WHW day 5, Tues 18/06/18 Tynedrum to Kingshouse

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Day 5 - Tynedrum to Glencoe, the longest walk on the itinerary, 18.5 miles. I’d been dreading this one, not because of the distance, but more how my body would stand up to it after 4 days of walking over difficult terrain. I knew how thankful I was to reach our destination on all of the previous days so could,t imagine having to walk a further 5.5 miles to get there today.
We decided to make an early start & got up at 6am. We’d bought softies to toast and no tea available so water it was. Tea makes you pee anyway so as there would be no toilets en route today better to limit the amount of al fresco toilet stops!
Got my softie into toaster then starting fiddling with my phone & power pack. I suddenly became aware of a burning smell, shit, I’d forgotten about my softie! I raced over to toaster & put the offending black rock in bin. Didn’t seem to be any smoke so phew - good job it didn’t set smoke alarm off......WRONG - the thought was still being processed when the piercing wailing of the smoke alarm sounded. Went into total panic wondering what to do & the best I could come up with was running around the room like a demented idiot flapping a tea towel. I ran into lobby area to control panel to see if there was a reset button - nope! Then 2 members of staff came rushing in to see where the fire was & I had to sheepishly tell them I burnt my toast. I was mortified at the commotion I’d caused before 6.30am. Every time they got the alarm switched off - away it went after a few seconds! We had to open all windows & doors for a few minutes to let what little smoke there was disperse before the thing would shut up, and boy was it loud! Strangely only 2 people bothered to come through to see if it was a false alarm or not & they didn’t look best pleased either ? perhaps everyone staying there were walking WHW too and couldn’t get their stiff legs/bodies to move quickly enough!
Eventually got underway about 10 past 7.
The road was really rocky & uneven but fairly flat and out in open so we could really enjoy the views around us. It was quite chilly - I was actually wishing I had gloves as my hands were cold holding my walking poles. It was quite breezy too with cloudy skies. As we walked you could see showers coming in but thankfully never came to more than a few spits. After 7 miles we reached Bridge of Orchy & Michelle’s bladder fit to burst as she refused to go al fresco. I had already overcome this fear - if you’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta go! We weren’t sure if there would be anywhere to go in Bridge of Orchy so as we walked past the village hall, the doors were open so I went in to ask if we could use their toilets and for a donation to hall upkeep we could. They must get lots of similar requests from walkers because they had a donation box on wall outside toilet door! I think Michelle would’ve paid whatever they asked for at this point!
We carried on and didn’t bother going into the hotel as neither of us hungry yet.
The walk was not too hilly today so it was a much easier walk today, so easily able to keep a decent pace. We came across a wee pub - Inveroran Hotel, in middle of nowhere, like an oasis in the desert. Was delighted! We obv hadn’t read book properly as this pub was not on our radar today.
It was after 12, but as we weren’t that hungry, we just had a cup of tea & piece of chocolate cake. All customers coming and going to the small bar were fellow walkers & was fine swapping stories & finding out how ebmveryonecwas bearing up, and where they were staying that night etc
Spoke to a lovely couple from Bristol. They were the ones that told us about the WHW race and at first the whole idea seemed so ludicrous & impossible I was sure they were joking, but no, there are super humans who participate in this nutters run and the winner last year did it in 13 hours! I had palpitations just thinking about it! Not got my 56 year old body that’s for sure!
We carried on now refreshed and with renewed energy. The weather remained dry but with a brisk wind which seemed chilly at times. We began the trek across Rannich Moor. We had been warned how bleak & neverending this part of the walk was, but as the terrain was a bit better than yesterday’s and not particularly hilly or strenuous, I found the miles went in quite quickly & was enjoying the scenery. It felt like we were the only 2 people left in the world as no other walkers visible for a while. I could see a road with traffic on it away in the distance - which kind of spoilt the illusion for me!
I passed the time by noting the point where the path disappeared from sight up ahead, then timing us to see how long it took us to get to that point. Simple silly things like this kept me plodding on. When I felt tired & drained I ate a sucrose sweetie & drank some of my Argi +, which actually did hit the spot, giving me more energy & kept the aches at bay.
As we nearer Glencoe we could hear machinery noise. At first I thought it must be the chairlift, but as the mountain resort gradually came into view, it turned out to be a few caterpillar diggers working on the slopes. We arrived about 4pm - an hour earlier than I had anticipated so was pleased with that.
First stop was to get key + sleeping bags from reception & collect our luggage from luggage store. Quickly dumped in lodge, we headed back to cafe for very well earned drinks & food. Weary & drained of energy, their pepper & sweet chilli soup hit the spot & we shared a portion of chips. It never ceased to amaze me that I just wasn’t feeling hungry on this walk, despite walking all day. Once I smelt the food tho I was glad to eat it. The cafe had Wi-fi and we were happy to sit there for over 3 hours, enjoying the people watching & fiddling on our phones. But the inevitable tiredness overtook us & we headed back to our microlodge for the night. We were so tired that we couldn’t be bothered having a shower & decided that one night of “wild camping” with no shower wouldn’t do us any harm.
Once back in our lodge, we were gutted to note Wi-fi didn’t work there. We truly were out in the wilds - no technology or tv! As it was before 8pm it was too early to go to bed, so out came the pack of cards again & we actually had a good laugh playing cards for next hour & a half until sleep overcame us.
Even tho I was absolutely knackered - I had a really poor sleep. My inflatable pillow deflated twice, making me waken up wondering why my bloody neck was so stiff & sore! So having to blow it up again twice was a proper pain. Even after I got it blow up the blooming thing kept sliding about making it near impossible to get a comfy sleeping position. However, the pouring rain lulled me back to sleep.

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