We have dodged predicted heavy rain all the way to Fort William and the end of the Great Glen Way, but that does not mean it has been easy underfoot and our waterproof trainers are soaked through again.

After the most divine (but not cheap) venison meal last night and a fabulous night’s sleep we felt refreshed enough to face the A82 along the edge of the Loch Lochy this morning.

The day started brilliantly with another sublime meal and view for breakfast, this is the only part of breakfast that stayed uneaten long enough to be photographed.

We spent the first hour dodging cars and caravans, clutching the safety barrier intermittently, once with the whole wing of a van strewn on the other side of the barrier, never mind a single wing mirror.

So we were initially glad to join the path that went through gorgeous woodland, even if the deserted house and cars we walked past looked like they were straight out of 28 Days Later.

Then although we were following exactly where Strava said we should go, it wasn’t exactly clear that anyone had been here for at least 28 days either.

The lush green stuff in the top half of the picture is actually a bog. This became a bog we couldn’t see quite quickly.

So once our feet were completely soaked and we had marvelled at the salmon fisheries in the loch, we were even more glad when we hit the canal path and no more bog.

Yep, that’s super fine for hours on end….staring at a straight path……no problem at all.

Finally we arrived in Fort William, the official end of the Great Glen Way in the shadow of Ben Nevis. Every building and road has “Ben Nevis” in its name. The only thing you can’t see as you come into Fort William is Ben Nevis itself. It’s the dark mountain in the background of this image that disappeared completely into the cloud less than an hour later.

Our room in Fort William is so lovely we went out for dinner as soon as we could at a great restaurant – The Geographer if anyone is looking, and ended the evening discovering a very fabulous local gin in the Volunteer Arms.

The number of times our trainers have dried on a radiator now, we have questioned the wisdom of sending trainer deodoriser back from Inverness. So, the next episode of this blog is going to unpack our packing choices in a bit more detail, for anyone who wants to know how not to pack for this trip. I have a friend who is a packing goddess so she will be delighted 🙂

Distance – 29km in smirry windy until it got more aggressive and slapped us about the face a bit with rain drops, so 0.25km in yillen.