Day 4: Rowardennan - Beinglas Farm
The inconvenience of day 4
Trigger Warning: The following are brief descriptions of our physical hygiene. If you cannot cope with this or feel uncomfortable with it, please do not read the following text or read it with someone.
Today is day 4. And day 4 is the worst. Still not having a shower, I slowly but surely felt a feeling of disgust towards myself and my body. The hair was really greasy and with the right combing technique and even without a mirror I could have conjured up a fashion week-suitable wet look. It was an easy 20 kilometers to walk to the desired campsite. We really hoped that we could do it, because a shower was really needed.
Here we go
So after we had breakfast we started. According to the travel guide, we were facing an adventurous path with dizzying heights along Loch Lomond through Rob Roy's realm. Rob Roy is - or was - something like the Scottish Robin Hood, who is said to have lived in the 18th century. If you are more interested in it, please read it. Any guide to the West Highland Way should contain more about it. In any case, Rob Roy is said to have lived in the forest and held hostages. Today our way would lead past his cave and his prison.
In view of the bold announcements in the travel guide, we expected more strenuous passages today. At first you had the choice between the "adventurous" path down by Loch Lomond and the simple forest path with supposedly beautiful views. We decided - of course - for the adventure. Rock'n'Roll, you monkeys!
Let's go on an adventure
The way was quite doable and not as adventurous as the travel guide had announced. But maybe also because we were very lucky with the weather again. When it is pouring rain, I imagine the passage to be a bit more difficult, as it leads over small rocky outcrops and always runs directly past the lake. After 5 km, both paths (the forest path and the adventure path) came together again and we took a short backpacking break. Somehow we had missed Rob Roy's prison now. But no matter - I would definitely not run back now.
We saddled the horses again and continued the march. While we were still quite alone on the adventure trail, from here we met more hikers again. A few passed us. Okay, most of them actually. Except the old women. The path ran through a really beautiful forest and once again I had to think of Grimm's fairy tales. The route led towards Inversnaid, where we wanted to eat something. Preferably warm, tasty and not too expensive. The travel guide said something like: "You are still in almost untouched nature, pondering the myth of Rob Roy and suddenly the great Victorian hotel in Inversnaid is pulling you back into reality". It wasn't exactly like that. Actually zero. You heard a plane over and over again, saw other hikers - but most of all you saw the motorway on the other side of the lake, the sounds of which echoed back to us. And we hadn't seen Rob Roy's prison either, wherever it was supposed to be. It probably wasn't that big. Or did we see it and just not buckle it up? Also possible with us two cardboard noses.
Inversnaid
In Inversnaid we left the hotel on the left and looked for the entrance to the village. We actually imagined the whole thing to be something like in balmaha, which we had also eaten outside in a restaurant. But somehow we couldn't find the entrance to the village and suddenly we were back in the forest ... how is that possible ??? Meanwhile we were pretty hungry and a little grumpy. Anne also doubts about her strength and that she would manage the full stage today. Yesterday was really exhausting and we both had pretty much reached our limit. But first eat something, then the world will look different again. A rock was a good place to unpack the stove and eat some of the pasta I'd bought. After that we felt a lot better.
As it turned out after our lunch, Anne and I had cooked in Rob Roy's cave ... Who will put up the sign after the cave? Oops. well, at least we found them. Not like his prison and inversnaid. Fuck inversnaid.
Strengthened we went on in any case, another 10 km lay ahead of us. On the way we soon met wild mountain goats. They just stood there, smelled extremely of goat cheese and munched unimpressed by our presence.
From Loch Lomond to Beinglas Farm
As soon as we got to the end of Loch Lomond I thought the scenery got more beautiful. The forest thinned and my eye was hungry for the highlands. In any case, we first trudged on through somewhat marshy terrain, over small bridges or wooden paths. Here it was announced to dig (our expression for lifting walking sticks). Of course, every now and then it can happen that even the experienced hiker gets a stick in the floorboards because the landscape captivates the eye. The mountain goats that just stood in the middle of the tree were funny. They also met us with a mixture of coolness and total arrogance. Still incredibly cute.
As always, the last few kilometers stretched out well. Towards the end we were plagued by thoughts of an approaching water shortage. So we stopped at a stream and filled our bottles there. No risk, no fun. Otherwise we still had charcoal tablets and perenterol in our backpack ...
Before that we had met a couple with a dog who said to Anne: "You look tired." And Anne cheekily replied: "Because I am." The two laughed. When we filled up the water we met them again. With bare feet we sat in the grass and pondered the meaning of life, our last hours before we would perish from exhaustion and of course how far it might still be. The two had a short conversation with us and when they heard that we had covered the entire way with 15 kg and a tent on our back, the woman expressed her admiration with the words: "You are very keen". Yes we are
Shortly afterwards we said goodbye and went to the first campsite on our tour. Finally shower!
Beinglas farm
We arrived 3 km later. Beinglas Farm is really nice and there is even a pub! The campground cost us £ 12. It's okay. After all, the showers were free. That meant we had enough time to thoroughly wash all the fat off our battered bodies. Including soaking time. Who knows when we'd get to that next time. Then we went to the pub and ate something. There was curry for Anne and an Angus beef burger for me. Delicious. We sat in the pub for a while, forgetting the time, while everyone else we had seen all the time during the hike (the flower backpacks, Mesut and the bearded man) had long crawled into their holes. At some point it was time for us and we wanted to lie down. Before that, of course, I had to brush my teeth. In the bathroom we met other campers, including a woman who said in English that brushing your teeth had become boring over time, and so did her face. And then she got in the right mood and said something like, "It's like washing the same dishes every day. And now I'm nomore washing dishes and pans." And then she said that she just ate out of the pan because she was tired of washing up. And she was tired of the midges too. She hit the wall after unpacking her head net and shouted: "Fuck off, midges! Compassion! See you in another life!" I couldn't laugh anymore.
With aching stomachs from laughing too much, we hid in our sleeping bags. Two German girls had also spread their beds in the neighboring tent. Unfortunately, the two of them were apparently doing more important business than the good Lord distributed the brain. They kept beating on the walls of their tent to drive away the Midges. At 11 a.m. Fools. Fortunately, I was quite tired, had my earplugs with me and soon fell into a wonderful sleep. See you tomorrow, world!
