Day 59 - Kinlochleven to Fort William
That was the most uncomfortable night's sleep I've had : the mattress felt really hard so as I ended up being the only one in my dorm, I nicked one of the other duvets and slept on that. Then, in the middle of the night I had a huge cramp attack in my right leg....what else is going to happen!? No porridge or full Scottish breakfast this morning unfortunately, just 3/4 of a malt loaf and a banana, washed down with 2 cups of tea without any sugar. After yesterday, a fine day was in prospect (to be honest I've been really lucky with the weather and only had about 6 days of rain so far). There was a waterfall nearby called Gray Mare that had been named by one of the Kings although I forget which one. Only a small detour but it was really pretty albeit you could only see from the side on and there was a tree in the way of the view if I was being really critical!
Once again my right knee gave out just after setting out so unsure if this is going to be the norm from now on. At least it doesn't appear to give me any problems afterwards which is a good thing but parts of me are starting to really show the stresses and strains of this amazing journey.
After following the road out of Kinlochleven, the trail headed up through the woods and once out on the open hillside gave some terrific views back to the village and down the valley and the loch. I then dropped down to run (for once the surface wasn't too bad underfoot) in the valley on an undulating track flanked with massive craggy mountains (most of these are munros which is the name for hills over a certain height). There were quite a few hikers on the trail today and as I pass them I tend to walk and chat with them for a bit as it's a good way of 'publicising' what I'm doing and sometimes ends up with a donation. This exercise again worked today as I accumulated another £20 towards the fundraising.
The trail was eventually supposed to go into a few pine forests but yet again, drastic clearance had and indeed was in the process of happening and there was little of the trees left other than the occasional lonesome pine making a heroic stand! The pass I'd just run though had been famous for being where the Campbells had defeated the MacDonalds (at least I think it was that way round) and then pursued them in their retreat. A cairn marked the spot where the Campbells had given up the chase and in honour of that, every time a MacDonald passes the cairn they add a stone, and a Campbell would remove one.
Ben Nevis suddenly came into view but unfortunately the top was covered in low cloud. The trail then rose and dropped quite steeply through very thick pine forests before a diversion had me literally sliding down a muddy path and suddenly out into glorious sunshine. There was a side path leading to the reamis of a fort but rather than visit that, I wanted to get a really good view of the mountain! It didn't disappoint and just as I reached it, the cloud cover on the top lifted....fantastic!
It was then a lovely drop down to a forest track before reaching the minor road running through Glen Nevis. The YH is actually right at the foot of Ben Nevis and following the view I had of Loch Lomond several days ago, I've now got the view of the mountain straight out of my bedroom window - how cool is that? I had a lovely postcard from Debs waiting for me : it shows views of Bournemouth beach including joggers running along the beach, just to remind me of the BJs back home!
My shoes now pong after the soaking they got yesterday from the rain and the bog water so they've been consigned to the drying room and I've also been wandering round the YH in my pj's as I've taken the opportunity to wash and dry all my other clothes! When I arrived, one of the runners from the WHW race recognised me and hopefully I'll meet up with him and his support crew this evening down the local eating house...ie the pub! Have some good stories to share.

Mileage 14.5 Time 3.41