Check the weather!
It happens every time,and the saving grace is that we are better prepared than for our previous walks. The forecast for day one is rain, without promise of respite.
We’ve had a very pleasant few days wandering around Ballachulish and Glencoe, with the sun poking through the clouds and the leaves just turning. The Scots say that this has been a dry summer, but to antipodean eyes, the amount of water in the ground seems more than adequate.
It’s hard to get used to the landscape, and not just the looming bulk of Ben Nevis behind the town. The steep sides of the glens are spectacular and I’m glad we don’t have to climb them.
One thing I hadn’t quite absorbed, even after staring at the map, was that Fort William is – or was – a seaport. The Caledonian Canal now makes some kind of sense as a short cut through Scotland, avoiding the treacherous seas to the north and providing a short cut to Glasgow at one end and the North Sea at the other.
Such is the depth of the sea lochs, however, that you don’t get a sense of the Atlantic here. No wonder the Vikings reputedly hid around Ballachulish and used it as a raiding base. Once away from the water, the valley sides seem to close in – the perfect hiding places for the clans, whether secreting Jacobites or rustling cattle. So very romantic and Robert Louis Stephenson, but rather distant from the bloody realities of the Glencoe Massacre.
On Wednesday, we moved base to Fort William, to the B and B from where we start our walk today. We walked along the river at the base of Ben Nevis but I don’t think we seriously thought of joining the brave souls who trekked to the summit in wind and drizzle. Just how windy and wet it was became clear when we gave up on the idea of more walking in an increasing downpour and took the cable car up to the ski fields. There was the inevitable couple with the dog running down the mountain, while the three people having lunch at the cafe were told to hurry up as the wind was going to close the lifts.
It’s going to be windy and wet today, so we’ll snuggle into our new Gortex jackets, listen to the swish of our waterproof trousers, and look forward to a hot toddy at the end of the day. It could be worse.
We could be back at work…
