Day 83: Gairlochy to Laggan Lodge (11.5 miles)

Knowing this should be a shorter day, I elected to have a slow start and let Martin settle down to some work before we set off back to Gairlochy. I left Martin at 10:40 to explore the locks while I got going. The logistics would be a lot easier today as I would simply walk back to our lodge at Laggan, and Martin got a day’s work done.

There was a good deal of sunshine today, but enough small showers - or the threat of them - that I felt like I was continually stopping to put on or take off my waterproofs. In reality it was probably half a dozen times and not really a bother when I only had a small knapsack.

The walk was much nicer than I had expected - rather than be stuck in pine forest all day, the whole way to Clunes was close to the shore, with constant gorgeous views across the loch, and every so often the Nevis range would emerge from the persistent low cloud and rain which seemed to cling to it for most of the day.  

I felt very fortunate that I had had - at least comparably - favourable weather for my last few days on the West Highland Way. And relieved that I’d clearly made the right decision not to venture on to the Cape Wrath Trail. With reports of rivers in spate, snow at higher elevation and the sobering news of a fatality, I was now convinced that it would have been too big a challenge to take on when I was already tired.

I therefore enjoyed relaxing on this easy stretch of the walk, and took my time absorbing the views and checking out for birdlife and flowers. I saw 2 pairs of re-breasted mergansers - first above the Gairlochy locks where the views to the mountains were superb, and later in the beautiful Ardnacarry inlet by Bunarkaig. It was here that I crossed the bridge over the River Arkaig. The sun glistening on the water made a great foreground to the foreboding mountains in the distance.

I was thrilled to have a pair of bullfinches fly across the path in front of me - the male with his brightly coloured rose pink chest is unmistakable. I rarely see these birds now in southern England so this was a treat for me.

There was a wide variety of trees along this first part of the walk ranging from beech, silver birch, and sycamore to copper beech, Scot’s pines and giant redwoods (or sequoias) as I approached Clunes.

In the past, this next section has been largely through dense forest, but there has been a fair amount of tree harvesting so there was far greater variety than I had expected. But what was the real surprise was the diversion imposed during the construction of the Coire Glas pipeline for supporting a hydroelectric scheme. On the face of it this seemed like an inconvenience but in reality the re-route gave rise to fantastic views down the length of Loch Laggan - and entertaining carved figurines at the re-sited Trailblazer campsite.

Walking past the construction site, the large spoil heaps were impressively steep and made a note to ask Martin about it as a geotechnical engineer. 

The path descended past Kilfinnan bringing me in sight of the end of the loch and the location of the lodge - and I then spotted Martin’s distinctive bright blue cap coming towards me. Not to my great surprise, he decided to go and have a look at the construction site himself, so I continued on back to the lodge, chuckling to myself as I could see another squall of rain coming through …. Martin’s turn this time while I settled down to a hot chocolate in the warm and dry!