Walkers:
James Gowers
Toby Athersuch
Matthew Stevens
Drivers:
Lindsey Bartholomew
Louise MacDonald
To see where we went, please check out this map.
FRIDAY
The day finally arrived.
Having packed the car on the previous evening, Lou and Linds had made a very early departure (up at 4am, left at 5am) from Chertsey to drive the gear (hiking rucksacks, food, cooking equipment) all the way up to Scotland. James, Mat and myself were allowed a slightly longer lie-in (up at 7am, left at 9am) before heading off in a taxi to Heathrow and the BMI flight to Glasgow.
The girls continued to send updates on their progress up the country throughout the morning and they made great time, missing most of the jams on the way, only getting stuck going through Glasgow to meet us at the airport. It turns out both parties arrived pretty much at the same time which made our bets on who would win the race null and void.
***
Lindsey writes – I was convinced Lou and I were going to win the £2.50 each bet we had made so was annoyed to get so close and get stuck! Still at least we made it all in one piece 
***
Once we were all in the car, we trundled back through the roadworks and congestion around Glasgow and headed for Stirling and then onward into the Highlands, taking the route to the East of Loch Lomond, via Crianlarich, Bridge of Orchy and then to Orich, through Fort William and on to Banavie.
We were all very glad to arrive at the Chase the Wild Goose Youth Hostel in Banavie, not least Lou who had done the last bit of driving along the hillside road of Glen Coe and through Fort William with all it’s windy bends and “boy racer” drivers.
***
Mat writes – Were we all glad to arrive? Hmm. Jim was still fighting the urge to find a B+B for the night I’m sure!
***
We were met by the managers of the place who were very welcoming and quickly got us booked in and sorted with keys to our room. We had the run of a 5-person place, with the other rooms in the hostel taken by young backpacker types. Our room was simple, clean and tidy with bunk beds. After getting to grips with the ‘sheet bags’ and how they fit with the pillow and duvet, we were set and the boys left to allow the girls to get some well earned sleep after an early start and all that driving.
We headed out of Banavie past Neptune’s Staircase - a large number of locks that allow boats up and down between the Caledonian Canal and the sea. Eventually reaching the road, we had walked almost all the way into Fort William itself to scout out the roads leading up to the feasible start points of the challenge – Achintee and the Youth Hostel road. Stopping for stretch on an old bridge, we thought to ourselves how great the weather was and how (un)likely is would be to stay around for the following day. Once back at the hostel after our nice seven-mile warm-up, the girls got up after their nap and we wandered into Banavie for some dinner at a nice, functional place called The Lochy (http://www.thelochy.co.uk/). All of us ate a huge amount and we eventually heaved ourselves back to our room for the night with the soporific pints of Scottish brew taking a hold of us as we bedded down ahead of what we thought would be a pretty tiring day or two.
The peace and quiet didn’t last all night. We had a group of pretty annoying loud neighbours who awoke and left at 4am. How do we know this? Well they did discuss is at the top of their lungs whilst bashing about and spraying Lynx until the place stank like a secondary schoolboys changing room. Additionally, most of us awoke at some point to untangle ourselves from the aforementioned ‘sheet bags’ that insisted on twisting themselves in to an unholy and uncomfortable mess. At least they did their job.
Not funny, chaps.
Girls at the Service Station
Boys at the Service Station
"Chase the wild goose" youth hostel
Grrrr
Taking a rest on our final practice walk around Fort William
