Sep 6: Wild (and damp) mountain time

We spent Friday afternoon with Gareth in the Florist Arms, followed by the evening at Fatto e Mano (great pizza). Fabi joined us. Saturday saw us braced for Gatwick, which was its reliably crowded, noisy and triggering self. Thankfully, our flight to Glasgow left on time and by 2:15pm, we were sitting in the back of Des’s cab making our way to Fort William.

The guidebooks recommend taking the “beautiful” train ride between these two towns, but the logistics proved impossible. We could have spent a night in Glasgow and taken the train the next day. We redirected the money into a cab fare and took the beautiful road instead. As we neared Glencoe, every lay-by and viewpoint was packed with cars. Coaches squeezed themselves onto non-existent hard shoulders so their passengers could wander up to waterfalls and pose for selfies. Carey’s word for the scenery: “breathtaking”.

The landscape is classically glacial. The glens (valleys), are concave, bulging in their midsections from the weight of long-gone ice. The hills are steep-faced, creased, scored with fast-running streams and waterfalls. The water runs red-black and foamy, full of peat. The season is still summer, but a lush green summer with few leaves yellow or fallen (unlike London, where the summer drought has seen the trees shed rusty leaves as if it were October). There are the occasional rusty stretches of bracken, but in general, it is about the many greens, and even the purples. Some heathers are still in bloom.

We were very lucky to be driving through a break in the weather. Scotland is green and Romantic on account of its abundance of rain and fog. We certainly experienced that today. The rain stopped and we had a (very) few glimpses of blue sky around 2ish. But, this followed 5 ½ hours of walking through persistent light rain. We both thoroughly enjoyed it! We both had our caps, whose sturdy brims, combined with our hoods, kept the rain largely off our glasses. Our rain gear kept pace with the rain so we stayed dry inside – which is far from guaranteed, as we know from damp experience. We spent most of the day walking the tow path of a canal before cutting across country, through a birch wood and climbing up to Spean Bridge, where we overnight.

Both guest houses so far have been charming but do breakfast only. Fort William offered us a few places to eat. Even so, we were saved from an awful misfire because the poor service in the first place we sat down made us decide to leave before ordering. We went next door, and had a splendid meal with friendly waiting staff, good local lager and a succulent sticky toffee pudding. For Spean Bridge, we booked ahead because there are only 2 places serving dinner. Today’s dinner was also friendly and cosy, comprising a variety of fried delights, perfectly aligned with the stereotype of Scottish cuisine, and very welcome after being on our feet for 29km.

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Inspired by our 2024 Camino Francais, Karen has a periodic podcast called "I sent you a bloody boat", personal thoughts on faith by a person who believes in thinking. Also, known as "The Reluctant Christian". You can listen to it on Spotify and on Apple Podcasts at: