The youth hostel provides a pretty good (and cheap) self-service continental breakfast, so we have that then head off for the day. We elect to take the higher route to Inversnaid, as it’s quicker and more scenic. Sure enough, the Arrochar Alps soon come into view, in particular the Cobbler. It’s not high, but has a distinctive shape and is difficult to summit. We make good progress, although the path becomes narrower as we approach Inversnaid.
We planned to have a soft drink at the hotel in Inversnaid but you have to remove your boots to go in, so we sit outside in the sunshine instead. When we restart, the way is initially blocked by a van that has, somewhat unwisely, tried to cross one of the walking bridges and fell through. We make our way around it then continue along the lakeside path.
The hillside is steep here and there isn’t really room for a path between the cliff and the loch. Consequently, the path is narrow, rocky and pretty precarious. At one point, things are so bad that a sturdy ladder has been installed.
We finally find a beach for lunch. It has taken us nearly three hours to do just three miles. At one point, Richard said he wondered if he was asleep having a nightmare about getting nowhere. As we sit, there is a steady stream of people disgorging from the path. They all look a bit shell-shocked and several stop for a chat. This section was evidently worse than the lower alternative we had avoided earlier. We still have a good ten miles to go and it’s getting on for four o’clock.
When we restart, the terrain eases off and we soon reach the end of the loch and climb up to the plateau. We come upon a large, black billy goat. I fail to get a picture of anything but it’s horns unfortunately. The Loch Lomond goats are wild and protected, originally by order of Robert the Bruce allegedly, as the goats shielded him when he was being hunted by soldiers.
The view behind us is gorgeous but a new vista with the graceful peak of Ben Lui is opening up ahead. The path from now on is excellent: a high level route between highland mountains, past the Falls of Falloch and beyond. Around another corner and the bulk of Ben More appears. All the time, we are going as fast as we can to get to Crianlarich for dinner (and before it gets dark). One more high level snack break, complete with midges, and then it’s on we go.
Eventually, we turn down off the West Highland Way and into Crianlarich, arriving at twenty past eight at the Craigbank Guest House. Our room is lovely and the Crianlarich Hotel serves us a takeaway which they then allow us to eat in the bar. They even provide cutlery. Then it’s back to our room for a shower and some down time. Our final ten miles were pretty speedy over rough ground with heavier packs. I think we’ve got used to them now.
Total distance so far: 620 miles
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