How to hike the West Highland Way
How I did it: My sister and I decided to do this as a New Year Resolution and a fundraiser for a local charity, so that gave us some incentive to get it organised straight away. Due to time/money constraints we chose to do it in 5 days over the May Public Holiday. May was a good time to do it because there aren't any midges and the weather is decent - for us, it was sunny with showers (some quite heavy) but very little wind and it was fairly warm. The public holiday meant that the walk was busy, which is OK as long as you've booked as early as possible for accommodation. There were lots of people to meet on the way, and in the pub at the end of the day. It was tough going but the experience was well worth it. Its funny how a stoney track that you wouldn't think twice about strolling along on a sunday afternoon can eventually feel like hell after 4 days of your ankles painfully wobbling over all the wee rocks. It would have been nice to climb Ben Nevis at the end, but by that time I could barely climb into my bunkbed, let alone anything else!! We made some great friends though, and have lots of stories from our 5 days out in the glens. Can't wait to do some more walking around Scotland!!
Lessons & tips: I wouldn't have been able to do this walk without my walking poles, they were like a helping hand to aid me crossing streams and climbing steep parts of the walk. Other essentials are tubi-grips, compeed (put on before you leave, don't leave it till you get a blister) and painkillers. I don't usually take painkillers unless a headache refuses to pass so I didn't think to take any till the last day when I was really struggling, even then it was at my sisters insistence.. she'd been popping them all the way unbeknown to me.. when I did take a couple it was like a new lease of life! Unfortunately, I took the last 2 which meant they wore off a couple of miles away from Fort William and I had to hobble my way to the end. Advice I got from other people was to take glucosamine-sulphate 2 weeks before the walk (I didn't try that but my knee gave in half-way through so I maybe should have) and to refrain from moisturising your feet for a month beforehand (I did do this, and whether this was the reason or not, I didn't suffer from blisters)
Resources: We decided to go with a company (AMS) who would organise our accommodation and pick up our bags from one hostel and drop them at the next, so all we needed was a day pack. We went for the bunkhouse and hostel option purely because of our budget and we didn't expect much but we were pleasantly surprised by the facilities. There was a good atmosphere and we were very comfortable.
