Day 3 Ben Nevis

Today was to be the day I bagged Ben Nevis.

Slept well apart from about 4 trips for a pee through the night, not sure why other than maybe I had some ankle swelling following the flight.

Woke at 5.30AM, 6.15AM, 6.30AM and finally emerged from the sack at 6.40AM.

I had a taxi booked at 9.00AM and breakfast at 8.00AM so I had most of the packing done, before breakfast.

Breakfast looking out over Loch Linne, with cereal and bacon and eggs.

The cabbie arrives on time, takes me with my luggage to this nights accommodation, Rhu Moir B and B, then takes me to Tesco to get some lunch and finally takes me out to the start of the walk for the princely sum of nine pounds or about $15. Not bad value I thought.

The days which had started with sun, now decided it was a good time for rain. The cabbie questioned my sanity walking in shorts.

The top with the great views

Well to say the walk was hard, is an understatement. It’s up all the time with little respite from climbing until you are 200m from the top. It was hard, hard, HARD. On a number of occasions I thought I would quit.

I might add the rain, eased, then stopped and held off until the steepest part of the climb. Then with my various layers, plus my rain jacket it was hot, sweating furiously all the time with rain hitting my jacket.

To say that the views from the top were worth the climb would be an outright lie. I hope my pictures give the real truth, if you can actually see me through the mist. It was also cold up there with a biting wind, so one Mars Bar later and I was off.

The descent was pretty hard too, strain on the quads working the wrong way. I emerged at about the halfway mark into bright sunshine with fab views so stopped for lunch.

I must say the Tesco Roast Chicken with stuffing was a disappointment. The mayonnaise had no flavour and it needed SALT.

However the Chilean apple was quite splendid, crisp and sweet.

After lunch the walk down continued to be steep, and I branched off to an even steeper track as I thought I would return to Fort William via the West Highland Way.

At this point the weather turned on me and we had about an hour of quite heavy rain such that by the time I made the B and B I was drenched.

Luckily mine hosts mother took pity on me and took my wet clothes and boots to hang in the kitchen.

Peter and Arrienne were ensconced in our room with tales of whisky tasking, fiery fiddlers and Tobermory.

We hit the pub for a beer and dinner and had quite a nice steak, but the beer was better.

Tomorrow the Great Glen Way!!!