Day 61 - Fort William to South Laggan
Woke to rain this morning and the forecast for the whole day wasn't looking too great either. Had to finish the last 2 miles of the WHW with a run down the valley road into Fort William where I had the obligatory photo next to the finish sign. The plan was to get to Neptunes Staircase before 10.20 in order to catch the Jacobite train going past - thought that would make a good photo, but once I started out on the Great Glen Way, it was clear that I wasn't going to make it so instead waited for it to pass underneath Ben Nevis. Initially I was going to take a short-cut along the A830 but decided that as I hadn't officially finished the PW nor started from the beginning of the WHW, I was going to follow the GGW all the way from the start to the finish. My day's mileage was planned at around 22 but the GGW took me all around a housing estate (where garden gnomes and ornaments seemed to out number people by around 50:1) and it was a full hour before I actually got to the start of the Caledonian Canal.
The Round Britain speedboat race was in progress and I only found out this morning that they were all due to travel along the canal to Inverness : unfortunately they'd already gone through the Staircase first thing in the morning which was disappointing as I would have liked to have seen that, but I've since found out that only a handful go via the water - most are hauled overland on trailers.
Neptune's Staircase is yet another piece of engineering by that Telford guy : it's a series of 8 locks that raise or lower boats 19.5 metres over a distance of just 1/4 mile and takes around 1 3/4 hours to get from the lower to top lock.
My route was following the Caledonian Canal for the first 9-10 miles and this time, the canal running wasn't so boring. I met quite a few hikers along the way and there were 4 fishing boats leaving the top lock just as I ran past. Unfortunately they were going at the same pace as me so rather than hear the 'chug chug' of their engines I stopped for a while to let them pass and get out of sight before setting off again. The craggy top of Ben Nevis was under low cloud unfortunately but you could still get a sense of the height.
At Gairlochy I crossed the lock bridge and after initially climbing via a lane, the route then continued through pine woodland and then fell down to the shores of Loch Lochy (really imaginative name! In English this would be Lake Lakey!). After initially running through dense pine forest with great views over to the other side of the loch, the heavens opened and the mist came down which totally obscured all views. Waterproofs went back on and stayed on for the rest of the day. Midges were everywhere so I plastered up with Avon Skin So Soft (everyone swears by it as the #1 repellent). I was merrily running along the track when a fairy directed me into a woodland glen on my right. The whole place was full of fairies,gnomes, teddies and all sorts of weird and wonderful creatures. Apparently a woman had left a present for the fairies on behalf of her daughter a year ago and now people add to the collection and it continues to grow. There were trees covered in baubles, fairies, candles, tinsel, pipe cleaner spiders, bears and even a CD tree with a guitar underneath. How fanstatic that something like this exists without having been trashed and it really was wonderful to walk through. The next couple of miles were on a very quiet lane, still following the edge of the loch and down to Clunes where it diverted back into thick pine forests : first Clunes Forest and then South Laggan Forest. Two more red deer sightings and it was difficult to know who was more interested in watching who. The mozzie stuff really works as my legs were plastered with the little blighters albeit they were stuck to my defense repellent and quickly killed off.
The forest tracks were lovely to run along : undulating but wide and sandy. Occasionally the trees on the right disappeared to give misty views down and over the loch. The pine forests themselves were immense with huge tall trees, I guess at over 75' tall and the steep hillside floor was completely covered with moss and fern - doesn't appear much natural daylight gets through the canopy. There were also loads of waterfalls and streams running down the hillsides.
Eventually I emerged out of the woods at Kilfinnan, site of an old graveyard where the clans used to bury their dead and then crossed the end of the loch at Laggan Lochs. There were 4 motorcruisers in the loch and they 'dared' that I couldn't beat the first boat to where the GGW met the road...a challenge I couldn't turn down! It was only a mile and the first two boats had quite a start on me. The route was slightly uphill but through some lovely woods and on reaching the road I was the victor! They all waved congratulations but I kicked myself afterwards as I'd missed a golden opportunity whilst they were in the loch for some fundraising - I could have charged them an exit fee!
Laggan is famous for being the location where much of 'Monarch of the Glen' was filmed although it was difficult to see any of the places in the driving rain!
Another really long day but I loved it...even in the rain! And to top it all another milestone passed.....I have now run through the 1000 mile point, amazing!
Mileage 27.13 and time 5.23