LEJOG day 58: Kinlochleven to Fort William

OK, first things first: I thought Fort William was a city, but it turns out to have neither a Pizza Express nor a cinema so that is clearly not the case, although it does have a Cotswold Outdoor and is the start/end of two national trails, so on that front at least it's doing better than Swansea.

I started and ended my day today more-or-less at sea level, but most of the rest of the day was spent either climbing or descending, just to keep things interesting. I also spent a lot of the day walking through woodland of varying density, testing the effectiveness of DEET against the local midge population.

I had a steep climb straight off a cold start in the rain and thus my waterproofs, which meant that the first part of the day was a pretty good model of hiking in an actual sauna as, as we have already established many times, my breathable waterproofs are neither waterproof nor breathable, meaning I and everything I'm wearing get very warm and sticky quite quickly. It's not an experience I can really recommend, and my waterproofs by this point rival my backpack for its nickname.

However, once I'd got out of the first bit of woodland, I got to walk along a pretty decent path (even if it was acting as a stream, again) along one edge of a really lovely river valley for a very, very long time. This sounds boring but the river was meandering and you never really got to see the whole way along the valley so it was really very nice. There were a couple of ruins- a house and something rather grander- but the only sign around just told me the building was unsafe and to keep out so I didn't hang about. I later passed a more informative board telling me of the flight of a clan along the valley (Lairig Mor) after a battle in 1645, but as you can see I didn't retain that information very well.

Shortly after this poorly-absorbed history lesson, I plunged back into forest - or rather, the remains of one, because the Forest Commission apparently have received a big order and most of Nevis Forest - but not the bit you can see from Fort William - seems to be on its way to becoming wardrobes and what-have-you. I suspect I'd have encountered more midges if the pine were still growing but I had quite enough to contend with as it was.

I surprised myself by sticking to the longer route, even when a handy information board told me I could knock 3 miles off walking along a convenient road, mostly because I didn't have the map downloaded but also because I could tell I was already going to be hours earlier into Fort William than I'd expected. I arrived even so an hour and a half earlier than the earliest time I'd told my hostess to expect me, and was met with a really pleasing degree of shocked admiration. Quite a lot of the places I've stayed lately have been really used to hikers and LEJOGers and haven't really come across as terribly impressed- they've usually got a one-up story to tell ("I had a lady come through who ran from Land's End to John O'Groats!")- but here I was met with wonder: "you're very early!" "You've walked so fast!" "You've done the whole Highland Way?" (No, Land's End to John O'Groats, I said) "You're walking to John O'Groats?"

"Good on ya, girl!"

Distance walked: 14.62 miles
Time taken: 5h25
Percentage completed: 81.6%
Miles per £1 of boot: 6.31
Miles to go: 207
Days since I was last rained on: 0
Lunch: egg and cress and a banana and probably some DEET
Last night's B&B: The MacDonald Hotel, Kinlochleven: nice hotel with a good restaurant and I had a bath 

 Kinlochleven

 Ben Nevis, looking exactly how I remember it from when I climbed it, which is to say: shrouded in thick cloud at the top