Equipment Summary 2 - clothing

Without a doubt I started (and finished) this trip with far more clothes than I needed, but only a little more than I wanted. Initially I was actually changing my shirt every couple of days, but in that stage I was also staying in nicer accommodation and had more frequent access to laundry facilities. Much as I love my "Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost" t-shirts, the cotton gets whiffy pretty quickly, especially in the armpits.It was somewhere along the Pennine way that I hit on my favourite combo, and just started wearing it every day, like the filth I am. 

 This consisted of bamboo singlet (which doesn't get all armpit stinky) and a long sleeve Kathmandu merino top which magically can be worn for days before it starts to smell. I found I needed the 2 layers to cut the wind, as the merino is actually very thin. Bottoms were dual layered as well, but for different reasons - just before leaving NZ I hiked the Humpridge Track with Dad and (TMI alert) I got awful thigh chafe. To combat this evil affliction I purchased a pair of non-padded cycle shorts from the good-ol' Ware-whare and over top of these wore a pair of similarly expensive linen shorts bought in a giant Tesco - very fashion-forward, I know! Sometimes I swapped out the cycle shorts for thermal leggings, if the weather was cold, but I actually often went bare legged even in freezing wind and rain (newsflash: legs are waterproof)

 Additional to the walking clothes were a pair of black trousers (the ones that got soaked in a hailstorm when I was too dumb to put my waterproofs on). After that event, and the subsequent 3 days of attempting to dry said trousers in damp campsites, I opted not to walk in them anymore, keeping them as a dry change of clothes for the evening. Believe me, you're much warmer if you change into warm dry clothes, even if you don't have the luxury of a shower.
I also had some extra tshirts, and a nice top that looked at least slightly smart to wear for going out.

Footwear - see precious post "Shoes" for the full rant, but suffice to say having good footwear is a must. The replacement hiking shoes were Oboz, and a vast improvement on the ill-fated Mountain Warehouse atrocities. I can't say they eliminated my blister problem entirely, but the these shoes took on my feet at their worst, and improved them while walking 25-35km a day. I'll be keen to see how my feet like them when I put them back on fully healed!
The distance did a total number on my socks, and I nearly wept with joy when mum's care package at Kirk Yetholm includes a pair of Icebreaker socks. I loved their anatomical design that actually matched foot shape. I wore liner socks under these, originally Kathmandu merino ones, but long use and multiple washings had rendered these into sandpaper. I replaced them with some super thin Bridgedale liner socks, that I actually greatly preferred. From what I've read it is better to have a liner of a different material to the outer sock, so that was also in their favour over the merinos.

Needless to say all these choices are very much "whatever works for you", as everyone has very different preferences when it comes to clothing and especially footwear. I'd recommend NOT working it out as you go along, but figuring out what works for you in advance. And plan to replace the socks every few hundred k's...

Equipment Summary 1

Camping equipment:

Kathmandu Mono tent: I love this tent, and for the price it's well worth it. It survived some pretty serious wind and rain, the only time I got wet was when I couldn't peg it out tight enough, and that one time it formed ice on the inside. You cannot sit up in this tent, but this is the case for pretty much every tent this size/weight. I was able to fit my pack inside the tent with me, which is a bonus. The only better tent I saw was George's 2 person tent, which weighed the same as mine but cost €400 ($800nzd hahahaha)
Weight: 1.7kg
Price: $250nzd ($150 on sale - and I'm sure mum would've bought it on sale)

Kathmandu Pathfinder Women's sleeping bag: This is a 3 season down sleeping bag, and it was good enough for what I needed. The night my tent froze (2nd night camping!) I was really cold, wearing thermals, trousers, and polarfleece jacket - this is understandable given that the transition temperature is 0°C (below comfort, above dangerous). This was also a wild camp night, meaning no shower - I have found that I get much colder if I'm not able to get warm and dry before going to bed.
Weight: 0.71kg, and excellent compressed size.
Price $500nzd ($300 on sale - and I definitely only buy on sale)

Generic foam mat: foam mats are still probably the lightest sleeping mats available, but technology is catching up. Self inflating mats are much heavier, but some blow up mats are just about matching the foam ones, and they take up much less space! This is definitely something I will be replacing before my next adventure, but I'll need to save up for it!

Cooking equipment:

This is the pared down final version of my cooking equipment. The Primus stove is lightweight and compact, and while there are more fuel efficient stove/pot combinations coming into the market, such as the Jetboil, but I found this sufficient.
For most of the trip I used matches, but eventually these got wet (dumbass) and I had to borrow some. When I got to Fort William I invested in a Light My Fire firesteel. It's a little bit tricky to get enough sparks to light a gas stove, but you feel so badass doing it that I persisted, and after a couple days was able to do it first try.
The other thing I bought at Fort William was a silicone folding bowl. I had been using a small melamine bowl, when I didn't eat directly from the pot, but it took up a lot of room when I packed it inside the pot, and was really too small to be useful! The silicone bowl has a plastic base, so can be used as a chopping board, and folds out to 400mL - making it almost as big as the pot. I can definitely recommend.
I prefer separate cutlery, as opposed to a spork or other combo device, and I'd advise against plastic as it will only break at some inconvenient moment (sorry Adam!)
The final item was my yellow mug! This received some chuckles on its journey, but I wouldn't give it up for the world. Though you can get less space-consuming cups, I held onto this mug that I've been using since I was about 5 years old. You can tell I've had it that long because my name is written on it in my mother's handwriting, with a little smiley face. I refuse to be embarrassed, love you Mum!

A learning curve

Unsurprisingly an adventure such as this necessitates a major learning curve - especially when I'd never attempted any kind of journey like before. I was in a new country, I had never used my tent before, I had never hiked for more than 5 consecutive days. I had never walked more than 20km in a day. I learned many things in my travels - about long distance hiking in general, and about myself, so I thought I'd share a few revelations:

- Walking for 8 hours is not the same as working for 8 hours. I thought when I started this that I could easily walk 30km in a day, at a 4km per hour pace, as that would be less than a days work - oh how wrong I was.

- Nothing will stop the hailstorm from hitting you, but waterproofs work better on than in your pack.

- The tent does in fact survive being packed soaking wet. However, the tent does not appreciate being packed with an orange left in its side pocket. Packed and compressed.

- Music is effective pain relief. Especially in those first couple of weeks, where the walking was not hard but my blistered feet were limiting my endurance, I found plugging in my headphones could get me an extra couple of hours.

- Shoes. Buy good ones.

- Apparently I am a grump in the morning, and annoyingly cheerful after lunch.

- Something about hiking makes it easy for conversation to get very personal, very quickly. There just seems to be no point making bland small talk, at least once you've all finished the standard comments on the worst part of today's track, and the weather. There are people I've hiked with for less than a week who know more about me than people I've known for years.

- When crossing paths with another walker on a horrible rainy day, it is compulsory to loudly and cheerfully exclaim "Beautiful weather we're having!" or "Lovely day for it!"

- Ask and you shall receive. Want an extra bit of bread with your soup? Ask. Hanging out for a cup of tea? Ask. Need somewhere to camp? Ask. (Actually don't bother asking for that one in Scotland, you're allowed). This doesn't mean you will always receive. I've been told no, or been ignored, or had to awkwardly repeat myself because my accent was unclear - but I survived these embarrassments. You can too.

- It's really hard to dance with a 13kg pack on, but that didn't stop me

- Bad weather does not equal bad hiking! I have had beautiful, exciting days, seemingly made all the better for lashing wind and rain. I've had lovely sunny days that dragged painfully.

- Mushroom cup-of-soup mixed into pasta with a handful of cheese makes an excellent meal. Bonus points if the cheese is a mature smoked cheddar.

- There is always something that can make me smile at the end of a hard day, if I look for it. Flowers, a flight of swallows, thousands of tiny  downy seeds adrift on the breeze and glowing in the sunlight. My own foolish train of thought. I can only hope that everyone can find a little something to smile about.

- Perceptions change with experience. Never before had I uttered the phrase "Well we're only going 22km, so it's a short day"

- People aren't ALWAYS going to be impressed that you're walking a stupidly long distance. Sometimes it's because they're undertaking something similarly impressive. Often it's because they just didn't compute the sentence "well I've walked form London"

- I can tell myself that this was a journey of personal challenge, and that I don't need other people's accolades to validate my worth, all I like but it's still nice to get a properly stunned response to the aforementioned statement.

After all of this:
The most important lesson I learned was that I can set myself a goal and complete it. Even though I had no idea if it would work before I started, and even though some days I had to walk through pain, and even though some days I had no motivation.
I am a self-doubter. I thought I had no will power.  I thought I was too lazy.
But I did this. You can too.

Each day as it comes.
Hour by hour.
One step at a time.

Not all those who wander are lost.

The End...?

My final map - 2 months of travel, 53 actual walking days, and 1300 kilometres (800 miles).

Further updates to come including a full debrief and an equipment review!

Grotaig to Inverness (2 days)

My wild campsite was one of my favourite spots along the Great Glen Way, but I did get rather a fright when I woke to the sound of something large moving through the underbrush near my tent. I could actually hear its footsteps, and it kept up a constant huffing and snorting as it moved. Part of me really wanted to open the tent for a look, and a lot of me REALLY didn't! Logically I concluded it was most likely a badger, and Adam confirmed that as most likely when I messaged him the next day. I feel a little embarrassed that I was so terrified of a badger, but I challenge anyone to hear the amount of noise it makes, at 1am, alone in their tent, and have the courage to look outside. Additionally I really don't want to know how a badger reacts when surprised, when my face is at ground level.
I packed the tent quickly the next morning, bothered by midges, and headed down the road to Drumnadrochit. Unfortunately the Way doesn't pass Urquhart Castle, and I didn't want to add the extra hours of walking there. Instead I stopped in at the Loch Ness Centre and Exhibition - a base for research of the loch and an informational exhibition about the geology of Loch Ness, and the facts about its "monster". The exhibition moves you through a series of rooms with videos and displays to discuss the ongoing question of its infamous inhabitant.

I expected this to be a bit gimmicky, but actually found it really interesting. It first details the geographical history of the loch, including the shift the caused the Great Glen to form, early in Pangaea, and it's subsequent northern drift. After the times of the dinosaurs most of Scotland and all of Loch Ness, was covered with ice - a fact apparent in the shaping of it's valleys and the smoothed tops of it's mountains. This fact precludes the possibility of a plesiosaur population somehow residing in the lake, as they could not have survived the ice age there, and wouldn't have had access to return after.
The earliest take attributed to the Loch Ness monster is St Columba banishing a water beast as it pursued a swimmer in the River Ness. This event was recorded some 100 years after the saints death, and even if we believe in such miracles of God, the beast was in the river not the loch, and is not described in form. From  the then until the 20th century the only references are local tales of "strange fish" and sometimes the description of an "upturned boat" in the water. It is not until 1933, when the first "Nessie" photo is released to a paper, that the term "monster" appears, coupled with the image of a long-necked creature - until then there had been absolutely no mention of a long neck at all. Suddenly images and reports appeared, showing long necks reaching out of the water and serpentine humps.
As some images were revealed as accidental artefacts, or even outright hoaxes, the determination to uncover the secrets of the loch increased. Multiple surveys have been made, by underwater camera, and by sonar, among other research, all methods having their difficulties. The cameras struggled with the peaty dark water of the loch, and some images that appeared monstrous (and were pounced on by media) turned out to be logs, or other underwater debris. Sonar had a more interesting artefact - the loch has a thermaclime, a sudden change in temperature that makes a refractory boundary in the water. This can create seemingly large objects in the water, and furthermore is not a still layer but a constant wave in motion up and down the loch. These surveys, while failing to find the Loch Ness monster, did provide valuable information about the viability of the loch itself. Loch Ness is remarkably barren, with hardly enough zooplankton to support its small population of trout and seasonal salmon. This is another nail in the coffin for Nessie - there is simply not enough food in the lake to support a breeding population of large predators. If there is any sort of monster living in the deep, then it must be a magical one, and sensible enough to avoid discovery.

Moving on I climbed steadily out of Drumnadrochit, getting a side glimpse of Urquhart Castle as I did so. The rest of the way passes mostly through actively managed pine forest and is pleasant enough walking. I stopped to chat to a couple of Australians cycling the path with a Scottish guide and then caught up with them later that day, just past the Abriachan cafe and "eco-campsite". They strongly recommended I return to the cafe for their lemon sponge cake, and given that I was already as far as I needed to go that day I decided to give it a try. As I ordered the owners asked if I was wanting to camp that night as well, giving grim tales of murdered hikers further down the road. It was not their dire warnings that decided me, but the insidious rain, and I forked out the £5 for their minimal facilities "campsite". At least I was able to cook in some meagre shelter, but after paying £9 for cake and fresh juice, I was less than impressed with a fiver for nothing more than a composting toilet. Give me a couple days and I could build better facilities myself, hmph. To their credit the owners are both lovely, if eccentric, and the cake was delicious, if overpriced.
There is little to say about the final day of this epic journey. I packed my tent soaking wet and walked the last 20km in dramatic mists, without pausing to rest. Central Inverness is very pretty and I immediately inhaled a giant burger and celebratory whisky. I am now warm and dry, comfy on a double bed, in a b&b for 1 night. It'll be back to hostels after this, and then... who knows!

A glimpse of Urquhart Castle

A fitting final day?

Fort Augustus to Grotaig

I woke up to sunshine and feeling significantly better than I had been for the last couple of days. I treated myself to a lazy start and a full breakfast, I planned for a pretty big day.

The route climbs fairly steeply out of Fort Augustus, through pine forest, and then divides into a high and low route. Of course I had to take the high route, heading above the tree line for views over Loch Ness. There are some steep climbs here but once up top the trail mostly rises and falls gently until its very steep descent into Invermoriston. I'm a little confused as to my pace through this section as I got to Invermoriston in about 2.5hours. when plotting it on OS maps I had this leg as a little over 12km, but looking at the map I can see now that this is the low route, and OS maps doesn't even plot the high route (a big fail as this is a very well maintained track). Online a guide had said the high route was 16.9km, which would be very improbable for that timing, and I have since found further discrepancies between the online guide and signs in the trail. Part of me would love to spend some time correcting all the information, and making a more comprehensive guide to services along the route (including suitable wild camping spots), but most of me is far too lazy for that.
I took a long break in Invermoriston, purchased a handmade leather wristband like a total tourist, and charged my phone while relaxing at a cafe. Next came another steep climb, and again the route divides high and low. The high route climbs through reclaimed Caledonian Pine forest, past the Viewfinder - a Caledonian Pine sculpture built in 2003 - and around to the highest point on the track at around 420m. Apparently on a clear day you can see all the way to Ben Nevis - I thought I could possibly make out its bulky edge before the cloud claimed it, but I could be mistaken.
I was now at leisure to pick a likely spot for camping, but it wasn't until I was nearly at Grotaig that I found the perfect spot. A small hillock rose to the side of the path after it turned away from the steep sides over the Loch, and a large flat rock made a perfect kitchen table. Though not a flat area I managed to pitch the tent in a spot that didn't make me feel like I was going to roll downhill. I made dinner after a rest, and wanted to sit outside and play ukulele, however I was beginning to feel a little chilled. Instead, I hopped into bed, escaping most of the insects, and played in my tent.

View back to Fort Augustus

"Troll Bridge"

Fort William to Fort Augustus (2 days)

With 2 nights of hostel bed sleep I should have been full of beans heading out into the last leg of my journey, however it was hard to get motivated, and I just felt tired setting off yesterday. This continued today and one year feels blocked. Joy.

The way heads along the waters edge of Fort William, past its small suburbs, before turning inland along the Caledonian Canal, and then rising up Neptune's Staircase - a series of 8 continuous locks that raise the canal by 19 vertical metres. The Caledonian Canal was built from 1803 to 1822 and links the lochs to create a navigable waterway from Inverness to Fort William. I will admit to knowing very little about boats, but what struck me with this canal is the lack of narrowboats or riverboats. Instead the canal seems used by people taking ocean-going vessels from one sea to the other. Unlike narrowboats, yachts cannot pass under the bridges, and so each bridge along the way rotates like a gate to allow the boats to pass.

The trail is of course perfectly flat alongside the canal, but along the shores of Loch Lochy it rose and fell gently. The weather was changeable, and though midafternoon I was tempted for a swim, especially as that section of path twisted gently around the lochs shores, under deciduous forest, by the time I pitched camp it was raining again. I had decided where I wanted to get to that day, and to make camp somewhere after that point. There appeared to be a nice spot right where my walk ended but I decided that I felt good enough to chip a little distance off tomorrow's walk, and that there would surely be similarly suitable sites along the path. I was wrong. The route changed to a wide stony forest road, with narrow verges and a steep slope. I eventually just picked a spot on the verge wide enough for my tent but found the ground to stony to drive my pegs in. This meant the tent sagged in the middle and allowed rain to seep through in the night, making the foot of my sleeping bag wet. Additionally as I got into bed I noticed 2 very small ticks crawling around in the tent - needless to say I did not sleep well.

The second day began with me packing a soaking wet tent, and a damp sleeping bag, and generally feeling pretty under the weather. The literal weather was actually ideal for walking, mostly sunshine with occasional showers that were never heavy enough to bother with a coat, and something about it made the damp pine forest smell like warm toffee. I reached the end of Loch Lochy in good time and decided to have an early lunch. As a treat I got out my stove to boil water for a coffee sachet - only to have the gas run out with the water only warm. There is to be no sympathy for this, I knew it was running out and should have bought some more in Fort William,  I'm just lucky I didn't try using it to make dinner the night before - at least it made the water hot enough for my drink.

The route continues along the side of Loch Oich, but unlike the first loch, this track is along an old rail line, and so completely flat. After briefly resting at the Oich Bridge locks, reclining on a park bench, I continued onto the final section along the canal to Fort Augustus. The creeping feeling of malaise was getting worse and when I finally got to the town I was desperate for a simple solution for camping that night. You are no longer allowed to pitch on the smooth grass beside the locks, so when I spotted a proper campsite I just went for it.
This has the benefit of hot showers and a warm laundry room which has dried out my sleeping bag nicely. The grass is smooth and easy to pitch the tent properly. I've been able to charge my phone.

One more thing:
Ticks. I have been lucky to encounter none so far, although Katya and Charlie had both removed ticks from themselves on the WHW. My luck ran out spectacularly as of today. This evening before my shower I spotted blood on my knee, from pushing through a thorny plant to take a photo, but as I examined the blood I noticed something else off to the side - a poppyseed sized tick nymph. This prompted further examination and in all I found 6 of the bastards, including one low on my ankle that had somehow penetrated 2 pairs of socks and my leggings (which hadn't been removed since I put them on yesterday morning). I am not a fan. Given that I was feeling unwell yesterday as well I assume I am coming down with some ordinary virus (or just run down from unideal nutrition), not early Lyme disease. I've taken some multivitamins today, and eaten a proper meal.

Buried barge by Loch Lochy

Purpose built Landing Craft (LCA) training deck. WW2 troops practiced on these before trying a true water entry

St Ciaran's Church, Achnacarry

Shipwreck and ruins, on North bank of Loch Oich