West Highland Way – Beinglas Campsite – Inversnaid Walk – 11.06.2010

Beat the Midge! Beat the Midge! Sing that to the tune of the Old TV program “Stop The Pigeon” and that was what it was like taking down the tent that morning!  Unlike the other sensible campers with Midge nets around their heads, our only defence was midge repellent which clearly wasnt enough (why am I blogging this? As a warning to any reader out there who is thinking about camping in Scotland in June!)

Doing the sensible thing to continue on our walk,  we went out of the entrance of the campsite we came in to rejoin the way in order to restart our walk to Inversnaid.  However, it suddenly became very apparent we had to go over a stile and back into the very campsite we came out of  – D’OH!  Perhaps we should have consulted the book instead! Or looked at the info board that was that stood in the campsite we stayed in.  We then found the correct entrance to carry on.

The path took us out into slightly different terrain this time.  Again sheep were grazing, but not so much grassland but it seemed to be more fernland.  The path remained relevantly flat and the mountains surrounding us,  as we came around a corner, we realised that we were still quite high, as Loch Lomond came into view –

From 2010 – 11.06.2010 – West Highland Way – Beinglas Campsite – Inversnaid Walk

We could see the little village of Ardlui on the other side of the Loch.  From what I could see the Marina looked full!.  On the way down I spotted my first Scottish Thistle (after 5 days of walking!!)  Passing by an abandoned farm along the loch – which had sadly become a familiar sight in the past few days 😦 we had to pass by the Loch Shore which was quite exciting as we got to see at least one Jet Skiier who was practising on the Loch!

It was then the path took us up into wooded area away from the shoreline.  In fact the path was was very narrow in places and did not feel that safe, particularly as we were carrying such large rucksacks!  (If you read the advice of the book it does say not attempt some of this part of the walk with large rucksacks anyway!) We did get to see some nice views of the Loch through the trees with inviting looking beaches!

From 2010 – 11.06.2010 – West Highland Way – Beinglas Campsite – Inversnaid Walk

This part of the path was very, very busy!  We had to wait in quite a few sections for walkers to pass.  Particularly as in areas the sections were extremely narrow, rocky and tricky to navigate.  This walk was going to take us much longer than we anticipated purely because of the difficulty of the path not because of the distance.  Rocks and caves became more and more apparent!

Talking of caves – a sign came into view – “Rob Roys Cave”.  At this point – the book indcates there are two ways to the cave – so the in fact the path seems a little confusing.  One of us decided to scramble the rocks to see how far the path went – on their return, I found out the Coastguard (not sure if that is what they are known as) saw them and asked if they were in trouble!  Discovering that was a bad route, we decided to use the other path which we had just heard a whole bunch other walkers just descend from!!

Rob Roy  – “The Scottish Robin Hood” –  A cattleman – someone who had defaulted on a loan through loss of his cattle when the chief herder stole both the cattle and money he trusted to them.  Branded outlaw waged  a feud againt the Duke  Montrose who seized his land.  Roy – was eventually pardoned!  It is here that his Cave was meant to be were he hid with his band of men – but sadly we couldn’t find it 😦 (even if the word “Cave” is helpfully painted on it!! – although this could be it??? :-))

From 2010 – 11.06.2010 – West Highland Way – Beinglas Campsite – Inversnaid Walk

As we left Rob Roys cave behind, the path terrain started to change, it flattened out as we approached a little area for where we would camp later (Iversnaid Hotel Wild Campsite).  We passed a little Boat house, and we found ourselves at the Inversnaid Hotel…. ah a nice drink me thinks. (I would tell you though the Walkers entrance is a dodgy entrance near the bins! I didnt know this and proudly walked through the front door first of all!!)

Fully refreshed we headed back to pitch up and on the way back I caught sight of the sunsetting (you can see all my photos if you click on this!)-

2010 – 11.06.2010 – West Highland Way – Beinglas Campsite – Inversnaid Walk

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