West Highland Way With a 3 Year Old - Day 2 Trail Notes - Drymen to Balmaha - Anna Hardie

day 2 trail notes | drymen to balmaha

stats

weather:

started rainy, ended dry & partly sunny

accommodation:

campsite

steps:

27,538k

planned mileage:

9 miles

actual mileage:

9 miles

total day mileage:

11.90 miles

day 2 started much better than day 1! we got up earlier, had another hotel breakfast then got a taxi booked for 845 to take us back to drymen campsite where we would restart from our finish point yesterday. i was super nervous to start again & i really hoped we had a better day as i would've been so disappointed in myself if it didn't work out again. i was somewhat hopeful though, since we had more food, had a better rest, got an earlier start & had full charge in our electronics this time.

once we arrived at the campsite, i took a minute to just sit & mentally prepare for the day ahead. i decided that we would stop every mile or hour, whatever came first, today to have a rest & check our feet for any hot spots & potential blisters, but also so little could have the rests she wanted more frequently without a moan. minute break over & we got our waterproofs on to start walking in the rain that decided to appear en route.

instantly, little decided she didn't want to be walking. great. however, about 15 minutes into us 'walking' the lovely german ladies from the previous day caught up to us, instantly lifting littles spirit & she was happy to be walking with them. they walked with us for a good 30 minutes or so along the road before their path split to go to drymen for a resupply & we would continue to follow the west highland way signs into the field. since we were coming off the road & onto grass i decided we'd take a wee break here, under the shelter of the trees, so i could change into my sealskinz as it was very soggy in the field. little enjoyed a play here & was happily throwing wee sticks into the river while i changed. the rain thankfully stopped about 1.5 hours into the day & we were keeping a nice steady pace through the country paths.

we eventually reached garadhban forest, a nice pathed forest, which is currently being felled. little was enjoying all the forestry signs & was asking me to tell her what they all meant & why they were there. the log stacks made for a good make shift tripod as mine was in the wrong place in my bag to reach, so a quick wee photo & we carried on.

along the path little had spotted a fallen log & decided that it would make for a good makeshift toy kitchen, so we decided to stop for a play & a bite to eat here. we had our first views of loch lomond from this spot which looked incredible. i was really looking forward to walking alongside the loch for the next couple days as i'd heard this is where the trail starts to get exciting.

my idea to stop more frequently was actually a much better than i expected, as it made the weight of my bag feel more manageable in short bursts while i got accustomed to it & made little feel the walking was more enjoyable. one thing i did notice on this day was the lack of water points or streams to fill up, so we did run a little dry on water.

eventually the path comes to a junction, right to balmaha via conic hill or left to balmaha via milton of buchanan. a mile difference between the two but one is up a hill & the other is on tarmac. i decided against doing conic hill & that we would take the road instead. we were already pushing on for time in the day & still had a few miles left to reach our campsite for the night, so i thought the hill would be too much this time.

by this point in the day i was getting a little sick of our snack & food choices, so by the time we reached balmaha i was hoping hard that there was somewhere open for dinner. i'd heard good things about the oak tree inn so that was the dinner goal & thankfully it was open! i smashed out a lovely pizza & little decided she wasn't hungry at all, just thirsty enough for a pint of apple juice. ice cream was promised after dinner so we went to the wee ice cream shop next door at st mocha. experienced the rudest staff member here which slightly tainted my dinner vibes, but with 2 miles still to do i let it slide & decided we'd push on instead.

the trail out of balmaha starts off up hill, so getting the legs going after an hour break was a tad difficult. about 45 minutes into walking we reached a pebble beach on the shores of the loch & little was begging to stop & play. i really wanted to push on to the campsite so we wouldn't get there late late as it was already around 6 oclock, but i thought about how much she had walked already this day & felt she deserved the play break. off her socks & shoes came & into the pebbles she went. i'm actually so glad she convinced me to do this as she just seemed to totally relax here & have a moment to herself. the view was beautiful with mountains in the background, ducks on the calm loch & a child getting to be a child for a moment. 3o minutes later we started walking again.

we arrived at our campsite at milarrochy bay around 730 & i felt a big relief getting there. we had booked online which initially cost £21 but since we were classed as backpackers, they refunded us the extra cost & it ended up being only £9.75. bonus! the staff were so lovely to us here & made us feel welcome instantly. we had the easiest & quickest set up of the tent on a nice flat patch & got ready for bed. by the time everything was set up & bed time routine done it was around 930. a lot later of a bedtime than i'd like for little, but not something i could've helped. thankfully tomorrows walk is meant to be a short one, so if she needs a long lie, then she's welcome to it.