Success in Failure:
The Great Glen Way solo and unsupported
 
It had been a long time since my last night in a bivi bag – too long, and so I began concocting ideas of how to get some use out of the overpriced body-bag in a solo situation without pushing it too much… So I decided to try and do the whole Great Glen Way solo and unsupported in just three days… Some people would, and did, call me stupid.
 
But the idea behind this decision was that my house was right at the end (or start) of the Great Glen Way below Inverness Castle and it requires very little worry about navigation for anyone who goes into the hills fairly regularly. The excitement, I hoped, would come from the pressure of being totally self-dependent and trying to achieve the route in a short period of time. Before I even knew what I was thinking the planning was well underway.
 
To be honest, the planning and training didn’t take long – mostly because I didn’t really do… Well… Any! I already knew the route from driving up and down the Great Glen to various mountains over the years and I was already reasonably fit from climbing and walking. The idea really was to just go, find out how fit I was with a heavy rucksack, and then see if I wanted to bother with this ‘long distance’ stuff again in the future. Harvey’s Maps have the route down as being 71 miles and a three to five day route. Technically it should be more than do-able in three days, but I was also doing it in short daylight hours whilst carrying all of my gear.
 
So, with that in mind the date was set for the week of the 25th October 2009. This was partly because it was one of the only weeks I could get holidays from work, but also because it would hopefully be cold enough to challenge me a bit in terms of the actual bivouacking, but also late enough for there to be no, or relatively few, midgies and ticks lurking around. The only problem, however, was that I had a Diabetes check up on the 28th which I didn’t really want to lapse, so the pressure was on to do the route in a short time frame – perfect!
 
The journey started with a lift from my colleague Jon and his girlfriend Debbie (Many, many thanks for that!) and, as we drove down from Inverness, I watched with horror as the sky seemed to become darker grey the further down the glen we went. As soon as we arrived at the train station in Fort William, it was a quick goodbye and I was off – quickly wishing my bag was even a few grams lighter! Unfortunately, however, it was already about midday and so, the first day was going to be a push to see how far I could get before having to set up for the night. Of course it didn’t help that it’s properly dark by about 4.30/5pm in October in the Highlands.
 
I sincerely enjoyed the opening stretch of the route past the battle site of Inverlochy and the old castle and past Banavie railway station and Neptune’s Staircase – a place I hadn’t seen since being on holiday there when I was fairly young. But as soon as I was onto the Caledonian Canal, the light was fading and I began to feel that almost tangible feeling of loneliness that always takes a while to re-adjust to on mountain and walking trips.
 
With just one short break for a cup of tea on my ultra fast – but heavy - MSR Dragonfly stove (which I was also trying out properly for the first time since fixing it up from parts) and a quick look at the Sheangain Aqueduct, I was moving fairly fast towards the head of Loch Lochy before the light really began to disappear. I then decided to have my evening meal at around 4.30pm after walking by headtorch for what seemed like quite a long way through the forest near Gairlochy.
 
After a meal by the Loch-side I decided to get the bivi bag out and finish for the day, feeling pleased with my effort so far and with thoughts of getting to Fort Augustus by dinner time the next day. I had walked about 12 miles in about 4-5 hours with a heavy rucksack that, to be honest, was taking a while to get used to – not too bad at all by my reckoning, and there wasn’t even a hint of a hypo!
 
The following morning, after a reasonable night, I woke up early, had breakfast and freed a trapped trout before walking along and seeing ‘No Camping’ signs that weren’t at all obvious the previous evening – does a bivi bag count as camping?! I think not and I didn’t leave any trace so hopefully that was OK, especially as it was on Cameron of Lochiel’s lands I think!
 
I was soon marching past Achnacarry, a place of true legend for Scottish Historians like myself, and this inspired my spirits as I was feeling the strain walking along horrid tarmac right at the beginning of what I knew would be my longest day. To the south I also had a beautiful view of Ben Nevis through the morning mist and this spurred me on to just keep trudging. However, after Clunes boredom set in as the path went straight, and I mean straight through viewless forest until I finally reached the starting point for the only two Munro’s (mountains over 3,000ft/914m) in the Great Glen. I stumbled into Kilfinnan and removed the rucksack for the umpteenth time that day to take a break and take in the much needed view across the loch and back down the Glen. With my spirits raised again I trudged onwards and across the main road to have lunch at the head of Loch Oich.
 
It was at this point that I found myself eating, not so much because I was low or felt I needed energy, but to reduce the food-weight my overly precautious habits had made me pack. This was definitely a good thing as my Diabetes was not causing me any trouble at all. The afternoon was spent making as much distance as I could whilst battling fatigue as I made it around Loch Oich and onto the day’s ‘home-straight’ of the canal section between Oich Bridge and Fort Augustus. However, once again time was getting on and light was beginning to fade as I almost collapsed into Fort Augustus.
 
It was time to make a decision – stay true to the unsupported nature of the game, or go for a pint of Diet Pepsi to revitalise my, now dragging, spirits… I opted for the latter and spent an interesting hour in the pub with a nice family of Scousers who were utterly amazed at what I was doing and managed to evoke so much interest that I left the pub to a hero’s send off – utterly bizarre, but it did wonders for my energy! Because of the rest I decided I wasn’t allowed to stop too early and marched out of Fort Augustus back into forest, guided only by my headtorch for a couple of hours before I found a nice spot overlooking Loch Ness to spend the night.
 
Having said that, the spot turned out to be a nightmare as it poured with rain and got very cold, waking me up constantly during the night and soaking my supposedly well covered kit. Good learning point – avoid Forestry Commission track drainage ways for bivis! I woke up feeling awful and considered my options very seriously. This was no longer fun and I felt like I wasn’t going to enjoy the long trudge to Drumnadrochit through almost constant forest in pouring rain.
 
As I set off, the aches and pains, amplified by the cold and wet, began to just annoy me and when I finally made it to Invermoriston a massive blister had developed on my ‘compeed-less’ right heel and I was starting to think more and more of the appointment the next day and whether I would even make it back in time. It was then that I made the call – the one I had been dreading making – for a lift back to Inverness. I felt like an utter failure and wished I hadn’t bothered and had done something more fun with my holiday…
 
But that wasn’t the right attitude at all – what I had done was prove everything I wanted to prove and had learned some fairly obvious lessons along the way (i.e. always carry compeed), but I had also been within my time limits – three days was certainly not out of the question when I decided to call it quits after, really, only a day and half of walking and 41 miles completed. Although I had failed to complete the whole route, I had succeeded in far more things, such as controlling my diabetes, being (virtually) completely independent, keeping up a high distance-time ratio and making use of gear that I’d been looking at in my cupboard for months!
 
Also, the fact that I was so frustrated at myself when I was making the call for a lift proved something fairly special – that I felt I could do it and had the drive to want to do it, yet also had the sense to call it quits before the whole escapade became a total bore. And if anyone wants to try 41 miles in a day and a half with the same weight of kit and no training, feel free… I think I’ll leave it for a bit and enjoy the good memories of a very silly challenge…