Finding Heathcliff

Moors and more Moors

“Morning Ladies! Beautiful day for a wee walk!” says the elderly Scotsman in a newsboy cap as we make our way through Milngavie (Mul-guy if you don’t want to be corrected.) “Yes fabulous weather” replies my Mom, “Thank you so much.” “Oh you’re welcome,” he replies “I really laid it on for you!” Indeed he did. We were all decked out in as much North Face as we could wear, it really didn’t matter that the Scottish sky was already leaking heavily. We made our way to the entrance gate of the West Highland Way where we ran into our dapper Scotsman again who stopped to chat and was more than keen to take a picture with us. And then it was time to start!

This is a different walk from the Camino. To begin with, there is no outright religious component, but there certainly is a spiritual aspect, especially when you consider that as humans we worshipped nature for a very long time (hello Stonehenge.) This walk is harder, the terrain is more varied, there are more changes in elevation and you really feel that nature not man is in charge.

The Highlands are wild, unkempt. The air is fresh, the rain is strong, the wind is whipped. And when it seems as if there will be no respite from the elements, the sun comes out and there is a rainbow. A real rainbow. A pure, every color of the spectrum distinct and clear, rainbow. It reminded me of the room at the de Young Museum in San Francisco that has all the vast landscape paintings. There’s one painting of a waterfall and there is a giant rainbow. I’ve always thought, that’s so fake. But that’s exactly what it looked like in Scotland. Real not fake.

Each day you experience all four seasons sometimes multiple times. You start out in your jacket, in my case a puffy jacket and raincoat, then after getting rained on the sun is out, so then you take off your jacket and are in a T-shirt, then as you start to get higher up it gets cold and the puffy comes back and then the rain and it all starts again.

The Scottish people, at least the ones we met, are friendly and helpful and the first to complain about their own weather. For many of the Scots we met, parts of the West Highland Way were simply their neighborhood walk (kind of like Land’s End in San Francisco for me). They were out there with their dogs and were happy to reassure my Mum that we were headed in the right direction (and also free with tips about how to avoid Conic Hill - particularly treacherous and best left to Sam Heughn). We had a lovely chat with a sheep farmer whom we had watched herding his sheep up on the hills, slowly moving them down to their pens. He told us not to worry too much about not having tried any whisky. “Stay away from that stuff!” A number of solo hikers were Scotsmen and of all the hellos we exchanged with fellow walkers, the Scottish hello always included “How are you doing ladies?” it wasn’t an American how are you, it was a real “how are you?”

My favorite thing to do is walk and if it was possible to walk from San Francisco to Paris, I absolutely would. I enjoy the simplicity of the endeavor,. You just get up, eat breakfast and go for a walk. There are no buses or trains or planes to catch. No real time schedule. (I hate time schedules). You just have to walk. And in Scotland, you walk in absolutely the most thrilling scenery imaginable. My one regret is that we didn’t stop more often, to nap in the heather.

I felt as if I was on a quest, like Frodo and Sam. Like Aragorn and Gandalf on a long walkabout through the wilds. Like a Jane Austen character traipsing through a field. Like Catherine and Heathcliff in the wind and rain on the moors. It was just what my imagination had pictured and where James Bond had grown up!

I loved the walk and loved sharing the journey with my Mom. It was difficult but we had lots of laughs and lots of fun.

And now herewith my photo-journal of the wilds:

11 &12 September: Milngavie overnight then Milngavie to Dryman: We took a short commuter train from Glasgow to our first hotel in Milngavie which was super easy. Our first day of walking included lovely Scottish weather (read rain). This was the day we learned that it would be best to put on our rain pants before we started. And we passed by a fairy house! And lots of ferns. I wasn’t expecting it to be so foresty. Our B&B was lovely. We ate dinner (burgers) at the Clachen, celebrated by the owners as the oldest bar in Scotland.

Burgers at the Clachen (although we should have gone with the chicken in restrospect.

13 September: Dryman to Balmaha: This part of the walk was also very foresty which is my way of telling you that I found lots of places among the ferns to “pop a squat” (private places to pee). Which was necessary since there are no cafes or public toilets on the Way, but also my preferred method of communing with nature. We did have a serious discussion with an older Scotswoman walking her dogs, about Conic Hill, which she recommended that we skip, which (to Mom’s relief) we did. Arriving in Balmaha was lovely, the village was cute and so was the cottage in which we stayed right along the water (although it required lugging our suitcases up a very steep set of stairs.) The restaurant had the weirdest food and the waitress was the most unpleasant person we ran across our entire trip. One item on the menu that left an impression on us was Korean BBQ chicken burger with harissa mayonnaise. I was like hello, where am I? For the rest of our walk on the Way, any time I felt hungry I would say to mom, “I could really use a Korean BBQ chicken burger with harissa mayonnaise right now.” And then we would eat a few nuts or some dried fruit.

Had a backpack protector this time, a must!

14 September: Balmaha to Rowardennan: We were told that there was a lovely way to walkabout in Balmaha with little beaches and I was worried we would miss them but in fact they were part of the walk to the next stopping point much to my relief and enjoyment. In fact there were little beaches all along the walk. It was a pretty long day and the signage on the Way is not great so we were pretty tired/relieved when we arrived in Rowardennan.

15 September Rowardennan to Inverarnan: In Rowardennan Mom made the decision to cut down the length of the next two days by walking half way and then taking a form of transportation, so we booked a ferry and a bus for the half way point of this day and then just a bus for the halfway way of the next day. Given that my main goal in life is to avoid any transportation that does not involve walking I was a little miffed. The start of the walk was up and into forest. It was very atmospheric, at one point we saw wild goats who gave us the snake eye and then scrambled up the mountain with indifferent ease. Once we got up then the “burn” crossings began, stream after stream running over rocks that you have to cross. I wasn’t too too worried about it for myself, I mean granted no one wants to fall so you do have to be careful and you are effectively on the side of a mountain which is again very LOTR (Lord of the Rings) but it looked fun to me. Not to my Mom. Luckily a group of Londoners were there right at the first crossing and they helped Mom which was a relief. After all of those crossings we took a little rest in the ferns which was probably one of my favorite parts and lots of people walked by us and said hi. The end of this portion was Inversnaid where we were to take a ferry, but it was essentially just a Hotel (not a village). The Inversnaid Hotel was really fun because it is a huge old hotel with a “Walkers Entrance”. You go into a special vestibule and you have to take off your shoes and jacket and leave your backpack! Inside its all very nice and big and cozy and carpet everywhere and I had a hot chocolate and we shared the biggest scone I have ever seen in my life. And although I prefer to pee in the woods, they had a very nice ladies room! Then we went back outside to take the ferry which I was very worried about because in my head all I could think about was the ferry I took in Cinque Terra which I thought was going to capsize, but this ferry was very smooth and it was fun to be actually on the Loch instead of always looking at it. We got dropped off at Tarbot with a bunch of Germans. Tarbot had another grand hotel which would have been fun to stay at. There we chatted with a couple who gave us tips for Glasgow and then waited for the bus with a young guy who had lived in Miami and was very glad he was back at home. When we got on our bus he said “See you at the Bridge of Orky!” The bus was very nice, more of a private coach and definitely not the “Dirty8” (what true San Franciscan’s call the 38 Geary bus). This night we stayed at a campsite which turned out to be super fun, there were so many people of all ages and some were straight up camping and some were in ensuite cabins (like us) and the tavern was very lively. There was nowhere to sit but the deal is you have to order first and give a table number but we didn’t have a table but a couple who saw us said to sit with them so we ended up having a nice dinner next to them and actually I recognized them from the night before because they had ordered what I wanted!

blending in (we took breaks and I’m glad we did because it was fun to stop and look about)

a wee sit down (two ways :) and well deserved after a tough walk

rushing water

16 September Inverarnan to Tyndrum: I enjoyed this walk. It was lovely. Unfortunately we took a bus at the halfway point which we definitely didnt need to. For an account of our encounter with a crazy troll lady please read Mom’s previous post. In Tyndrum although it felt like a waste of time it was actually good to take a break and do silly normal things like laundry in a parking lot and getting pizza to go from very nice Indian restauranteurs and asking the ladies at reception if they had a bottle opener for my beer.

West Highland Way walking demonstration

18 September Tyndrum to Inveroran: This walk was just gorgeous. I am completely in love with heather and the pine tree combo and now I want to recreate the Scottish Highlands in my garden when I get back to San Francisco (there were even wild roses!!). It was rainy on and off and towards the end of the walk super duper windy. It felt so good and fresh and my hair really liked it.

Mom on the move!

Scottish wind makes for the best hairdryer!

Click for wind demo :)

19 September: Inveroran to Kingshouse: As we set out on this walk a group of female deer crossed the path very cautiously and extremely elegantly. I felt a bit guilty having eaten venison sausage the night before. This walk took us out onto the moors which I loved which was way Wuthering Heights. We took a break for lunch and looked out over the vast scenery and then I went on a side quest on my own to find a wee place to take a wee wee. Well I wanted privacy so I had to venture out a bit and I finally found a rock formation that felt promising but when I got up I wasn’t really sure where I had left Mom! Luckily there was another lady who had been sat nearish us and I could see her jacket. Very thrilling! When I found Mom she told me she had looked down at her phone and then had looked up and I was completely gone. I blended in with the scenery!! We arrived at Kingshouse too early to check in which made me mad because I would have liked to have done more frolicking on the moors.

20 September Kingshouse to Kinlochleven: This day was the one everyone had talked about from the begining telling us about Devil’s Staircase. Before you get to this allegedly omonous trail there are gorgeous views of the valley including views used in the movie Skyfall, so we were traipsing through James Bond country, and that always make me think of Albert Finney of course. We got to a sign talking about the Devil’s staircase and about how some drunk men had died blah blah and we began walking up a bit and a lady was coming down so Mom began to chat and then I asked her “when does Devil’s staircase start?” Well turns out we were already on it so you see it was really not as scary as everyone said since I didn’t even know it had started! And honestly with the way everyone described it, it just sounded like Lombard Street. And basically for a San Francisco girl that’s all it was. Lombard with rocks. Very fun. We posed at the top like all those men on dating sites do at the top of some mountain or other (wow I’m so impressed). Anyways bully for them, I climbed Devil’s Staircase! The descent was lovely too with more rocks and more scenery!

Straight out of Skyfall (turn on some Adele).

School of hard rocks

Top of the Rocks! made it to the top of Devil’s Staircase!

oxygenated cheeks from all the fresh mountain air

21 September Kinlochleven to Fort William: The final day. and boy was this a long one!! All the beautiful views and going up and down and around and the temperature changed a hundred and two times and it just kept going and I was having so much fun just walking and looking about and sitting down and eating nuts and dried fruit and just having a marvelous time being out in the middle of nowhere but on a path with a destination. This was the walk where we chatted with a sheep farmer who told us that an abandoned building that looked so nice used to have American hippies in it (probably from San Francisco I thought). And at the end of the walk there was a giant rainbow and it was so so gorgeous, just straight out of that painting I told you about in the de Young!

you can hear the sheep farmer shouting directions to his dog for herding the sheep.

I did it My Way

Musée Musings