Day 7) Kingshouse to Kinlochleven, West Highland Way
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The track leaving Kingshouse provides this iconic shot of the Great Herdsman of Etive.
View over towards Glencoe from the "Devil's Staircase" (the moderate slope of which wholly fails to live up to its foreboding name!). Still, clouds wisp around the peaks and lend an air of excitement.
The track of the Devil's Staircase switches back and forth below.
The top of the Devil's Staircase and the highest point of the Way. Here Glencoe recedes behind us.
Views from the highest point are dramatic. Valley after valley intercut with grey and blue silhouettes of mountains. One can see the Mamores, and even as far as Ben Nevis!
The dreaded midges were not as bad this morning, though they were still present in smaller swarms both inside and outside the tent mesh! Pre-emptively, therefore, we efficiently packed most of our gear inside the tent before going out to take down the tent itself. It actually turned out that the midge situation outside was quite bearable! We left at 9:30am, our earliest leaving day and encountered many hikers on this understandably popular stretch. We headed over towards the military road on the Northern flank of the valley, creating a changing perspective on the Great Herdsman of Etive and its surrounding glens. The weather would remain excellent for almost all of this day, sunny with some brief cloudy spells, usually with a breeze in the higher, more exposed places. The path turns right, away from the road, up towards The Devil’s Staircase, a series of switchbacks which mount the col between Sron Gharbh and Beinn a’ Chrulaiste, two nearly-Munros lying between Glencoe and Kinlochleven. The naming bestowed upon this pass, “Devil’s Staircase”, belies its actual nature and we found the moderately inclined, stony paths fairly easy going. Once again, we bumped into the group we encountered on day one, who had sprayed us with Avon Skin-So-Soft while extolling its supposed midge-repellant properties (we remain sceptical, though will try it on a future adventure). This time however, they were looking fit and tanned! As we ascend the pass, we gain dramatic views over the surrounding mountains of Glencoe, with wispy clouds playing on the peaks, lending a dramatic feeling of altitude. Several cairns adorn the col, and we pick our way through the heather to a somewhat higher vantage point away from the path to enjoy a snack and the incredible views North to the Mamores. We attempt to spot Ben Nevis in the silhouetted ranges layered in shades of grey and blue behind one another, and realise that it is possible to simultaneously see over about seven distant valleys. We dawdled until the small stream of hikers had moved on and then we continued down the rocky military path into the forested valley of Kinlochleven. The trail here takes a while to work itself down into the valley, with the most noteworthy feature being the large “gravity dam” hydroelectric scheme built into the mountain side. Thirteen kilometres of pipes carry water from a reservoir somewhere unseen above, down into the valley to generate power, formerly for an aluminium processing plant in Kinlochleven, but nowadays for Lochaber Smelter in Fort William. The downward path here is moderately steep, and it surprised us to see 4-wheel drives bouncing up and down it to service the hydro facility. Once at the bottom, we sat astride the giant pipes, happy to be near our goal for the day, despite this being our shortest day; it was a mere quick hop from one valley to the next, arriving at 2:30pm.
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Blackwater hostel and campsite is excellent, and well kept. It's the first thing you bump into in Kinlochleven.
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Clothes lines and picnic tables provided along with all the usual facilities.
All that walking and still friendly towards each other. Surprised? So are we.
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Always good to get a chance to dry your wet clothes - and a blustery, sunny day is perfect.
Grey Mares Tail waterfall is worth a visit if you've got the energy in the evening. You can have some fun scrambling across the river to get to it.
Kinlochleven is home to two campsites, and we had considered going on into the town to find the MacDonald Hotel campsite. It was not to be however, as Blackwater hostel and campsite is nearly irresistible, being as it is directly adjacent to the pass on emerging from the hills, literally 25 metres away from the hydroelectric works at the bottom. This is a lovely site overall, and for £5 per person there are showers, a drying room, and a pleasant strip of grass which seems to be miraculously devoid of midges. For sheer pleasantness, relief and facilities, this was our favourite stop over so far. We pitched out tent, and cooked pasta meals with sausage out on the supplied picnic bench whilst basking in the afternoon sun. We took a food inventory at this point, and admittedly, headed out to the supermarket to stock up, annihilating our chances of claiming an entirely “unsupported” trip! Leaving the campsite, we crossed the hydroelectric outflow to the river, and stare in fascination at the incredibly fast-moving water! Ice Factor, the world’s biggest indoor ice climbing wall also crops up on the left a minute later – we should have had to foresight to have booked ourselves in for a climb as part of this trip! With some time on our hands, we explored Grey Mares Tail Waterfall, where there is some fun to be had scrambling over the river and round the base of the rocks to get to the base of the waterfall itself. The falls occupy a high cylindrical gorge, with whole fallen trees cluttering the bottom of it. A friendly chap from Largs popped over for a chat after nimbly making his way round the rocky crucible – he’d done the Way, and a few other national trails before – even so, we impressed him with our camping-all-the-way-no-sissy-luggage-carrying-services-for-us philosophy! Hungry now, we headed for a chippie, in what was to prove an unexpected downturn to the fortunes of the day. King rib suppers are our favourite greasy dish, but this Scottish delicacy has to be done right – and Kinlochleven, isolated by mountains as it is, does not do it right! After a staggeringly poor quality meal which did not in the least leave us feeling satisfied, Jo vomited at the slightest provocation from Alan. Upon our return to the campsite, we find a Hilleberg Nallo 2 parked opposite ours – well, you may have an adventurer’s tent mate, but since you’re using the baggage carrying service, you’re a great adventuring sissy! We made use of the site facilities to fully dry our clothes and indulge in gorgeous high-pressure showers. Despite the sub-standard chippie, we feel great and are excited for the crossing into Glen Nevis tomorrow.
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