the west highland way with a 3 year old: day five
day 5 trail notes | inversnaid to inverarnan
stats
weather:
full sun
accommodation:
campsite
steps:
24,990k
planned mileage:
6.50 miles
actual mileage:
8.05 miles
total day mileage:
10.80 miles
2 miles extra on top of the toughest section of the west highland way should've & could've broken me but believe it or not, we had a fantastic day!
after a somewhat disappointing & restless sleep we were up early to get a good start without rushing. little decided she didn't want to have some porridge for breakfast, she wanted soup. usually i would fight this but at this stage a meal is a meal & at least she's eating. i knew she would hopefully, if we made it in time, get a good feed at the hotel so her choosing this for breakfast wasn't a big deal. i had phoned the hotel after we pitched last night to ask if they take non residents for food & thankfully they do, but only between 11-2. gotta get our move on!
the trail towards the inversnaid hotel was pretty up & down, with some scrambles & technical bits, but we were going at a good pace through it. little was happy with the rocks to climb over & that kept her mind entertained. we would've never managed this yesterday though, my mindset just wasn't there & it would've been a push too far.
surprisingly, it was cold this morning. both of us had multiple layers on & little needed her gloves too. some change from the sweating the day before, but was welcomed.
we passed the beautiful inversnaid waterfall, just before the hotel, which looked beautiful in the sun. we could hear it for a while so little was delighted to see it up close & cross it on the bridge. by this point the sun was back out, our layers shed & gloves off.
we reached the hotel earlier than i expected at 1025 & took the time to fill our bottles at the tap outside, bin some rubbish from the last 2 days & pop my power bank on charge before food started serving. nearly all the tables outside were full of hikers waiting for the food to start, so we weren't the only ones with this idea in mind.
we both got a sandwich each & some juice to fill us up. i also ordered a portion of chips, not realising the sandwiches came with crisps, so we actually had too much food than we could manage. i wasn't going to waste it though & the hotel allowed me to wrap the leftover sandwiches in clingfilm so we could take them away. lunch sorted for later! accidentally staying longer than i intended (2 hours oops) we set off to tackle to the hardest part of the day. ideally i would've liked to have done more than 2 miles by 1 oclock, but food & a good day was my priority today.
i knew today would be slow. this section of loch lomond is known for being technical & slow due to the boulders, the roots & the awkward spaces to go through, so i was determined to change my attitude & just embrace this. we would get to beinglas farm whenever we would & i would do it without moaning.
surprisingly, we had a fantastic section. little fully embraced the technical sections & she was thriving doing it. i let her take her time, taking the trail as slow as she needed so she could work it out & it really made her shine. a lot of people passing were telling us they were struggling a bit with the small steps & gaps to go through, but because little is small enough she was able to just nip into these areas no problem. i think because we had spent the last 4 days going slow this section wasn't much different for us. a lot of hikers had told us they didn't like how much their pace had to slow to accommodate this terrain & that's why they struggled a fair bit.
one thing i noticed on the trail so far is how friendly & caring some of the hikers are towards us. we passed a lovely group of canadian ladies who stopped to talk to us & we got chatting about end points. they were heading for the same place we were, just reaching it probably hours before us, & asked if we knew when we'd likely be there. i said around 7 hopefully & they asked if they'd like for us to send someone out to look for us if we weren't there after that time. it was such a kind & simple gesture but it felt so nice that someone was looking out for us.
we had done 4.5 miles & still had another 3.5 to do so i knew we'd be out for a bit longer. there is a nice wee beach after the technical section so we picked here to have our sandwiches, rest our feet & make a plan for the rest of the day. i was looking at our route map for the rest of the day & seen the majority was going to be uphill so it was likely going to take a while to do the next 3 miles. at this point i decided we would take our time, not rush, not stress etc & we would take a rest day tomorrow. we would likely be getting in late to the campsite & by the time we set up, had dinner & relaxed it would be late so a rest day would allow little to have a long lie if she needed, get everything washed in their facilities & just recoup basically. i phoned up the campsite to ask if they had space & they did, so that was that decided for me. i felt my mind relax a little at this, the no time pressure actually felt good.
once we had done our sandwiches & finished our rest, we continued on the trail. i offered to give little a carry as she had done so amazingly the whole day walking without once complaining, so i thought her legs could do with a short break. she was carried for about 20 minutes until i got to the top of the hill that looks over doune bothy & towards the highlands. the view was absolutely insane & little turned to me saying 'wow mum, isn't scotland so pretty?' my heart melted! yes baby girl, it is indeed.
the light was dipping a little as it was after 6, making the whole area just appear hazy & beautiful. the walk from doune bothy towards beinglas was definitely up there with my favourite of the whole walk so far. this was exactly the views & feeling i was hoping for. the last mile towards the campsite felt long & never ending. a mix of uphills & board walks, which was a nice variation, but we were both starting to get hungry & ready for bed. we passed some wild goats & little was delighted to have spotted them. she actually smelt them first, asking what that stink was, then we spotted them grazing away above us on the sloped grass.
we finally arrived to the campsite just after 8 to the whole area clapping for us! a table of people that passed us earlier recognised us & joking did a wee clap at our arrival, to which the rest of the area decided to join in on. i have never been so mortified before, but it was more from all eyes unexpected on me. i laughed & thanked everyone for the support, but i think my cheeks stayed red for the remainder of the night.
the pub was so busy being a friday night, so i joined the huge queue to order food & check into the campsite. i actually just wanted to sit for a minute & get dinner sorted but this campsite is the one most end the loch lomond section at so we bumped into a lot of people we had met earlier in the day who wanted to chat to us. everyone was so supportive of little, giving her praise & asking how her day went. turns out you can't order food until you sit at a table & get a number, which wasn't possible as all the tables were taken. i went back outside to see if there was any space free & the lovely canadian ladies, vera & judy, from earlier offered for us to join them as they were finishing. i took this offer immediately with thanks & then had to rejoin the queue for food. i was a little stressed because it was about 830, we were hungry & hadn't even pitched yet & i could feel the light dipping more. they offered to hold our table, watch our things & wait for our dinner so we could go pitch without doing it in the dark or risk our food being taken / going cold. felt like crying with how helpful they were! we managed to get our tent up & just as were we finishing vera came over to find me to tell us dinner had arrived at the table. i was so hungry & tired at this point that the fact the dinner order was wrong didn't even phase me. cost me £9 for one child's ice cream & apple juice though!
it was 1030 & dark by the time we eventually we got into the tent & settled. super late for little but even more thankful we decided earlier to have a rest day. think we both need it. a long day but gosh it was good. glad i didn't give up after the bad day we had yesterday.
costs of the day
campsite -
beinglas farm x2 nights £36.65
dinner -
the stagger inn £48.72
restock -
beinglas farm shop £9.70
total £95.07
iphone shots
a selection of shots taken on my phone during the day.
rest day
we had spent the day doing as little as possible & it was thoroughly needed. after a really late night when we arrived at the campsite then not going to bed until 1030pm, we happily slept in until 930 in the morning. deciding to take a rest day was a good idea because waking at that time, or our usual 730am, to try do another long day would've ended up with us finishing late again & had a continuous knock on effect of late nights, sleeping in then catching up.
the campsite had some great facilities so we basically spent the day reorganising our bag, washing & drying our clothes then showering us both. at this point we were both well overdue a shower & our clothes were needing the wash, so it worked out well actually. the showers were great too, plenty hot water & a good pressure to wash hair in. my knee was really dabbling on being possibly infected from sweating, camping & lack of proper cleaning so that was another reason to do nothing today & tend to that properly.
we had friends, nikki & jamie, who decided to come up in their van & join us for the night, with the hope to join us on the next section of the west highland way tomorrow. i was really looking forward to this as they have a daughter the same age as little & they both get on great. little could do with some company that isn't me & frankly so could i. we had a nice dinner, the girls had a wee play then we parted ways for the night ready for an earlyish morning.