The Knoydart Way
When - 8th, 9th and 10th September 2006
Where - Knoydart, Lochaber, Scotland
Who - Andy Smith, John Siwek, James Smith, James Kroll, Alistair Nicholson, Rebecca Niece, Hannah Law, Alice Fraser, Kirsty MacRuary, Susan Turner, Alex Turner, Neil Bennett
Andy's Comment - He's now rating the "people involved"!
Account by John Siwek
The assessed expedition was scheduled to begin on Friday the 8th of September, so during the school term in August we had to plan for it. The planning was an important stage as a) we would be failed if no planning had taken place and b) we wouldn’t know important things like: the route and who was taking what. It was decided that everyone had to take part in the planning no matter what, so inevitably it was mainly me (John) and Andy, often under the knowledgeable gaze of Eilidh. For each day the distance, co-ordinate, bearing, time which included rests and time for travelling up hills, had to be entered on a planning sheet. Each day took around half an hour to plan if you were doing it alone, but it could be anything over that if there were more people “helping”.
Another part of the planning involved deciding what food we would take. On the practice we each took our own food and stove and ate what we wanted when we wanted it. It did mean taking our own stoves each but it also meant that you didn’t have to share food. This time, however, we agreed (mostly) on what to take, mainly flat, easily portable food and sausages. On the Thursday Me, Andy and James Kroll went to the co-op to buy the food with money that everybody had chipped in. The change would be shared out later, (this later is still to come as far as I’m aware.)
8th September 2006 - Day One
On Friday morning we all met up at around 7ish in the school car park with all the equipment. After packing the food as best as possible between us, wondering if sausages was really a good idea and loading up on meths because somebody forgot to fill the bottle, (cough, Stevie, cough), we all piled into the oldest high school minibus. We were driven to Armadale by Mrs MacRuary for the ferry to Mallaig. Once at Armadale we had roughly 30 minutes to re-arrange our bags and sort ourselves.
The day had started out cold but with a pure blue sky and little cloud so promised to be a good day, it had rained heavily for most of the rest of the week. Out to the distance you could just make out the mountains of Knoydart that we would be climbing later. As I stood wondering how to get this section into the write up, I looked at the group around me. Now I will do my own version of the people in this expedition:
The Boys Group
John Siwek (me) - No intro needed, The Gerbil Boy
Andy Smith - No intro needed, The Monkeyman
James Smith - Into strange tacky metal music, sports spiky or Mohican gelled hair, Known to some as the traffic-light or The Carpet-Hair Man. Special skill - “James jokes”
James Kroll - Funny whinny voice, plays bass guitar, annoyingly clever but can be dim, likes to sing badly, likes Injuns a little too much, generally nice guy, - special skill- Kroll mating Call.
Alistair “Stevie” Nicholson - Legend. Irritatingly upbeat about nothing in particular, either smiles stupidly or with a quizzical expression when talked to, not the brightest button in the proverbial box. Problems with blisters. Special skill- asking inappropriate questions without really understanding what he’s saying eg. “is there anything beyond a retard?” said during Graph. Comm.
The Girls Group
Rebecca Niece - Tall, manwoman, often hyper or glum, smoker. Ok looking
Hannah Law - Classified
Alice Fraser - Friendly, polite, quite fit. Wants to go to Oxford Not much else to say
Kirsty MacRuary - Very fit, much like Alice appeared to be leader of the team, wants to join RAF.
The Teachers
Susan Turner - Canadian, nice, friendly, nervous smile, kinda scruffy, outdoor type.
Alex Turner - English, friendly, fit, all round good guy
Neil “Phil the Lycraman” Bennett - Post-man, Christian, fond of wearing Lycra, open hearted smile, upbeat, easy to get along with.
Anyway, on with the expedition.
We boarded the ferry after Andy took some pics. Then we sorted out the bags for a third time this time wondering if we should really have let James K. buy 21 sausages. Next we chatted outside for a while before going down stairs , bypassing some Americans saying “What is the temperature in Sweden like at this time of year?”, and into the main seating area. We handed over our £12 for transport fees, and sat together as the girls filmed their first bit of footage, and ate harrybo mix, (cheers Kirsty).
We came into Mallaig harbour, past the statue of the guy with the little girl and the pistols. We had an hour to spend before we could catch the “Western Isles” which disappointingly was not as rickety, small, or unbalanced as the Rona trip boat but a solid, wooden, vassal which even James S. was relatively happy to board. After an hour of realising that there really was nothing in Mallaig we met the assessor, Roger.
After getting rid of the sausages we boarded the boat. Loading our things on the back we sat down along with all the other passengers.
The sun was quite warm by now and we applied suntan lotion and leant back. After a while Roger Lanyon came over. He looked around mid 60s and needed a hearing aid but he seemed very strong for his age probably from an outdoor life. He went over a few things checking out our knowledge about health and safety matters. He seemed quite happy with us and didn’t really ask very hard questions.
We put on sun cream and enjoyed the view. On the side of a mountain was a white statue of the Virgin Mary (we think). It was a bit like something out of the Lord of the Rings. Roger later said that the area was a catholic area and that there many religious statues and things around.
As we pulled into the harbour at about 11am we could see that Inverie was a very small strip of houses along the shore. Along the harbour were locals and tourists, probably walkers like us, waiting to catch the boat to Mallaig. We climbed out onto to the harbour and walked up the road to the end of the harbour to organize ourselves. After decided that the boys group would go first we took a group photo. We left straight after that travelling up the path, past the most remote pub in Britain, and into the forest.
I was carrying the map but mainly because nobody else would. Andy capture a few photos. We walked along the steady, good conditioned path which went through a cool sun dappled pine forest. In which the best photo in the trip was taken by Andy.
After we exited the forest we had to stop because Stevie was complaining of blisters, which if left would get worse. He applied plasters but it was still very sore to walk but we decided to leave them and decide what to do at lunch a few minutes later. Meanwhile the girls walked past and were under the impression that we were stopping to eat (the cheek, we ate very little on that trip).
When we passed the girls group having lunch we stopped across the river from them where Roger was waiting. As we had our lunch he asked a few question and then we got to the subject of Stevie’s feet. There were two options: 1) He continued with them in the hope they wouldn’t be too bad for the next two day during which any medical extraction was impossible unless it was life threatening. Coping by constant checking and application of plaster and cream. Or 2) Dropping out now when it was only one hour away from civilisation and catching the boat back to Mallaig. We told Stevie that it was totally his decision and we would take his tent and other important equipment. He decided that the best option was to drop out now. He gave me his stove and cooking pots and James S. his tent. James was now carrying both his tent, Stevie’s tent and all his own equipment. Any of us would have take at least half the tent but it wasn’t offered. Roger and Stevie left and we set off again.
We walked down the dirt path into a valley between some Munros, following a river. It was shaded, but the sun was still very warm. Occasionally we would pass through a wood or two. One of them had a stone bothy with large windows on one corner. When we peered inside we could see that it was under renovation to above bothy standard featuring a stove and a upstairs loft. It was locked and a notice said it was owned by the mountaineering club or some organisation like that.
We carried onwards down the path, crossing a bridge to the other side of the river. Andy took a few more pictures and the rest of us started to climb the path that was getting steadily steeper. When we all rounded a corner we saw a very big hill that we were going to be climbing. The map made it look much smaller. Never the less we walked up it. Some of us strode, others walked, and some plodded, as we listened to our mp3 players. Andy and I co-ordinated our music by playing the Afro-celt sound system album at exactly the same time, from time to time some times singing along in a different language, that made James and James confused.
Slowly we made our way up the path that was our steepest climb of the day. James S. was finding it hard as he was the least fit in the group and struggled with hot weather and had to stop often to rest. Although I agree it wasn’t particularly easy I would have been happier if we went at a faster pace and didn’t stop so often. During these stops when ever I had a drink from my Platypus, Andy would try and snatch a suckle from the straw even though he had his own water in his bag but apparently it was difficult to get out. So I usually had to share some of my water with him but it didn’t matter as there was lots of rivers that we could use for water collecting. In the distance we could see the Girls at the top of the bealach (Dip between two mountain tops).
We eventually reached the top of the bealach. Standing at the top we could see how far we had come and how far we had to go. The view was spectacular.
After a short break we journeyed down the other side. The path became small and twisting. James K. and Andy were in front and James S. And Me were a little further behind. We could see a flat plain at the bottom and twisting river that we would have to cross. At the base of the hill we came to a heavily over grown part where the path disappeared. We forced and fell our way to a ruined farm. There we took a group photo which was harder then expected due to a coil of wire.
We got to the bridge, next to which a man was fishing with a quad park near by, clearly he took the easy way. The bridge its self was a few planks of wood on a couple of rusty wires. There was a sign next to it “This Bridge is dangerous and should be use at own risk.” That made us feel much better. It was actually ok and nobody died crossing it.
There was the option of walking by the shore or shortcut across the grass. We foolishly took the second option. The grass plain turned out to be a huge bog that we splashed and soaked our way through to the other side. During a rest we had a very weird conversation about if you could fuel a stove on farts. We wondered if it was flammable enough and how we would collect it. After much talk it was decided just to use normal fuel.
It turned out that we had got there too later (around 4:30pm) to get to the campsite by coast as the tide covered up the path. We instead had to climb up a hill and come up and then down to it. It was tiring and we slipped a few times. At last we reached the campsite and collapsed next to where the girls were. They had already pitched tent and were cooking. James S. and Andy pitched tents while James K. and I made dinner, stir-fry. It soon came apparent that I was a crap cook seeing as I didn’t know what to do only having made stir-fry once in 3rd year. The noodles were cold by the time we had located some oil to cook the vegetables. We found some in the bothy nearby. Altogether it was cold, tasteless and unsatisfying.
The teachers arrived and set up camp 200 feet away, enough for us to survive on our own but near enough encase an insane sheep gored us in the night. The evening was spent by playing family cards, or whatever their called. It got just too dark by 8pm so Alice, Hannah, Rebecca and James S. went to bed. Andy, James, Kirsty and Me stayed up talking and watching the stars in the moonlight. After a while it got too cold so we went to bed. The girls had one four man tent, Andy shared with James S.’s two man tent (with weird ventilation) and James K. and I shared Stevie’s three man tent.
9th September 2006 - Day Two
We woke around 9am after a relatively cold night. The girls had been up for a while earlier and were already having breakfast. We ate our breakfast of bread and cereal bars. We slowly packed everything up, James K. for some reason decided to pack inside Stevie’s tent which meant that we couldn’t take down the tent with him inside it. The girls left about 20 minutes before us.
Stoking up on water and applying sun tan lotion - it was a clear very bright hot day- we set off up the valley. It was overgrown and boggy at the bottom which made locating the path difficult. After a quick chat with the teachers we soon headed up the path. It had down graded from a solid, dry path to a stone/mud path.
During a rest, while the man clad in Lycra walked past, we saw a strange white creature in the distance at the bottom of the valley. It was white so could easily have been a sheep but its tail was long and its shoulder blades were to prominent. We thought it could have been a large cat but Neil said it was just an messy sheep so the mystery of the animal was solved.
The path carried on up, winding between the hills and boulders. It followed a river but crossed it at a shady wooden bridge. A quick pause to drink and take a few snaps and then we were back off again.
The path became quite steep and after a few hours began to level off at the top of the bealach. The path split off and we ended up taking a path that went off a cliff and into a river that we were supposed to cross, so we had to backtrack and cross it lower down.
By around 12am we had reached one of the highest points on that days route. We breaked again and Susan and Alex Turner caught up with us. We talked for a short while. Then we continued crossing the river again a few times, Until we reached the lochs. From then on the path basically disintegrated into mud.
By then we had fallen into a good system of walking. Walk for around 20+ minutes then rest of 5mins. The temperature was getting really hot, but we still had a lot of juice left in our non specific MP3 players to pass the time.
We were walking in between the mountains but we left them and the path passed on one side of the valley and widened out.
We stopped for lunch at the other highest point of that day. Lunch was pita bread with peppered salami that was actually really nice. We had two slices and one packet of salami each. I went to refill my platypus and I heard some weird shouting in the distance. Went I got back Kroll said he heard it as well but we thought nothing of it so if somebody had fallen and broken their legs and were shouting for help we ignored them.
The path was still bad but not as bad as before. There were quite a few rivers which we had to cross but they were clean and it was possible to drink from.
By around 4pm we could see a proper road in the distance so decided to take another rest. There was a large flat rock beside the path we collapsed on it. It was very pleasant just lying on our backs looking at the clouds. It was a good moment, four friends in the wilderness on a hot day. By two days in you could start to relax and not be bothered by when we had to be someplace, you are no longer affected by the modern world only by what is around you. It is all very simple, walk, eat, sleep. (That all sounds a little Ray Mearsesque)
After a while we continued on. The path curved downwards towards the start of long dirt road. James S.’ rucksack that had been causing him problems for the last 15 miles or so, perhaps due to the weight of two tents, broke. It was fairly small tare in one of the straps that supported the weight of the bag. We were about as far from anybody who could fix it as possible so James S. had to put up with it.
As we walked, our process was impeded by some highland cows that were lounging in the sun. They appeared very docile and we walked around them although extra care was taken near the bull.
Above us was a huge house that looked very new and only half completed. We decided that it was probably a private kind of lodge but it seemed to be in use and that it would be nice to own a house like that in this kind of place.
We slowly rounded the bend and saw the camping spot about half a mile away. We walked down the road past the farm. We walked past the teachers who were camping next to a broken down bridge.
When we got to the place the girls were camping, at about 5pm, we realised that we had to cross the wide shin deep river. So James S. powered through and the rest followed. When we got to the other side the girls said that they took off there shoes first, which in hindsight would probably have been a good idea.
We put up the tents and me and James K. made pasta which I didn’t muck up. Stevie’s tranga was working really slowly so James S. had a nice hot meal but mine was quite cold.
Roger came to meet us around 6pm, he inspected our camp and asked if we had any trouble that day. Then he left.
We watched a microlite take off from the farm and circle above us and then fly off. We also sighted a stag in the distance but it ran off. We then sat on some sleeping mats and talked but it got cold after a while and then moved into Stevie’s tent. That became very cramped and quite boring. We tried playing Family Cards again but it wasn’t very fun. Andy left to good for a walk and soon after Hannah left as well. The girls stretched out leaving very little room left for the rest of us. To be honest sitting in a tent with three girls wasn’t as fun as you’d think, they didn’t talk of anything particularly interesting. Although they did start to bitch about how Hannah was being annoying.
After a while it got dark and we decided to go to bed. I had to share with James S. in his tent with its weird ventilation system where condensation would form on the inside of the roof and drip onto your face.
Andy was meant to be sleeping with James K. but we hadn’t seen him for over an hour and he hadn’t told us where he was going so we decided that if he didn’t return after and hour or so we would go and look for him and tell the teachers. Luckily he returned 5mins later and laughed at your idea of looking for him.
With that we collapsed into sleeping bags at the end on day two.
10th September 2006 - Day Three
It had been a cold night and I woke about 8.30 by some drops of condensation falling on my head from the stupid ventilation system of James S.’ tent.. He woke a little while later and we talked quietly until the shout from Kirsty “O My God. There is a wild Boar in our camp. Get the Camera”. James and I shoved our head out the door just in time to see a boar run about 15metres away across the river. Andy and James K were too slow and went back into the tent.
As we were up we packed up our sleeping stuff and I changed into my clean trousers and some nice dry waterproof socks that wouldn’t soak up the gallons of water still in my boot. There weren’t many midges about as I went for a short walk to stretch my legs. It was quiet dull and cloudy and rain threatened to fall some time that day, not a good idea as we had enjoyed two whole days of sun . I wasn’t feeling very hungry and couldn’t be bothered unloading Stevie’s dodgy cooking stuff so James and I ate the remaining Brunchbars and Geobars.
By the time James K had ventured out the tent, the girls had already left. We packed up and got kitted up and left the camp around 10ish. We walked the same way as the girls round a hill following no particular route as the path had run out. We walked into a small valley with a river that looked almost blue in some parts. We rested there and James K. started to make porridge. I wished that I had afterwards but I left it too late. We packed up after our 30mins or so break and set off again.
The path was almost non-existent, it was so thin and would often disappear. It wasn’t a stone path it was mostly mud. We would follow it along the side of a valley that fell steeply down 30metres into a river from the mountains. We walked pasted a large water fall that looked quiet impressive. The ground levelled out more and we entered between the start of two mountains. The path became more defined but it occasionally crossed the river that had to be navigated over.
When we got further into the mountains the going was steady and relaxed. The path had improved greatly and was like the ones we were on the days before. We stopped for lunch around 12pm. We still had a large amount of food left, but we opened another packet of pita bread and cut up a large block of cheese for each of us. We could see the others further up at the top of the bealach. Unknown to us, the they had spent a brief period wondering if they had lost us. They couldn’t see us when they got half-way up the slope and wondered if we had in fact passed them somehow, when actually we were making porridge. Then they saw us eating lunch at the bottom of the slope.
We carried on up the slope which although steep was not very difficult but both James’ found it a bit of a struggle as they weren’t as fit as Andy or me. But eventually we got to the top passing the Turners. It was quite windy and had started to rain lightly for a few minutes. As we walked we passed a man that looked like the kind that would sell the big issue on the street corner. He looked badly prepared with an old jacket, rucksack and was carrying a Somerfield (or any one of the supermarket) bag in his hand. He stopped to say to us, “There is five lovely ladies in a bothy down the hill.” We wondered why he told us this and then we though that the girls group must be further down but there was only four of them but then we realised that Neil was also down there and the man must have mistook him for a woman, which is hard seeing as he in balding but does had man boobs so it must have been him.
As we walked down the other side of the mountain we were starting to see signs of inhabitation, like roads and the occasional house in the distance. The path got better and better. At the same time James S.’s bag became more and more broken, it was now lopsided and the tents would occasionally fall out. Eventually we came to a dirt road. Our feet were sore from walking downhill but Andy and I found it was easier to run down the road then walk but we had to wait for the others and we just started walking again.
We stopped again by a river and bridge and started having our second lunch of porridge for Kroll and Andy had something else and James Smith and I had the last pita bread with chicken and pita bread with chocolate raisins which actually tasted really nice. The Turners saw us eating again at there came the myth that we had around five meals on that walk which isn’t true; it was only three.
We walked by the bothy but didn’t go in, although it looked better then the others we had seen. The road levelled out onto a proper main road with no cars. It ran between forestry commission forests and was very peaceful. By then I had not been to the toilet for three days and was in a bad way but was determined to hold on to Glenfinnan, (it was very uncomfortable by the end but this is the last I will talk of this matter, for your sake).
After half an hours walking we were in view of the Harry Potter Bridge which is what we called it for that trip. From far off it doesn’t look that long but close up it is very high and it made our voices echoed a lot, especially the Kroll mating call.
We kept walking through outlying houses and crofts until we caught sight of Roger who greeted us and told us where to go. We ran the very last section to the vistor centre in Glenfinnan. Waiting was everyone else who had been there for ages before. We rested and filled in a questionnaire for Roger, then waited for the mini bus.
When it came driven by Mrs MacRuary who had spent the weekend shopping, we loaded it up and got in. Roger came up and said we had all passed. We set off home.
The bus smelt terrible because the girls had taken off their boots and socks but all we could do was open the window and just enjoy the seat. Those who could plugged in their MP3 players even though they had very little juice left in the batteries.
At Fort William we bought some food and drinks to keep us going. We set off again, talking in groups and listening to music. Mine packed out 40mins after Fort William irritatingly which meant I had to enter myself by listening to the teachers.
We got to Portree about 8ish and were picked up by our parents and said goodbye to everyone and were transported home.
It was very enjoyable, mainly because of the beautiful scenery and the hot weather. The actual walk was not technically difficult but 10+ miles a day as quite tiring. I was a good experience and counted towards our silver award although the landscape was god level but the time period was only silver award. I seem to have started rating these walks so:
Walk enjoyment= 7/10
Walk difficulty= 5/10
Landscape= 9/10
People involved=7/10
Overall=8/10
Andy's Comment - I was asked to do a presentation of the camping trip from the photos which I mainly took. I did it and handed it in as part of the award. I thought that was it until December when I had to show the presentation to all the DofE participants from all the years, their parents, teachers and other members of the community. I think it went down rather well. Here it is:
Where - Knoydart, Lochaber, Scotland
Who - Andy Smith, John Siwek, James Smith, James Kroll, Alistair Nicholson, Rebecca Niece, Hannah Law, Alice Fraser, Kirsty MacRuary, Susan Turner, Alex Turner, Neil Bennett
Andy's Comment - He's now rating the "people involved"!
Account by John Siwek
The assessed expedition was scheduled to begin on Friday the 8th of September, so during the school term in August we had to plan for it. The planning was an important stage as a) we would be failed if no planning had taken place and b) we wouldn’t know important things like: the route and who was taking what. It was decided that everyone had to take part in the planning no matter what, so inevitably it was mainly me (John) and Andy, often under the knowledgeable gaze of Eilidh. For each day the distance, co-ordinate, bearing, time which included rests and time for travelling up hills, had to be entered on a planning sheet. Each day took around half an hour to plan if you were doing it alone, but it could be anything over that if there were more people “helping”.
Another part of the planning involved deciding what food we would take. On the practice we each took our own food and stove and ate what we wanted when we wanted it. It did mean taking our own stoves each but it also meant that you didn’t have to share food. This time, however, we agreed (mostly) on what to take, mainly flat, easily portable food and sausages. On the Thursday Me, Andy and James Kroll went to the co-op to buy the food with money that everybody had chipped in. The change would be shared out later, (this later is still to come as far as I’m aware.)
8th September 2006 - Day One
On Friday morning we all met up at around 7ish in the school car park with all the equipment. After packing the food as best as possible between us, wondering if sausages was really a good idea and loading up on meths because somebody forgot to fill the bottle, (cough, Stevie, cough), we all piled into the oldest high school minibus. We were driven to Armadale by Mrs MacRuary for the ferry to Mallaig. Once at Armadale we had roughly 30 minutes to re-arrange our bags and sort ourselves.
The day had started out cold but with a pure blue sky and little cloud so promised to be a good day, it had rained heavily for most of the rest of the week. Out to the distance you could just make out the mountains of Knoydart that we would be climbing later. As I stood wondering how to get this section into the write up, I looked at the group around me. Now I will do my own version of the people in this expedition:
The Boys Group
John Siwek (me) - No intro needed, The Gerbil Boy
Andy Smith - No intro needed, The Monkeyman
James Smith - Into strange tacky metal music, sports spiky or Mohican gelled hair, Known to some as the traffic-light or The Carpet-Hair Man. Special skill - “James jokes”
James Kroll - Funny whinny voice, plays bass guitar, annoyingly clever but can be dim, likes to sing badly, likes Injuns a little too much, generally nice guy, - special skill- Kroll mating Call.
Alistair “Stevie” Nicholson - Legend. Irritatingly upbeat about nothing in particular, either smiles stupidly or with a quizzical expression when talked to, not the brightest button in the proverbial box. Problems with blisters. Special skill- asking inappropriate questions without really understanding what he’s saying eg. “is there anything beyond a retard?” said during Graph. Comm.The Girls Group
Rebecca Niece - Tall, manwoman, often hyper or glum, smoker. Ok looking
Hannah Law - Classified
Alice Fraser - Friendly, polite, quite fit. Wants to go to Oxford Not much else to say
Kirsty MacRuary - Very fit, much like Alice appeared to be leader of the team, wants to join RAF.The Teachers
Susan Turner - Canadian, nice, friendly, nervous smile, kinda scruffy, outdoor type.
Alex Turner - English, friendly, fit, all round good guy
Neil “Phil the Lycraman” Bennett - Post-man, Christian, fond of wearing Lycra, open hearted smile, upbeat, easy to get along with.Anyway, on with the expedition.
We boarded the ferry after Andy took some pics. Then we sorted out the bags for a third time this time wondering if we should really have let James K. buy 21 sausages. Next we chatted outside for a while before going down stairs , bypassing some Americans saying “What is the temperature in Sweden like at this time of year?”, and into the main seating area. We handed over our £12 for transport fees, and sat together as the girls filmed their first bit of footage, and ate harrybo mix, (cheers Kirsty).
We came into Mallaig harbour, past the statue of the guy with the little girl and the pistols. We had an hour to spend before we could catch the “Western Isles” which disappointingly was not as rickety, small, or unbalanced as the Rona trip boat but a solid, wooden, vassal which even James S. was relatively happy to board. After an hour of realising that there really was nothing in Mallaig we met the assessor, Roger.
After getting rid of the sausages we boarded the boat. Loading our things on the back we sat down along with all the other passengers.
The sun was quite warm by now and we applied suntan lotion and leant back. After a while Roger Lanyon came over. He looked around mid 60s and needed a hearing aid but he seemed very strong for his age probably from an outdoor life. He went over a few things checking out our knowledge about health and safety matters. He seemed quite happy with us and didn’t really ask very hard questions.
We put on sun cream and enjoyed the view. On the side of a mountain was a white statue of the Virgin Mary (we think). It was a bit like something out of the Lord of the Rings. Roger later said that the area was a catholic area and that there many religious statues and things around.
As we pulled into the harbour at about 11am we could see that Inverie was a very small strip of houses along the shore. Along the harbour were locals and tourists, probably walkers like us, waiting to catch the boat to Mallaig. We climbed out onto to the harbour and walked up the road to the end of the harbour to organize ourselves. After decided that the boys group would go first we took a group photo. We left straight after that travelling up the path, past the most remote pub in Britain, and into the forest.
I was carrying the map but mainly because nobody else would. Andy capture a few photos. We walked along the steady, good conditioned path which went through a cool sun dappled pine forest. In which the best photo in the trip was taken by Andy.
After we exited the forest we had to stop because Stevie was complaining of blisters, which if left would get worse. He applied plasters but it was still very sore to walk but we decided to leave them and decide what to do at lunch a few minutes later. Meanwhile the girls walked past and were under the impression that we were stopping to eat (the cheek, we ate very little on that trip).
When we passed the girls group having lunch we stopped across the river from them where Roger was waiting. As we had our lunch he asked a few question and then we got to the subject of Stevie’s feet. There were two options: 1) He continued with them in the hope they wouldn’t be too bad for the next two day during which any medical extraction was impossible unless it was life threatening. Coping by constant checking and application of plaster and cream. Or 2) Dropping out now when it was only one hour away from civilisation and catching the boat back to Mallaig. We told Stevie that it was totally his decision and we would take his tent and other important equipment. He decided that the best option was to drop out now. He gave me his stove and cooking pots and James S. his tent. James was now carrying both his tent, Stevie’s tent and all his own equipment. Any of us would have take at least half the tent but it wasn’t offered. Roger and Stevie left and we set off again.
We walked down the dirt path into a valley between some Munros, following a river. It was shaded, but the sun was still very warm. Occasionally we would pass through a wood or two. One of them had a stone bothy with large windows on one corner. When we peered inside we could see that it was under renovation to above bothy standard featuring a stove and a upstairs loft. It was locked and a notice said it was owned by the mountaineering club or some organisation like that.
We carried onwards down the path, crossing a bridge to the other side of the river. Andy took a few more pictures and the rest of us started to climb the path that was getting steadily steeper. When we all rounded a corner we saw a very big hill that we were going to be climbing. The map made it look much smaller. Never the less we walked up it. Some of us strode, others walked, and some plodded, as we listened to our mp3 players. Andy and I co-ordinated our music by playing the Afro-celt sound system album at exactly the same time, from time to time some times singing along in a different language, that made James and James confused.
Slowly we made our way up the path that was our steepest climb of the day. James S. was finding it hard as he was the least fit in the group and struggled with hot weather and had to stop often to rest. Although I agree it wasn’t particularly easy I would have been happier if we went at a faster pace and didn’t stop so often. During these stops when ever I had a drink from my Platypus, Andy would try and snatch a suckle from the straw even though he had his own water in his bag but apparently it was difficult to get out. So I usually had to share some of my water with him but it didn’t matter as there was lots of rivers that we could use for water collecting. In the distance we could see the Girls at the top of the bealach (Dip between two mountain tops).
We eventually reached the top of the bealach. Standing at the top we could see how far we had come and how far we had to go. The view was spectacular.
After a short break we journeyed down the other side. The path became small and twisting. James K. and Andy were in front and James S. And Me were a little further behind. We could see a flat plain at the bottom and twisting river that we would have to cross. At the base of the hill we came to a heavily over grown part where the path disappeared. We forced and fell our way to a ruined farm. There we took a group photo which was harder then expected due to a coil of wire.
We got to the bridge, next to which a man was fishing with a quad park near by, clearly he took the easy way. The bridge its self was a few planks of wood on a couple of rusty wires. There was a sign next to it “This Bridge is dangerous and should be use at own risk.” That made us feel much better. It was actually ok and nobody died crossing it.
There was the option of walking by the shore or shortcut across the grass. We foolishly took the second option. The grass plain turned out to be a huge bog that we splashed and soaked our way through to the other side. During a rest we had a very weird conversation about if you could fuel a stove on farts. We wondered if it was flammable enough and how we would collect it. After much talk it was decided just to use normal fuel.
It turned out that we had got there too later (around 4:30pm) to get to the campsite by coast as the tide covered up the path. We instead had to climb up a hill and come up and then down to it. It was tiring and we slipped a few times. At last we reached the campsite and collapsed next to where the girls were. They had already pitched tent and were cooking. James S. and Andy pitched tents while James K. and I made dinner, stir-fry. It soon came apparent that I was a crap cook seeing as I didn’t know what to do only having made stir-fry once in 3rd year. The noodles were cold by the time we had located some oil to cook the vegetables. We found some in the bothy nearby. Altogether it was cold, tasteless and unsatisfying.
The teachers arrived and set up camp 200 feet away, enough for us to survive on our own but near enough encase an insane sheep gored us in the night. The evening was spent by playing family cards, or whatever their called. It got just too dark by 8pm so Alice, Hannah, Rebecca and James S. went to bed. Andy, James, Kirsty and Me stayed up talking and watching the stars in the moonlight. After a while it got too cold so we went to bed. The girls had one four man tent, Andy shared with James S.’s two man tent (with weird ventilation) and James K. and I shared Stevie’s three man tent.
9th September 2006 - Day Two
We woke around 9am after a relatively cold night. The girls had been up for a while earlier and were already having breakfast. We ate our breakfast of bread and cereal bars. We slowly packed everything up, James K. for some reason decided to pack inside Stevie’s tent which meant that we couldn’t take down the tent with him inside it. The girls left about 20 minutes before us.
Stoking up on water and applying sun tan lotion - it was a clear very bright hot day- we set off up the valley. It was overgrown and boggy at the bottom which made locating the path difficult. After a quick chat with the teachers we soon headed up the path. It had down graded from a solid, dry path to a stone/mud path.
During a rest, while the man clad in Lycra walked past, we saw a strange white creature in the distance at the bottom of the valley. It was white so could easily have been a sheep but its tail was long and its shoulder blades were to prominent. We thought it could have been a large cat but Neil said it was just an messy sheep so the mystery of the animal was solved.
The path carried on up, winding between the hills and boulders. It followed a river but crossed it at a shady wooden bridge. A quick pause to drink and take a few snaps and then we were back off again.
The path became quite steep and after a few hours began to level off at the top of the bealach. The path split off and we ended up taking a path that went off a cliff and into a river that we were supposed to cross, so we had to backtrack and cross it lower down.
By around 12am we had reached one of the highest points on that days route. We breaked again and Susan and Alex Turner caught up with us. We talked for a short while. Then we continued crossing the river again a few times, Until we reached the lochs. From then on the path basically disintegrated into mud.
By then we had fallen into a good system of walking. Walk for around 20+ minutes then rest of 5mins. The temperature was getting really hot, but we still had a lot of juice left in our non specific MP3 players to pass the time.
We were walking in between the mountains but we left them and the path passed on one side of the valley and widened out.
We stopped for lunch at the other highest point of that day. Lunch was pita bread with peppered salami that was actually really nice. We had two slices and one packet of salami each. I went to refill my platypus and I heard some weird shouting in the distance. Went I got back Kroll said he heard it as well but we thought nothing of it so if somebody had fallen and broken their legs and were shouting for help we ignored them.
The path was still bad but not as bad as before. There were quite a few rivers which we had to cross but they were clean and it was possible to drink from.
By around 4pm we could see a proper road in the distance so decided to take another rest. There was a large flat rock beside the path we collapsed on it. It was very pleasant just lying on our backs looking at the clouds. It was a good moment, four friends in the wilderness on a hot day. By two days in you could start to relax and not be bothered by when we had to be someplace, you are no longer affected by the modern world only by what is around you. It is all very simple, walk, eat, sleep. (That all sounds a little Ray Mearsesque)
After a while we continued on. The path curved downwards towards the start of long dirt road. James S.’ rucksack that had been causing him problems for the last 15 miles or so, perhaps due to the weight of two tents, broke. It was fairly small tare in one of the straps that supported the weight of the bag. We were about as far from anybody who could fix it as possible so James S. had to put up with it.
As we walked, our process was impeded by some highland cows that were lounging in the sun. They appeared very docile and we walked around them although extra care was taken near the bull.
Above us was a huge house that looked very new and only half completed. We decided that it was probably a private kind of lodge but it seemed to be in use and that it would be nice to own a house like that in this kind of place.
We slowly rounded the bend and saw the camping spot about half a mile away. We walked down the road past the farm. We walked past the teachers who were camping next to a broken down bridge.
When we got to the place the girls were camping, at about 5pm, we realised that we had to cross the wide shin deep river. So James S. powered through and the rest followed. When we got to the other side the girls said that they took off there shoes first, which in hindsight would probably have been a good idea.
We put up the tents and me and James K. made pasta which I didn’t muck up. Stevie’s tranga was working really slowly so James S. had a nice hot meal but mine was quite cold.
Roger came to meet us around 6pm, he inspected our camp and asked if we had any trouble that day. Then he left.
We watched a microlite take off from the farm and circle above us and then fly off. We also sighted a stag in the distance but it ran off. We then sat on some sleeping mats and talked but it got cold after a while and then moved into Stevie’s tent. That became very cramped and quite boring. We tried playing Family Cards again but it wasn’t very fun. Andy left to good for a walk and soon after Hannah left as well. The girls stretched out leaving very little room left for the rest of us. To be honest sitting in a tent with three girls wasn’t as fun as you’d think, they didn’t talk of anything particularly interesting. Although they did start to bitch about how Hannah was being annoying.
After a while it got dark and we decided to go to bed. I had to share with James S. in his tent with its weird ventilation system where condensation would form on the inside of the roof and drip onto your face.
Andy was meant to be sleeping with James K. but we hadn’t seen him for over an hour and he hadn’t told us where he was going so we decided that if he didn’t return after and hour or so we would go and look for him and tell the teachers. Luckily he returned 5mins later and laughed at your idea of looking for him.
With that we collapsed into sleeping bags at the end on day two.
10th September 2006 - Day Three
It had been a cold night and I woke about 8.30 by some drops of condensation falling on my head from the stupid ventilation system of James S.’ tent.. He woke a little while later and we talked quietly until the shout from Kirsty “O My God. There is a wild Boar in our camp. Get the Camera”. James and I shoved our head out the door just in time to see a boar run about 15metres away across the river. Andy and James K were too slow and went back into the tent.
As we were up we packed up our sleeping stuff and I changed into my clean trousers and some nice dry waterproof socks that wouldn’t soak up the gallons of water still in my boot. There weren’t many midges about as I went for a short walk to stretch my legs. It was quiet dull and cloudy and rain threatened to fall some time that day, not a good idea as we had enjoyed two whole days of sun . I wasn’t feeling very hungry and couldn’t be bothered unloading Stevie’s dodgy cooking stuff so James and I ate the remaining Brunchbars and Geobars.
By the time James K had ventured out the tent, the girls had already left. We packed up and got kitted up and left the camp around 10ish. We walked the same way as the girls round a hill following no particular route as the path had run out. We walked into a small valley with a river that looked almost blue in some parts. We rested there and James K. started to make porridge. I wished that I had afterwards but I left it too late. We packed up after our 30mins or so break and set off again.
The path was almost non-existent, it was so thin and would often disappear. It wasn’t a stone path it was mostly mud. We would follow it along the side of a valley that fell steeply down 30metres into a river from the mountains. We walked pasted a large water fall that looked quiet impressive. The ground levelled out more and we entered between the start of two mountains. The path became more defined but it occasionally crossed the river that had to be navigated over.
When we got further into the mountains the going was steady and relaxed. The path had improved greatly and was like the ones we were on the days before. We stopped for lunch around 12pm. We still had a large amount of food left, but we opened another packet of pita bread and cut up a large block of cheese for each of us. We could see the others further up at the top of the bealach. Unknown to us, the they had spent a brief period wondering if they had lost us. They couldn’t see us when they got half-way up the slope and wondered if we had in fact passed them somehow, when actually we were making porridge. Then they saw us eating lunch at the bottom of the slope.
We carried on up the slope which although steep was not very difficult but both James’ found it a bit of a struggle as they weren’t as fit as Andy or me. But eventually we got to the top passing the Turners. It was quite windy and had started to rain lightly for a few minutes. As we walked we passed a man that looked like the kind that would sell the big issue on the street corner. He looked badly prepared with an old jacket, rucksack and was carrying a Somerfield (or any one of the supermarket) bag in his hand. He stopped to say to us, “There is five lovely ladies in a bothy down the hill.” We wondered why he told us this and then we though that the girls group must be further down but there was only four of them but then we realised that Neil was also down there and the man must have mistook him for a woman, which is hard seeing as he in balding but does had man boobs so it must have been him.
As we walked down the other side of the mountain we were starting to see signs of inhabitation, like roads and the occasional house in the distance. The path got better and better. At the same time James S.’s bag became more and more broken, it was now lopsided and the tents would occasionally fall out. Eventually we came to a dirt road. Our feet were sore from walking downhill but Andy and I found it was easier to run down the road then walk but we had to wait for the others and we just started walking again.
We stopped again by a river and bridge and started having our second lunch of porridge for Kroll and Andy had something else and James Smith and I had the last pita bread with chicken and pita bread with chocolate raisins which actually tasted really nice. The Turners saw us eating again at there came the myth that we had around five meals on that walk which isn’t true; it was only three.
We walked by the bothy but didn’t go in, although it looked better then the others we had seen. The road levelled out onto a proper main road with no cars. It ran between forestry commission forests and was very peaceful. By then I had not been to the toilet for three days and was in a bad way but was determined to hold on to Glenfinnan, (it was very uncomfortable by the end but this is the last I will talk of this matter, for your sake).
After half an hours walking we were in view of the Harry Potter Bridge which is what we called it for that trip. From far off it doesn’t look that long but close up it is very high and it made our voices echoed a lot, especially the Kroll mating call.
We kept walking through outlying houses and crofts until we caught sight of Roger who greeted us and told us where to go. We ran the very last section to the vistor centre in Glenfinnan. Waiting was everyone else who had been there for ages before. We rested and filled in a questionnaire for Roger, then waited for the mini bus.
When it came driven by Mrs MacRuary who had spent the weekend shopping, we loaded it up and got in. Roger came up and said we had all passed. We set off home.
The bus smelt terrible because the girls had taken off their boots and socks but all we could do was open the window and just enjoy the seat. Those who could plugged in their MP3 players even though they had very little juice left in the batteries.
At Fort William we bought some food and drinks to keep us going. We set off again, talking in groups and listening to music. Mine packed out 40mins after Fort William irritatingly which meant I had to enter myself by listening to the teachers.
We got to Portree about 8ish and were picked up by our parents and said goodbye to everyone and were transported home.
It was very enjoyable, mainly because of the beautiful scenery and the hot weather. The actual walk was not technically difficult but 10+ miles a day as quite tiring. I was a good experience and counted towards our silver award although the landscape was god level but the time period was only silver award. I seem to have started rating these walks so:
Walk enjoyment= 7/10
Walk difficulty= 5/10
Landscape= 9/10
People involved=7/10
Overall=8/10
Andy's Comment - I was asked to do a presentation of the camping trip from the photos which I mainly took. I did it and handed it in as part of the award. I thought that was it until December when I had to show the presentation to all the DofE participants from all the years, their parents, teachers and other members of the community. I think it went down rather well. Here it is: