West Highland Way 2011 Grace & Dennis Kay

95 Miles in 8 Days Day 1 Milngavie to Drymen 12 miles Day 2 Drymen to Rowardennan 15 miles Day 3 Rowardennan to Inverarnan 14 miles Day 4 Inverarnan to Tyndrum 12 miles Day 5 Tyndrum to Bridge of Orchy 7 miles Day 6 Bridge of Orchy to Kingshouse 13 miles Day 7 Kingshouse to Kinlochleven 8 miles Day 8 Kinlochleven to Fort William 14 miles

Raring to go! The start of the West Highland Way is in the centre of Milngavie (pronounced Mill Guy). We arrived early in the morning and put our luggage on to a van to be dropped off each day at our accommodation. We had to carry our drinks, food, waterproofs, first aid kit and sweets each day in a rucksack.

Camping in Drymen Our first stop was at Drymen and we stayed the night in this wooden wigwam. It wasn’t very comfortable but we had a reasonable nights sleep after a meal with our Nan & Grandad at a nearby hotel.

Day 2 Rowardennan This was our longest and most difficult walk made even harder by the nasty weather. We walked 8 miles in the morning around Conic Hill in hail and 50 miles an hour winds. In the afternoon we walked a further 7 miles along the East side of Loch Lomond in much improved weather. Our room for the night was in Rowardennan Lodge Youth Hostel.

Day 3 Inverarnan We had much better weather on Bank Holiday Monday and our 14 mile walk took us to the end of Loch Lomond. The walking would now be a little easier and the views much prettier as we set off into the Highlands. 40 miles completed in 3 days - aching feet and very tired.

Day 4 Into the Highlands After leaving Inverarnan we began to see much higher mountains (the one on the left of this picture is Ben More which is 1174 metres - higher then any mountain in England). Grace’s dad got the butterfly but chopped off the top of Grace’s head.

Day 5 Bridge of Orchy Thankfully we only had 7 miles to walk on our fifth day from Tyndrum to Bridge of Orchy. It rained all day and our Grandad came to meet us. When we got to the hotel it was full of wet walkers who had not had a good day. Some gave up walking the rest of the Way and caught a bus to Fort William. We had a nice warm bath and a lovely dinner ready for Day 6.

Day 6 Onwards to Glen Coe It was still raining when we woke in the morning, but the forecast was good as we said goodbye to our fantastic support team (Nan and Grandad). We met more friendly people along the route and were given another donation by a really nice man called Bill from Portsmouth, who was walking with his friend Paul.

Day 6 Kingshouse The weather improved as we walked over Rannoch Moor and into Glen Coe. We had an ice cream in the Glen Coe ski centre and then made our way down to the Kingshouse Hotel which looked very inviting sitting in the middle of some massive mountains. Kingshouse Hotel

Day 7 Up Devils Staircase The weather on day 7 was hot after the clouds cleared from the mountains. We had four miles to walk along a military road to the bottom of a steep climb called the Devils staircase. The mountain in these photos is called Buchaille Etive Mor and is one of the most photographed in Scotland

Day 7 The Devils Staircase was a very steep climb, which began down by the trees. The bottom photo is of the view you get at the top. This is Grace and Dennis with Willem and Baylia from Amsterdam in the Netherlands. We saw them every day, they gave us lots of encouragement and said we were their heroes. On the last day they gave us some Heroes chocolates and £20 towards the playground fund.

Day 8 The last 14 miles We started the last day in Kinlochleven which is at sea level, meaning the last part of the previous days walk was all downhill (sore toes at the front of our boots). As you would expect we had a steep climb up in the morning and then walked in between more huge mountains until we saw the biggest of them all - Ben Nevis. The last part of the walk seemed to last forever but we eventually made it to Fort William.

A deserved rest in a p osh hotel