Scotland with the collection of a couple of Gumtree purchases (2 seats and a pair of standard silencers ..... uhmmmmm .... mufflers to our colonial cousins!) of parts for our Street Triples - my wife and I have one each! Greedy! And, I did get some excellent and highly relevant advice from forum members when I asked, before we went, for any general information. My excuse and I'm sticking to it. )

So, I'll try to be brief - for once - and keep this more a brief interlude and less a boring travelogue with, I hope some relevant piccies ..... we do all like piccies, don't we? Sorry, no bikes, though. :-(

This whole thing started only a matter of weeks ago when my wife said that she wanted to walk the WHW with the dog and was researching train timetables, accommodation etc. I was already aware of the WHW and had always had in mind that it would be a really nice thing to do but we have so much going on with house renovations/repairs, etc., that I thought it would just remain a back-burner project that might or might not happen "some day". Well, my wife's idea of 'some day' was much more immediate than was mine! I pointed out the impracticality of taking the dog from Devon to Glarsgee on a train ... I mean, where would she pee? Errrmm .... the dog, not my wife!

Although I'm a retard (retired) I do still do some part time delivery driving of new cars and my favourite drives are always up to Scotland. I enjoy the challenge of long distance driving and, let's face it, doing those distances in a high end, German car with alll the modern features is not exactly a chore. Somewhat more of a challenge in my ancient Astra G but nevertheless it was no great leap for me to suggest that I would drive up there and we would all walk that WAY? So the transport was agreed - I left it to SWMBO to arrange the accommodation and, therefore, the 'stage' stops - and we eventually agreed that it would all be much easier if I drove between the stages so that access to dog-friendly accommodation was not really limited by distance. This meant, of course, that I wouldn't be able to walk the whole distance with them but my more errr.... "mature years" and current disposition made that a common sense as well as a default decision.

We were incredibly fortunate to have enjoyed absolutely fantastic weather on all but our very last day there when it was no great hardship as I'd booked the steam train ride from Fort William to Mallaig for that afternoon anyway! Mind you, Mallaig is NOT the place to be walking around in the dreek .......

Anyway. The whole trip worked superbly well. The weather was near perfect; the midges were almost entirely absent and the accommodation was, with one exception, just fine. I managed to walk an estimated forty or so miles of the trail and my wife and Moss (the mutt) managed to do the whole thing in 5 days of walking. My walks were, on 3 days, out from north to south of each "stage" until I met the real walkers, then I walked back to the car with them. On the last two days I also walked with mrs. and mutt from south to north for a few miles then back to the car; drove round to the end point and walked north to south to meet them again.

Enough of the drivel - some pictures?

 

A few more pics. to augment the limited 10!

 

Last few for the walk - and a few for the steam buffs .....

 

Apologies for the duplicates - it's an age thing!

p.s. and yes, guys, I know, ...... I'm punching WAY above my weight (and size!) in the marital stakes. Fine by me!

 

Thanks Billy. Crappy old phone camera really doesn't do justice to the subject matter but does, I hope, give a taste of what's on offer.

I actually enjoyed (and endured!) my bits of walking on the Way, though climbing out of, and then descending back into Kinlochleven on two consecutive days was pretty hard work!

We are thinking of doing it again - maybe next year - but with my wife's sister and her husband ... and at a slightly more forgiving average daily mileage. At least I now know just what to expect.

 

Why, thank you, Sir! I think "superb" is an epithet more relevant to the subject than the image - but I DO appreciate the sentiment and the comment.

We were, for the most part, so fortunate that we weren't bothered by midges, despite the fact that it has been (is?) - by most accounts - an epic year for them. I think most of that good fortune was down to the fact that there seemed to be a significant breeze for most of the time and my understanding is that midges don't fly too well in wind speeds over something like 7-10mph. We took all the recommended precautions - SMIDGE and Avon 'Skin So Soft' (OOOHHHH ..... get YOU, dearie!!) - so that probably helped a bit but even with those lathered generously on all exposed surfaces, the few minutes it took to stop and prepare everything for the resumption of the walk at Beinglas Farm at Inverarnan was a nightmare!! I had to feel for anybody who had camped there overnight - the clouds of the little midgee buggers were everywhere and almost everyone had the full netting headgear on! I'm afraid that, in my limited experience of them up there, anyone would be best advised to be prepared with full cover clothing, netting headgear and plenty of SMIDGE cream!

 

Thanks @Octoberon - kind of you to say so!

Bikes? Oh there were bikes aplenty - we were on the walk over the Bank Holiday weekend; the weather was excellent and the roads were very busy. I had thought of waxing lyrical about the four, three, two and even single pipe "symphonies" that rang out across the valley as we trudged the Old Military Road where it ran almost parallel and quite close to the A82! I just hope none of those symphonies ended with a finale involving the unmarked police motorcycle patrols that operate on that road!

 

Daag Wim. You really should take the trip on the Jacobite - it is worth every penny and every moment. I'm sure you get a completely different perspective of the countryside from the train. That said, you could, of course, do the same journey on the "rattler" and, I suspect, at a fraction of the cost - but you wouldn't have those lovely steam train sound and smell sensations that are )for me, at least) so memorable and reminiscent!

 

Thanks Sandi. I spared everyone the tedium of my overblown rhetoric and tried to keep the commentary commendably brief. Maybe that's why the photo's seem so good?

Scotland is indeed a beautiful place to visit and I even, occasionally, get paid for going there .... though, on those occasions, I don't get to see much more than the views from a driver's seat or the train windows! The walk puts you IN the scenery rather than in a viewing seat OF the scenery. Loved it.