WHW Day 5 Bridge of Orchy to Kinlochleven

 We had a beautiful breakfast of avocado and arugula poached eggs on toast at Bridge of Orchy Hotel and their packed lunch inc smoked salmon and cream cheese bunwhiches which were quite exquisite.  The first half of the day we climbed up high and as we came over into the next valley the scenery was the prettiest I have seen in my life.

This photo was taken from the Bridge of Orchy as we crossed it in the morning.




The photos do not do bring to life how beautiful this spot was.


One of my favourite views of the WHW


Our last glimpse before heading down the hill to the valley bottom.



We walked for ages on a beautiful valley
bottom before heading through the bush and uphill again after this house.  I was too hot and tired to take photos of this next uphill clip.

This was taken at the one shady rest stop we had at the summit of the next hill.

After climbing down the hill there was an entrance to a ski resort - we crossed the highway here and headed to King cross Hotel where we had lunch and filled up our water.  It was super hot and 2 pm and we thought we were half way - which cheered us a little - we still had 5
to go the steepest climb yet and very little shade.




Mitch decided here he would try jogging as it wouldn’t hurt his feet as bad… he had ditched his hiking boots after day 1 due to blisters so he was in his Nike runners.

I must say I was super impressed with how far he ran - I could only see him way off in the distance.  He waited for me at a gate and we went on for ages to the first shady patch by a creek and waited for Alex and Haveesa.  The running he said was good for his feet but hard on his knees so he didn’t try it again😬






When Alex and Haveesa reached us at this creek Alex came up and said in quite a serious tone “I have to tell you…I’m not having a good mental health day”.  This sent us all into roars of laughter and helped lighten the burden of what we didn’t know was ahead.  The Devils Staircase… this was horrendous and Mitch climbed it like a mountain goat and Haveeza and I were both ready to call for a helicopter.  

On top of devils staircase.

Somehow we made it and then walked for hours across the top and down finally into the village where Max met us and ushered us to the pub where he had dinner reservations for 7 pm.  We had started at 10 am w one 20 minute break for lunch - we arrived at 5 to 7.
Today we walked 31 km and 150 floors but I think my phone is lying as it seemed like so many more floors and km.  The boys celebrated hard that night.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jan 5. Kaikoura to Abel Tasman Nat Park

Image
 We stayed last night at Peteka Campground in a little cabin to avoid the impending wind and  rain.  It appears that we are fair weather tenters.  They had a nice shower house and outdoor communal cooking area.  5 star. Hafeeza and Abdullah enjoying their fist meat pie.  For breakfast no less! This young man is our master of wifi and phone tech support.  He is relentless. Our day today was a long driving day of 4.5 hours- broken up by a wonderful tour of the Yealands winery, a world leader in sustainability.  Built by Peter Leland.  “Be bold but tread lightly”. And “never say it can’t be done” Peter Yealand started the practise of baling up the old vines as they were pulled out and burning them to generate energy for the winery.   Peter Yealand also initiated the practise of inter row planting legumes and pollinator species and then grazing with babydoll sheep.   This breed is shorter legged and cannot reach as high on the vine so d...
Read more

Camp to Aanascaul

Image
  Leaving Camp Juction B&B off to Annascaul. Day 2 on Dingle Way.   This stream early in the day was such a pretty spot and the video is pretty funny- she’s not that bossy normally lol. We came across the cutest pair of lambs here and I’m pretty sure this is the range of the farmer I was chatting to the night before.  Annie and Stetley will get a kick out of these two. We had a couple cheese and crackers here and barb cleaned her boots a bit inside and out lol.  Turns out she’s a sheep sh. magnet.   Over the main range w Inch Beach in the background. Beaches and grassers in the same photo- loved that and they seemed to take a liking to Barb.  We saw quite a few Holstein/Angus steers in this region that farmers utilize for their extra grass.   Tom Crean was serving in the Navy in New Zealand when he saw this ad. The fellows in the bar last night recommended the South Pole Inn as our base camp for this evening.  We stumbled in at 2 pm and enjoye...
Read more

New Zealand - Jan 4 Christchurch to Kaikoura

Image
  I arrived at Christchurch airport relatively unscathed except for the security at Auckland airport confiscating my tent pegs.  Hafeeza and Abdullah were there to greet me, we picked up our suv and let the adventure begin! First stop was 30 mins NE of Christchurch to visit Todd Barnes and fam.  Todd lived w us at Black Creek 26 years ago and we picked up like it was yesterday.  He and his wife Roz treated us just like family.  We had a great catch up, and they sent us on our way with a full bag of cherries, tent pegs a hammer and 2 bedrolls.   The photos below are a look around their 55 acre farm and I’ll take more photo when we return in 10 days time. Notice pasture chickens in background.  The sheep shed their wool so no shearing involved. Todd grows their cherries in this greenhouse and his girls pick and sell them at the end of their driveway.  His girls are both competitive rowers and are both tall and gorgeous.
Read more