West Highland Way 2006

In 2006 having struggled up the British Three Peaks and Mount Kilimanjaro during the summer Rich, Mike and friend Matt Singleton decided to look for a weekend adventure before Christmas. At about the same time they had read about ultra marathon runners such as Bob Brown ( www.bobbyrun.co.uk) and Dean Kanazes (www.ultramarathonman.com) who quite easily run for hundreds of miles at a time. So when they discovered that the record for completing the West Highland Way is held by a similar nutter, Jez Bragg who completed the 95 mile course in just 15 hours 45 minutes, it struck the boys that completing it over the course of a weekend even if it was December appeared very possible.

The West Highland Way links Glasgow and Fort William and is the Highland's premier footpath. It was opened in 1980 and has since become a very popular route that passes through some of Scotland's most beautiful and dramatic scenery. Starting at the foothills of Ben Nevis near Fort William the path crosses hills to Kinlochleven and on to Kingshouse. Then the route follows the valleys and moorland to Tyndrum and then to Loch Lomand. The route then follows the eastern wooded shore of Loch Lomand and then onto Glasgow.

To suit flights and time off work the boys 2006 attempt started at the Glasgow end. A 4am start was a very good idea considering the amount of lost time spent retracing steps to find the path in the dark. However, after just a couple of hours and about 5 miles in spirits were high enough for Mike to suggest walking through the next night and completing the walk in a oner in order to have a full day in a Fort Willian boozer before returning to London. How naïve!

The first part of the walk is particularly simple, generally flat and given reasonable weather, which they had, good progress could be made to Loch Lomand. The choice of food for the trip was based on very limited experience and consisted of nuts and dried fruit: try eating huge quantities of nuts and dried fruit, it's like the challenge of eating 3 cheese crackers in a minute - practically impossible! So, shortly after noon the first open pub on the route served as too much of a temptation (especially for Rich). The landlord laughed at the description of the plans for a further 30 miles walk for that day and the 40 the next and shortly after leaving the trio found why.

Due to the extraordinarily high water levels in the loch the northerly section of the path around the shore was often submerged making it necessary to scramble off-route. One section of 7 miles took over 5 hours to traverse which meant that by the time they made it to the northern end of the loch the sun had gone down and the boys were still a long long way from their pub supper (all thoughts of doing the walk in a oner had been forgotten when the whisky and painkillers were called for from the rucksacks).

With about 20 miles to complete in the dark the walk took a turn from being largely enjoyable to being a nightmare, occasionally comforted by phone calls to London. The rain was relentless and found it’s way through, soaking the already dampened spirits. It took until after 10pm to trudge into Tydrum like drenched scarecrows so stiff they couldn’t bend their knees and almost completely dependant on their walking sticks. After finishing the 52 miles it was evident that they wouldn’t be managing a second day, or walking normally for few more but Mike and Rich vowed to try again in Dec 2007.