LEJOG day 57: King's House to Kinlochleven

Talking to my brother was a great plan, because it emerged that he took a 20-mile train ride in the middle of his 900-odd-mile LEJOG cycle to avoid what he described as a "hurricane", which is both a longer distance and a greater proportion of the journey than I've missed out, so I'm feeling way less hard on myself now.

I got the bus at 10:30 which dumped me at the side of the A82 around 11am- Anthony was getting on as I got off, so now he knows I'm still alive and walking around- and I set off on a section which was described to me by a man at Ardlui as "all one long descent", which rapidly turned out to be very much not true at all.

The first part of the walk ran alongside the A-road in a valley surrounded by spectacular Highlands-y landscape- the advantage of getting the bus was I was driven past a sign welcoming me to the Highlands so now I know where I am again- and then the West Highland Way decided it had had enough of following rivers, took a sharp right and ran up the steepest mountain it could. You know you're in for it when you see a section of the path is labelled "Devil's Staircase" and the wise people at OS are only marking 10-foot contour lines.

It actually wasn't as bad as all that- just a long, zig-zag climb with excellent views all around and a lot of other hikers. Nearly at the top, I passed a slate with "SHOP: 500m" on it, which I assumed was a joke until I passed another two at 100m and 50m, and at the top were a couple of bivvies with cans of Irn-Bru and packets of Haribo inside. I hiked on past but you have to admire whoever carries it all up there.

The rest of the day was mostly an undulating path which for long stretches very closely resembled a stream, finishing up with a 3-mile-long demonstration of what a steep-ish descent on loose with a recently-sprained ankle can do to you, both physically and mentally.

This time tomorrow, I should be in Fort William!

Distance walked: 10.39 miles
Time taken: 3h34
Percentage complete: 80.4%
Miles to go: 221
Miles per £1 of boot: 6.24
Days since I was last rained on: 1
Lunch: ham and pickle sandwich and crisps and fruit juice
Last night's B&B: Stance Cottage, Bridge of Orchy: very nice, with a fancy drying cupboard in the room, tea and cake when I arrived and a great breakfast, but also hands-down the most expensive place I've stayed and I don't know if it was £20-a-night better than the next most expensive place








This was taller than I am, presumably to stop unwitting hikers from walking into the A82

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