West Highland Way With a 3 Year Old - Day 8 Trail Notes - Tyndrum to Bridge of Orchy - Anna Hardie

day 8 trail notes | tyndrum to bridge of orchy

stats

weather:

sunny & breezy

accommodation:

wild camp

steps:

24,165k

planned mileage:

8.70 miles

actual mileage:

7.13 miles

total day mileage:

10.60 miles

as soon as i woke in the morning i could feel the sun on the tent & knew it would be a hot day. it was only 7am & the tent felt warm, so i thought we'd try get moving as quick as possible to avoid being out too long. the weather for the majority of the second half our hike was forecasted to be overcast or raining, not the sun & heat we were getting, so i knew i'd be carrying the jumpers & jackets on my bag. it's not something we could've left behind because when the sun dropped it was still quite chilly & some nights were colder, so we needed the layers just in case.

as promised from last night, i said little could play in the park while i made breakfast. i packed everything up & loosely threw it in the bag & we walked over to the wee play park. i would make our porridge & pack everything away properly from here & she could play for that half hour or so. i am really glad we did this as it properly set her day up right & she was in a great mood. the bench of the climbing frame was covered so we managed to have some shade from the sun while we ate our breakfast.

play time & breakfast time done so it was time to set off. we had to stop by the reception to give back the family bathroom key & they wished us luck for the remainder of our hike. they gave little a few wee lollies to say good luck & off we set.

after about 5 minutes of walking the road reaches a junction where you can either go right into the village centre or left around the village. we opted to go left as we had no reason to go into the village & the paths connect shortly after anyway. the view was beautiful, with views over to beinn odhar. the path crosses a river but was very dry so we passed with ease but i can imagine after a heavy rain fall it makes it a little trickier.

we followed the path which took us to the main road with the green welly to the right & brodies mini market on the left. the road crossing is quite bad, its busy with fast cars passing so care is needed to cross. once we crossed the road & followed the path between the two shops, we started the slow slog of a climb. doing the extra 1.5 miles last night really made a difference to today i think, especially now the sun has greeted it's head again.

after this wee climb you cross the railway bridge through a set of gates then another gate shortly after. little had discovered that she in fact loves opening gates, so it was her job to do so. she took total delight in running towards the gate to hold it open for me or other walkers close by & provided a great spurt of energy boost. we passed probably the most useless gate with a sign asking you to keep it shut, despite having no fence attached. it made me chuckle & i wondered how many others had found a laugh from this too.

we had such a beautiful view over to beinn dorian all day but it never felt like it was getting closer. the highland railway line follows the path we were on & would follow for a good chunk of our day, so we decided to place a wee bet between us both to see who could guess the amount of trains that would pass us in the day. i guessed 5, little 3. there is also a sign on the road to let you know you're leaving the loch lomond area & entering the arygll & bute area, which has goodbye written in gaelic. having recently learned this in my wee duolingo course, i was pretty proud of recognising it & had to snap a photo.

it was getting close to midday by the time i had to stop to have a feet rest. i was feeling a wee hot spot on my heel so thought it would be best to stop & deal with it before it got worse. little was happy to stop, she wanted to have a play in the gravel anyway & was asking for a snack too.

as i was fixing my feet she was asking to take a photo, she wanted to show her dad the view & wanted to do a pose. so i set up the tripod & we snapped some shots to show him. as we were doing this two ladies passed us & started signing littles praises, saying their grandkids won't even walk to the shops. this made me laugh of course as normally that's what littles like. we chatted for a while & then carried on walking with them. they were lovely & brightened up about half an hour of our day before their pace picked up a bit & we parted ways. i really did enjoy when people wanted to walk & talk with us as it made me feel like we weren't walking the slowest in the world or just some zoo animals to stare at for a minute before carrying on.

after a short wee break here we decided to carry on as we were only about 2 miles through our day. we were making good timing considering the heat, but it was a little hard going. this section has absolutely no form of shade for the duration so there was no escaping the sun when it came out of the clouds. i was taking this into consideration & stopping more for water & breaks so we wouldn't overdo it too much or too quickly.

the path goes downhill & under another train tunnel which again i had to basically go through on my hands & knees while little just glided through it. she was enjoying these, me not so much.

i was really enjoying this day so far for some reason. maybe because i knew i was closing in on 'home', because it was a short day or maybe because we were finding our rhythm properly, but it was going good & i was happy. songs were being sung, little was telling me stories & we were bonding nicely.

we eventually passed through auch farm estate & i felt like i was transported to mid western america or something. something about the cattle grazing on the flat land with the mountains in the background just screamed ranch at me & i loved it. it was an unexpected highlight of my day so we stopped here for lunch. kieran phoned us for a chat & we sat for about an hour by the river just enjoying it.

after this beautiful stop the path got boring. it became just a long, slog on an access path with not much to view. beinn dorain, which had been our view all day, was now alongside us so that view was gone. the sun was beaming down with little breeze coming making us simultaneously walk quicker to get out the sun but also slower to be safe from overdoing it.

we were closing in on our end goal of the day of getting to bridge of orchy when we managed to find a patch of trees where we took shelter from the sun & took this as a good moment to top up our suncream. as we were doing so a lone hiker passed us, asking if we had any cream he could borrow as he also was struggling in the sun. i explained it was kids suncream but he was welcome to it & he took it very gratefully. he was also covered in black tattoos so i knew fine well the feeling of heat on them & hoped he had a long sleeve or something to keep them covered.

thankfully around this point the wind decided to pick up & was such a nice, refreshing feeling against the heat of the sun. even better, it was coming behind us so it was pushing us forward. little was fading a bit on the final mile, she wanted to stop sooner & wild camp at some spots we saw, but i was determined to make it to the hotel so we could get some food & juice. i really wanted a pepsi max & she really wanted an apple juice, so we were gonna make that happen.

the train line from earlier had gone in a different direction to us by now & the total trains which we saw was 3. of course little guessed right. she was delighted to have beaten me.

the informal wild camping area at bridge of orchy is popular with hikers on the west highland way. usually this is the end point for the majority of hikers day if they're not making the extra mile to inveroran, so i knew space might be tight in the grassed area by the time we arrived at 4pm. much to my surprise, we were the second ones here. there was a family set up already with 4 tents but they were tucked well away in their own area so i found a flat spot away from them to pitch up, getting my own pick of the place.

while setting up i realised my tent pegs were missing & slightly began to panic until i noticed little had been taking them & burying them into the remains of a mole hill. thankfully i noticed her doing this as she likely would've forgotten about it soon enough & we'd be searching everywhere. panic over & tent was put up.

with the tent up it was now time to go get some food & some juice then relax for a while. we were too early for dinner so the only thing available to eat was either sandwiches or scones. i must've subconsciously made a face at the sandwich menu as the lovely waitress, also called anna, came over to tell me they did portions of chips if we'd rather those instead. they were exactly what we both wanted so we settled with those & a scone each. anna came back with our juices & some crayons for little to play with. i managed to get my phone & power bank charged here while we were snacking away which was a bonus. the power bank had done well until now but i was still trying to charge it whenever possible in case we got caught short one day.

on our way back to the tent after having our food in the hotel little spotted something in the trees by the hotel & was instantly delighted. 'dinosaur eggs, dinosaur eggs!' she was shouting & upon inspection, she wasn't far wrong with the appearance of whatever they were. i'd never seen this on a tree before so had no clue what it was but i was happy enough with her description so that is what they'll be known as to us from now on!

we decided to have a play down by the river before bed as a way to relax & wind down. we were both tired from the sun during the day so i decided spending the next 30 or so minutes at the water was a good way to pass time before heading into the tent for the night.

the sound of the river was making me so sleepy that i decided to call it a night here around 715. little was straight off to sleep & i wasn't far behind her. i could hear more hikers arriving after this & setting up near us but i soon drifted off to the sound of the river.