Day 96 Wild camping at Inveroran

We left the Ben Doran hotel after a rather average breakfast and returned to the trail. We walked about half a mile before the trail took us back to the main road only a hundred yards or so from the hotel. That’s what happens if you don’t bother looking at the map.

The WHW suggests a long day today for its walkers. We ignored this and divided the day into two. We would walk to Inveroran today and wild camp on the bank of a river a few hundred metres past the hotel where our bag was being delivered. Because of this the day was only about nine miles long. The weather forecast was dismal-rain on and off all morning and heavy rain until four. We weren’t quite sure how that would pan out for us.

We walked along the river valley along the old military road with our waterproofs on as the rain kept coming and going. The military roads were built after the 1715 uprising to ensure that the army could reach any further Scottish uprisings quickly. We paralleled the main road and the railway line sometimes closer, sometimes farther away, as far as Bridge of Orchy where we took the subway under the railway line. We crossed the road and climbed up through a forest over the spur of a hill. We could see the hotel in the distance but there was quite a slippery rocky descent before we got to it.

We arrived at the hotel about 1.30 only to find that our bag hadn’t arrived so we had no choice but to order lunch at the bar (haggis, neeps and tatties for me, roast beef sandwich for Matt). The hotel was lovely. I had tried to book dinner there only to be told that they were full but Nadia, the owner, said she would fit us in if we wanted it and did we want breakfast? We decided against dinner but for breakfast.

Just before our bag arrived Katriona and Sam entered the bar on their way to Kingshouse (a nineteen mile day) so we chatted to them, then realised we had better get the tents up as the rain was just starting. We walked down the road and crossed the bridge over the river where there was a lot of flat ground to pitch tents.

We got the tents up just before the rain started and spent the next couple of hours cosily, reading in our tents. After the rain stopped we walked to the hotel for a drink before returning to cook dinner. My dinner was my lunchtime sandwich and Matthew’s was a dehydrated meal. After dinner, some other campers, who arrived by car with a load of logs, suggested we might want to make use of their campfire as they were leaving. We stood and chatted to several other people (a man from Cork who now lives in Cambridge, and two students) until it started to get dark when we retreated to our respective tents.

I took almost no photos today because of the rain, which is why there are almost none.