The West Highland Way Part 2 Inversnaid to Crianlarich

The view from The Inversnaid Hotel

As we arrived at the Inversnaid hotel there were hikers everywhere. The younger hikers dotted all around as we reached the edge of the woodland, enjoying the views and taking a well-earned rest. We went for the more civilised option and joined the middle aged crowd enjoying a beer outside the hotel and hit the bar for refreshments. Inside, the hotel was very quiet, as we found someone to serve our drinks and check us in. Unknown to us at the time the hotel is a coaching hotel and most of the guests were still out on their day trips.

Armed with our beers we shuffled our weary legs back outside pleased to have finished for the day. The wasps, however, had other ideas and began a sustained attack that the RAF would be proud of, Emma was a whirr of activity swatting at them and running away much to Alison, Ken & Chris's amusement. After finishing our drinks we retired to our rooms and the luxury of a warm bath. It was during Chris's bath that he realised he was in real trouble with his chaffing, lowering into the hot water was extremely painful. Emma was employed to apply a generous dose of sudocrem afterwards as he sat on the bed legs spread - the things you do for love!

As we all met up for a pre-dinner pint it became very apparent that we were by far the youngest residents. The coaches had returned, and with them, it seemed they had brought the cast of "Cocoon" for our younger readers it may be worth googling the 1985 movie to understand what we mean. Dinner was very much geared towards this market, very cheap but tiny portions. That said it was very tasty!

After joining in with the quiz, we retired to bed for a good nights sleep, and indeed we did. Until 4:30am when we were awoken with a start by the most horrendous fire alarm! We assume it was so loud to wake the elderly, who may be a little hard of hearing. We're ashamed to say, if any employees of the fire dept are reading, that we barely left the bed let alone the room - We certainly don't recommend that as a course of action on hearing an alarm in future, however in this instance we were lucky that it was a false alarm.

Breakfast was joyless, Chris opted for porridge having really missed out on the gorgeous, luxurious and creamy delight that was the porridge in Balmaha (see Part 1). This version, however, was watery and as Chris describes "like wallpaper paste".

Kitted up and layered with sudocrem (in Chris's case) we set out to begin Day 3. After taking some shots of the amazing view we turned right out of the hotel and picked up the trail.

Emma enjoying the view from Inversnaid

Some 200 yards down the trail Ken stopped suddenly, each morning we had placed our bags in the agreed spot that Go Haggis would collect them from before leaving to complete our part of the deal - walking to the next destination. This morning Ken couldn't remember putting his bag of dirty washing in his case, or if it was still lying on the hotel floor. Panicking he decided to head back, even Chris's offer of buying him some new boxer shorts wasn't enough to stop him!

As Ken raced back to the hotel to ask some poor cleaner if she had found his dirty pants, who incidentally and much to rest of our amusement when this story was relayed later, had to go and find someone to translate. The rest of us were stood on the trail, just inside the woods and on the edge of the loch - perfect midge territory! As we waited for Ken several hikers passed us, including a speedy hiker we would later know as Stickman - due to his use of two walking poles. More about him later... We were not too impressed having been chewed to death when Ken reappeared 10-15 minutes later.

The walk began with more undulating and tight paths alongside the loch. Today would be the last time we would follow its shore. Having walked its length over the previous day and a half, it seemed a very poignant moment as it narrowed and we reached its end, the dark blue water giving way to green boggy grassland.

We continued on, gaining elevation as the trail rose up once again, giving us a glorious final view of the loch behind us.

Our final look at Loch Lomond behind us

After passing through Beinglas farm camping store and B&B the path underfoot became firmer as we picked up the old drovers road. These roads were routes for droving livestock on foot from one place to another, such as to market or between summer and winter pasture. Drovers' roads are often wider than other roads, able to accommodate large herds or flocks. Packhorse ways were quite narrow as the horses moved in single file, whereas drove roads were at least 40 feet (12 m) and up to 90 feet (27 m) wide.

It was along this road as we passed behind the legendary and rumoured to be haunted Drovers Inn that Emma suddenly let out an ear piercing scream. We all stopped dead, Ken and Alison who were slightly ahead spun around and Chris asked Emma what was wrong. "Get it out of the way, I'm not going past it," she said. We looked at where she was pointing and Chris had almost stood upon a Slow Worm making his way across the path.

Emma's Slow Worm

We all laughed and took the piss especially Chris, although Emma got her own back later on as we crossed a field full of cows. Anyone who knows Chris well or has been on a walk with him will know he is absolutely terrified of cows and horses. This herd must've heard Chris taking the piss and had organised themselves to be stood right across the path! With a river to the right and a muddy uneven field full of thistles to the left as hard as he looked Chris could find no alternative route. Emma enjoyed the almost instant karma.

The cows daring Chris to pass them

Ken got very brave in this field and began shouting at the cows, moving them from the path. Emma spent time taking lots of photos and chatting to the cattle while Alison and Chris cowered behind, shuffling forwards inches at a time past the big scary beasts! As we passed through the field we saw Stickman again, this time surrounded by cows. He set off again as we approached and soon built a big gap between us - he really was very quick at covering the ground. That afternoon was very hot, as it turned out it was probably the hottest day of our adventure. The terrain offered little relief from the weather, the cool woodland and forests had given way to open ground with no shade or shelter to be found.

Throughout our trip, we saw the wonderful hospitality that the trail and local homeowners offered in the form of honesty boxes. These were often filled with bottles of water, cans of coke and one outside a house even contained ice lollies in a small freezer! We had resisted the charms of these so far. However, on seeing one in the distance on this hot afternoon, we were all daydreaming of cool water or a thirst quenching fizzy drink as we approached - this one was a small chest on the ground not as elaborate or beautiful as some. As Chris opened the lid his face dropped, we were too late as the box was empty!

Near the honesty box, we spotted something on the ground, it was a white cap. Alison was sure it was Stickmans and collected it in the somewhat hopeful thought that we might bump into him again. You see the trail gets you like that, as well as being on this adventure with the people you take with you there's a real sense of togetherness with everyone you meet. Often you will end up seeing them at your next lunch stop as they pass you, or you all end up eating in the same pub each evening. There's a camaraderie that develops from this shared experience. Every day we saw a group of young German lads, we first saw them on Conic Hill at the end of our first day. After this no day would be complete without us passing them or they, in turn, passing us. We became quite attached to them and would always look out for them each day, they were always so cheerful even though one of them seemed to be really suffering with his feet. He would be trailing behind the rest of his friends and we would worry they had left him, but always around the next corner or two they would stop and wait for him to catch up. We hope they got as much joy from our cheery hello's each time we passed as we got from theirs.

As the days miles ticked by and we got closer to our base for the evening we reached a point where we needed to leave the trail and head into Crianlarich, where we had rooms booked at the Ben Moore Lodge. We turned off the trail and straight into a woodland, we all enjoyed the refreshing coolness of the woods as we descended into Crianlarich. Although this path seemed to continue someway before we reached the village. We followed the signs into the village and passed beneath the railway station the Ben Moore Lodge ended up being on the other side of the village, as we passed a pub Alison came to a stop, outside and enjoying a beer she had spotted Stickman! She walked over to him and asked if he had lost his cap, he couldn't believe she had seen it and picked it up let alone spotted him in the pubs beer garden. He said he thought he had lost the cap for good. Satisfied having done her good deed for the day Alison joined the rest of us as we marched the remaining steps to our accommodation for our third evening on the trail.