SNT (day 9) - Kinlochleven to Fort William (West Highland Way) (Ben Nevis)

Early start, I was trying to reach Ben Nevis as quickly as possible and see if the conditions will be good enough to climb it. Twelve miles leading to the peak were fairly easy, I've stumbled upon an injured lamb along the trail but I couldn't help it in any significant way, so I only positioned it in more comfortable way (it was lying on it's head) and hoped someone else will be able to help it.

I've reached Ben Nevis Information Centre at 10am, had a snack here and started a 3 hour difficult climb up the mountain, there was a lot of other people doing it, which was encouraging. Path was steep and uneven, long and unrelenting. At around 1pm I finally reached the snow covered top, I've taken few pictures and after few minutes started the descent which took me two hours. I arrived back at the information centre just after 3pm.

From here I headed towards Fort William to officially finish the West Highland Way section of the trail, and around 4pm I arrived at the end marker, it was a plaque and a bronze statue of a sitting man changing a shoe.

I've managed to book a room for tonight as well, which was very needed as I had to recharge the batteries, clean and dry all the kit as it never had a chance to fully dry because of the rainy weather. I've had a tasty fish and chips and located all my points of interest for tomorrow.

I've also sat down and worked out all the resupply points for the Cape Wrath Trail which was really remote and it turned out that I will have only 4 places along 230 miles where I will be able to buy food, which meant a lot of food to carry. There was few other "different" things about this trail, for example it wasn't marked at all, sometimes there wouldn't be actual trail and you had to navigate it yourself. Other things like finding water, river crossings or tenting I've done before. It was in a way an expansion of my knowledge about hiking. A gentle push out of the comfort zone, which apparently was the best way to operate and learn and I was quite excited about it.

I was thinking about taking a day off tomorrow but since I managed to tick all the boxes there was no point in waiting and spending more money on accomodation, the earlier I'd start, I had the better chance of completing the trail in time.

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