Saturday was our next long walk of my Winter Ultra Run Training. We covered a few more miles than I had the weekend before when I ran from Rowardennan to the Dario Melaragni memorial (and back).

We had dropped a car off at the Drovers Inn on Thursday night (and had diner) so all we had to do on Saturday morning was drive to Rowardennan. We left Glasgow at just after 630am and got to Rowardennan at 730 just as the sun was coming up. It was still dark when we got there, but once we got walking at ten to 8 it was pretty much light.

The weather was good yesterday. At about 10-12’C it was warmer than our last walk. I ended up taking my compression layer off after a few miles and my feet and legs were roasting. Perhaps my waterproof / warm trousers are only good for cold / rainy weather.

The route was wetter than it was last week. Put simply, more water was on the paths, coming down the waterfalls so I’m well glad I had my waterproof boots and my new gaters on. My boots did get pretty dirty at points but they were soon cleaned in the streams we walked through.

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We took a few detours to go and see Rob Roy’s cave and the bothy which is about 10 or 11 miles in. I’d read somewhere that Rob Roy’s cave wasn’t worth the visit and I’d agree. We had to clamber up and over rocks to eventually get to a tiny cave with the word CAVE written next to it (presumably for people in boats to spot from the loch).

The bothy was quite interesting although I think I’d rather a hotel or b and b!! We popped into the derelict house next to it too. I can’t imagine living away out there, 3 miles walk (or a boat ride I guess) from anywhere.

All in all a good long walk. We ended up doing 15 miles in just under 6 hours. We’d had some snacks along the way: bagel and nutella, snickers, crisps. But by the end we were pretty hungry, so we had our pre bought wraps in the car before heading to get the car from Rowardennan and home.

It was quite a long day, but we had a good time and it was nice to get to know some more of the West Highland Way route.  Oh and the cats tired themselves out too 😉

Walk: 15 miles, 6 hours, Speed: 2.5mph (moving speed 3.3mph)  1,000 calories.