West highland Way - day 10

Tuesday 13 June - day 10 - Kingshouse to Kinlochleven

While we were having dinner last night a number of deer appeared just outside the cafe.

They certainly livened up the dinner crowd.


After breakfast in the cafe next to the bunkhouse we left Kingshouse in annoying light rain.

We crossed the river behind the Kingshouse Hotel and then followed a track that took us down to the A82. Fortunately we did not need to cross the road as the traffic was heavy.

Low cloud hanging over the mountain tops - yet again

Some of the stitching on my left boot had come adrift and it wasn't long before I felt my sock squelching. The track was sometimes stepped. At other it was just a rising track. The summit was marked by a cairn (a pile of stones). Cairns have appeared a number of times over the past few days. Obviously some people just like piling rocks on top of each other.

The gradually dropped only to climb over another high point.

Streams continued to pur down the mountainsides and along the tracks that we walked!

There were a couple of breaks in the rain and we quickly grabbed photos before the next squall of rain came.

 

Somewhere along todays route we reached 550m above sea level, the highest point on the West Highland Way.

Most of the walkers today had taken on the appearance of drowned rats. it was one of those days. At times the rain got heavier and we also had a cold wind blowing across us which made the walk quite chilly.

Jennifer striding along with low cloud obscuring the tops of the mountains

When we finally caught sight of the village of Kinlochleven it seemed that we were almost at the end of the days walk. This was not to be as we wound up and down and around before finally reaching the village.

Our destination for the day nestled down in the valley

It was a long, tortuous route down into the town however the track was pleasant enough.

Kinlochleven was a town purpose built to support an aluminium smelter.  The smelter has now closed down and the town, declare to be the ugliest village in the Highlands, has no set about redefining itself and tkaing on different roles.


Feeling cold and miserable we ducked into the first place offering food and had soup for lunch.

Finding our B&B was surprisingly difficult in such a small place. It turned out to be right on the very edge of the village.

We had been looking forward to having a wifi service today. No such luck. There had been some disaster and nowhere in the village had any connection to the internet.

Midges. There are annoying little biting insects. Normally they do not appear until around the middle of June. This year, because May was a particularly warm month, they were out and about early. There are a number of deterents and they are effective as long as you make sure that you get it on all exposed skin. On the first midge day we neglected the backs of our hands and these were attacked by hordes of the little blithers.

Stats for the day: distance: 14.5km; elevation gain: 423m