West Higland Way: Kingshouse to Fort William

Day 29 (1 month on the road)
Distance- 50kmkm (1352), Ben Nevis 14km
Weather- sunshine
Highlights- Glen coe, what a ride, Ben Nevis summit
Lowlights- Groups split, missed Ben Nevis MTB park
Accommodation- Glen Nevis campsite, nice location

The morning was off to a great start with a sun drenched valley and mountains at breakfast. Then a down hill ride into Glen Coe. The scenery has to be pretty specky to stop you from coasting at 30km/hr to take photos. But we all kept stopping and taking flicks. The steep mountains sides and exposed rocky outcrops were mesmerizing. Fantastic road and once we had our fill , down we flew. Brief stop at the info center at the bottom to use the facilities. A caravaner came to admire the bikes and trailer and then admitted we had beaten them down the last 10km section, he was mighty impressed.

Unfortunately the team split at Geln Coe village, Peter and Bridgette taking the road to Fort William while Tom and Sarah continuing up to Kinlochleven to rejoin the West Highland Way. The road we took was tight, no shoulder, so a lot of riding on footpaths, stopping and starting to let traffic through. But a beautiful quick ride none the same. We got to Fort William by lunch and went and did some shopping. Hot day some we were inspired to buy ice-cream, a whole liter actually. yummy yummy. The one litre boxes also make good lunch boxes to protect fruit (definitely the reason we got it). Once we had finished we headed of to the campsite. Great location at the base of Ben Nevis.

We debated whether to go and explore the mountain bike park where the world titles are going to be held in September. Since there was a ski lift in operation peter wouldn’t have to use the knee too much. But this was only servicing a double diamond black run, a little out of our league. We were entertained by the fact the time taken to complete the route was between 4 and 30mins.

So we decided that we would head up Ben Nevis instead. Left at 3.30pm determined this time to get to the top. Funny that the last time Bridgette was here she was coming down off the mountain in winter, in snow an darkness at the same time we were leaving. Now the summer day light meant we had until 10pm. We still got a few funny looks as we charged up, lots of people heading down not many heading up. Short break a the lake before we continued up the skree. The skree got a little repetitive with multiple switch backs but soon some snow was spotted and off in the distance a small hut. We were almost there.

The summit has a little iron roofed hut, a few ruins of old huts and summit point. The ridges leading off to the north were spectacular, I can see why people chase opportunities to do these more challenging routes. We took a quick few photos and headed down. Peter took the most direct route even though it wasn’t the path. To out determent as we skid down the steep skree field. But two and half hours up, two hours down. Hunger motivated through the last hour. Great fajitas at camp. midges