Arctic conditions

 

The freezing feet made me wake up the next morning. Despite warm clothes and thick socks, we were just cold. At least the sky promised good weather. After our things were packed, we bought a couple of bars, some water and two scones in the café. Not much, actually, but they wanted £ 20 for it. Usury. They took advantage of their monopoly position as ice cold ... After all, the scones were delicious. After dinner we went out, Anne went around the corner again and I had a short chat with an older Scot. The morning was beautiful and he told me that he was going to the coast now because there are fewer midges there. Understandable. He wished us success and then left me. I watched him trot to the car with his little dog.

 

Tame deer

 

After Anne was back, we slowly but surely made our way. The sun, the blue sky and the pleasant temperatures wanted to be used. First we passed the Kingshouse Hotel, which is advertised in the travel guide with the tame deer that can be seen there now and then. I didn't expect to see any that day, but the weather was great and so three does and a cub went for a walk. I saw them from 200 meters away. I was quietly looking forward to this section of the route. Fun ... I had annoyed Anne for the last - at least - 2 days with the sentence "I'm looking forward to the tame deer". However, the animals had little desire to be petted. For something to eat they would certainly have allowed themselves to be bribed. In any case, they were not put off by the people who suddenly crawled out of their holes to photograph the deer. The rustling of a toruist's pocket lured a doe away just as I almost touched her snout. Saaaad ... Since we couldn't stay here forever and had only driven about 1-2 kilometers, our next destination dragged us back on our way. Because the highest point of the WHW was on.

 

Devil's staircase

 

Yes, Devil's Staircase. The name is promising. This section of the path leads to a point over 700 meters high, from which you should have a beautiful view. If the weather is good, at least. Before the ascent we took a break, it was real orange weather, in other words: time for an orange! Anne peeled her orange first and gave a little twitch. "Oops, I just thought I cut my finger!" But it didn't. But then with the next cut. The blood flowed down her thumb in a pouring trickle and could hardly be stopped. Fortunately, I had my first aid kit ready and was able to patch Anne back together before a blood transfusion or amputation was necessary. With enough tape, I expertly attached the plaster. I had averted this crisis. Afraid of the towering clouds, we set off again after eating the orange. The climb was exhausting. But quite feasible. Once again, we cursed the backpackless. Fortunately, the REgen passed us through the valley, so we had this one less worry while hiking. We only had to watch out for the downhill bikers coming towards us. They looked totally battered. Not only did they no longer have all the cups in the cupboard, they also no longer had all the teeth in their mouth.

Struggling steadily on the way, moaning, gasping for breath and just before drowning in our own sweat, we reached the summit. There we had a beautiful view of the Glencoe Mountain Resort. Even if that was certainly not a place that I looked back on with great joy. A path as narrow as we had just hiked led on to the top of the mountain. We left it out, the view from here was enough for us and we were once again afraid that the sun would only trick us into thinking something new and that it would soon crumble behind clouds and send the rain ahead. The heavy backpacks were certainly a valid argument.

 

Moving on

 

So go on. After a few meters we decided to take a short break. A supposed Scot, who was then just a pale German, took another photo of Anne and me. Schee. Then we called again to call the bubble fairy. But nothing more helped. We took care of our sore feet and then kept walking. On our way, I thought several times about amputating my little toes with blunt scissors, because they hurt so much that I could hardly think clearly. (The hyperbola is my favorite stylistic device).

The travel guide had a helpful tip in store for this section of the route: "If you have sticks here, you are easy on your knees." Thank you.

1. Nothing like this was noted in the travel guide for the descent of Conic Hill. And that was really exhausting.

2. It wasn't that steep either (or were we just used to it?).

3. Whoever has no sticks on DAY 8 (!!) doesn't need any more. Either your knees are already muddy, or you have got used to it. Or you have great knee muscles. In any case, you don't need to buy any more on day 8. Where also?

But further in the text ...

In any case, the oh-so-steep section led us down beautiful paths with great views in perfect hiking weather down towards the valley. We didn't want to reach Kinlochleven today, but we were hoping for a nice spot as close as possible. After a while, as announced in the travel guide, we came across the "Old Military Road", an old military road that is not paved and is in good condition as a dirt road. Nevertheless, it is still used by some people today, e.g. for the purpose of forest work or the like. Of course, only with the appropriate cars.

 

Sleep on the street and ... midges!

 

Anne and I soon found a pretty good spot along this little-used street. Protected and not in the mud. So the two basic criteria were met. Unfortunately there were an incredible number of midges here. We had never seen so many on the way. When setting up the tent, we accelerated accordingly, while Anne suffered another panic attack from the flies buzzing around. So that was warning level 5/5. Actually we wanted to eat and cook outside as well, but the critters found their way under the nets onto our faces and in addition a small rain front approached once more. So we hid in the tent and cooked our delicacies in our little awning. We were really hungry and the "mug shots" we bought in the market in Crianlarich were really just shots. Delicious, but far too little. So we followed up with a pack of alphabet soup and were soon full. When we sat in the tent with our bellies full, we noticed that it had been a mistake that we had previously decided NOT to move the tent 20 cm to the right. Inside, the sleeping bags and sleeping mats kept sliding to the right and it promised to be an uncomfortable night. In any case, we didn't want to start again now that all things were stowed in the tent.

 

The night to day 9

 

In fact, I slept like hell. Constantly rolled on me - through no fault of our own but because of our two inability to position the tent correctly - and my sleeping mat slid so far to the right that it stood on the mosquito net to the awning and I only had 1/2 sleeping mat. It was also pretty cold again and my new technique of just putting on 2 pairs of socks didn't help much. In a nutshell: I couldn't get a lot of sleep and relaxation today.