Day 85 - Ben Nevis

Apologies for the very late arrival of this blog. Saturday lunchtime & I'm sitting in a car-park in Fort William trying to get an Internet connection! (Bernie)

We’d always said that we would like to walk up Ben Nevis but each time we have been here the weather has not been right for the climb. As we got older and still hadn’t attempted it, I thought we would perhaps not manage it (well, at least I wouldn’t!) and I became a bit scared of the mountain! But today we conquered it!

Les playing in the snow!

The Walker can tell you about the fabulous views; it’s just amazing to feel on top of the world! As usual I was a social walker and spoke to lots of people on the path. I chatted for quite a while to two sisters from Leeds at the start, whom I then met again as they were still climbing and I was on the way down. One of them was obviously a keen walker and the other said she could have been in the pub! I hope the cloud hadn’t come down before they reached the summit.

Another coincidence: I had spoken to a family on my lone walk on Wednesday and the sons overtook me on the way down. I recognised them and had a lovely long conversation with one of the lads - I think he felt sorry for me as The Walker, as usual, was miles away! He and his brother, Tom, went to the same Uni as Kirstie, where he studied Law. Tom studied Geology, same as Kirstie and must have been in the same year but at a different college. It’s a small world!
 

From Bernie:
Today’s walk  12.5 miles     :     Cumulative  1069.5 miles

Today was pencilled in as a day off from the earliest planning stages of LeJog in the vague hope that if the weather was clear we might climb Ben Nevis. It was, so we did! Nothing like going for a walk on a day off – it blows away the cobwebs!
 

I’ve read lots of stuff about Ben Nevis: ‘It’s nothing but a hard slog’, ‘It’s just a boring track’, ‘The views are not worth the effort’. Now I’d like to put in my twopennyworth!

That’s nonsense! I don’t think these people know what they’re talking about – either that or they’ve never been to the top! Yes, it is a tough climb in places & a bit rough... but it is a mountain; the track does zig-zag through shattered rock debris but it also winds across some fantastic edges & ridges; and the views? – the best of the whole LeJog! To be able to trace my route of the last 3 or 4 days from the summit & to be able to look ahead to my path up through the Great Glen was unbelievable!

Looking north towards Loch Lochy & The Great Glen

That said, it must be a miserable & pointless walk in poor visibility - I’ve been to Fort William on at least a dozen occasions & it’s the first time I’ve been here when the summit has been free of cloud & I’ve had time to spare. If it wasn’t for that fact this would be a much more fitting climax to The West Highland Way than the drab walk through the town.

Highlight of the Day: the manager making it to the top & with a smile on her face, even though I knew she’d been apprehensive! About a third of the way up I passed a woman, maybe half the manager’s age, declaring to her partner, ’It’s no good. I can’t do it. It’s too much for me.’ She looked young enough, fit enough & healthy enough & she missed a treat. Well done, Les!

Summit shelter - strangely, even higher than the trig pillar!

At the end of the day we drove into town to top up with food & wine & spotted the German couple that I hadn’t seen on the last 2 days of the West Highland Way; also, the Aberdeen man in his kilt was hobbling through the last few hundred yards. It seemed a fitting conclusion!

Beer of the Day: there’s another ‘Ben Nevis Inn’, just above the Visitors Centre in Glen Nevis. Stopped here for a pint of ‘Kildonan’ from the Dundonnell Brewery, beside Little Loch Broom, near Ullapool. Light but with a strong, hoppy flavour – this is very good: I’ll keep my eyes open for their other ales!

Song of the Day (an occasional series!): ‘Sittin’ on Top of the World’ – I think I’d have to go for Howlin’ Wolf’s version!

John: still one day ahead of schedule, though I have a couple of longer days coming up that I might split.... & I do keep adding bits! All being well, there's another 18 days walking. Knees are not doing too badly - that was just the manager moaning yesterday because she didn't get her coffee & biscuits in bed until 7.30!!