Pitter Patter! Pitter Patter! I could hear rain on the tent! It was so noisy! We had double trouble this time taking down the tent – rain and midges! 😦 We therefore wasted no time looking at the view however there was not much to see – the loch was covered in Scotch Mist! It was really thick and menacing. This was the first time we really got soaked walking!
This was earliest start of the entire walk, mainly driven by it being the last day, weather and finding the Cashel Campsite for breakfast. We thought that the path would provide us some shelter under the trees as we continued on our way – but the drips of water just seemed larger! In fact I didn’t take many pictures day as my camera would have just got wet! But I did manage to capture the greyness of the morning!
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| From 2010 – 13.06.2010 – West Highland Way – Rowarddennan – Balhama Walk |
As we came out of the forest the path met with road, we had to start using pavements – very unusual after all those rough paths we had been walking!! The Way continues along the lochside and we were quite surprised to see someone doing some waterskiing that early on a Sunday morning! The waterboat looked very fancy to me – with lights along the top – it seemed like it was ready for some sort of competition and should have been in Miami and not a Scottish Loch 🙂 !
It was not long before we came across Cashel Campsite – breakfast was most welcome, 🙂 Refreshed and just about drying off, we could see the mists were clearing. We continued on our way again. The route took us past “Cashel Farm” – also known as “a forest for a Thousand Years” – which is maintained by the Royal Scottish Forest Society which is over 3,000 acres!! The path then trundels on over the road and through another wooded area, to when finally we were leaving Ben Lomond National Park behind.
Although the path seemed to be along the road quite a lot at this section due to the Milarrochy Bay Caravan & Campsite, we did manage to grab a small glimpse of the bay –
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| From 2010 – 13.06.2010 – West Highland Way – Rowarddennan – Balhama Walk |
For some reason we seemed to miss the first entrance to the path from the road, even though we looked for it carefully… But we did manage to found the Way again through the car park even if some of the path had been closed off! The Way took us through a woodland area and it was not long before we were walking along the lochside again. From this time onwards the path was very busy with Walkers!
As a rule we had been following the thistle markers for the West Highland Way, so this was no exception…. I had just spotted one which just took us off the shore path, and up some steep steps (Craigie Fort according to the book) but we found no more thistle signs – just the Scottish Forestry Commission ones! The whole area had just been replanted, and had been taped off by the commission, it looked more like Police crime scenes!! All a bit scary… Even worse, Once we were at the top there was no obvious path to get down again! (yes we did look very carefully!)
So we climbed back down, and we went around the hill, over a brand new bridge, and we then started our ascent up the road, into Balhama! Our Journeys End for this Charity Walk!
Yes we made it! Happy to achieved our Goal! For Last Day of Walking photos-
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| 2010 – 13.06.2010 – West Highland Way – Rowarddennan – Balhama Walk |
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P.S. Yes we may go back and finish the missing sections another time but I am unsure when this will be!!! Just keep watch!
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