Today I started to walk the Great Glen Way. The way is 112 km long (from Fort William to Inverness) and I plan to walk it in 6 stages. First stage is from Fort William to Gaitlochy and is 18 km. The hike was very easy, no uphill/downhill walk and even if in the Internet people say that is the most boring one, I didn’t find it that way. It was quite nice.
I tried to find more information about the walk, how the paths are and how hard is it. I couldn’t find much information, so I am writing this hiking-diary.
The first stage is the easiest one. And this is the sign that you will start the walk:
Because the backpack is a bit too heavy (clothes for one month, backup shoes and food for 2-3 days), the walk was in the end a bit harder than with a light backpack. And my boots are new, I had to buy one pair in Fort William, 3 days ago, because the ones that I had were not that waterproof as I expected. Starting a long hike is not a good idea with new shoes, but I am experimenting a trick that I heard about some time ago and I will write the results at the end of the walk, in about 6 days. It’s about using KT Tape, more details will follow soon.
The walk from Fort William to Inverlochy had a flood blockage, so I had to reroute the walk through the town.
The walk continued over the solders bridge:
After about 20 minutes of walk, there is a grocery store that has coffee and bakery items. This is the last grocery store that I saw today. It’s in Caol:
The walk in this area is really nice, there are some mountain views worth seeing:
After some minutes of walk besides the water there’s the Neptune’s Stairs in Banavie. Here is also the last Cafe that I saw today and is actually a good idea to stop for a coffee and toilets.
The walk continues along the Caledonian Canal on an asphalt street for the next 11 km.
Some photos taken along the walk:
I saw around 10 people today walking the Great Glen Way, so it’s popular enough to not feel lonely. But is not as popular and crowded as The West Highland Way. Which is good.
The weather changed every 30 minutes, between sunny and torrential rain. For the walk I needed about 4 hours, this including coffee stops, and that’s because the checkin at the accommodation was starting with 16:00. And I arrived anyway earlier, at 14:30, walking very slow.
I had no issues with the midgets, but I used the spray as a prevention anyway.
Here is the Elevation profile of the walk:
The last uphill walk was to reach the accommodation, it was not part of the official walk.