Day 10. North Loch Lomond - Ben Nevis

The final day's route with 5 categorised climbs!

It's Day 10 and sat a mile in front of me is one monumental shoulder of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the UK. So I guess we made it!

The day began at 8am as usual. The midges, which normally die down by morning, were still frantically clawing at my skin. Throughout the night I had woken and convinced myself it was drizzling before realising the pitter-patter on the fly-sheet was just a rain of randomly-moving insects.

Pannier Rack Damage #2

Once up I checked the rope holding my bust pannier rack together. Gladly it was still holding. Unbelievably I also noticed a second fracture even more impressive than the first! The metal strut on the opposite side of the pannier rack was also cleaved in two. I must have hit one hell of a pothole! With this development I became even more worried that my bike would not last the day. One more break like that, and no amount of rope would hold the panniers onto my bike. And if that happened in the middle of Rannock Moor, a vast boggy terrain we would spend almost an entire day crossing, I would be in serious trouble.

With gear loaded up we tentatively set off to the north under grey skies. The uphill began almost immediately, as the road rose up a steepening valley. After only 9km of climbing in 40 minutes we stopped for second breakfast and to buy lunch - we would not see another shop for 4 hours.

Numerous teams of road cyclists passed us on the way up to the pass. We looked at their slick, pannier-less bikes in envy. Finally we reached the last junction in 35 miles and ominously entered through (thankfully) open gates labelled 'Road closed due to snow'. After only a brief uphill we had left the valley behind us and entered another vast open mountainous valley with not a building in sight. With a fast downhill and gentle climb we crossed this and headed up along the Orchy valley.

The top of one of the first big climbs of the day.

After a slow set of steep switch-back turns we reached the start of Rannock Moor. At a viewpoint we stopped to take pictures and bumped into some fellow road cyclists also headed to Fort William. It turned out they were 2 days from John O'Groats, having started in Lands End only 8 days before. I cant deny that a twang of jealousy hit us both, but they were on the best bikes money could buy with two support vehicles following behind. All we had was our legs, our worn bikes and 20kg of stuff.


The moor itself was an odd place to cross. Despite the towering mountains on all sides, the sheer flat unbroken extent of it made it strangely underwhelming. The other side of the 350m col was another story though.

Whizzing downhill aided by a south easterly breeze we entered Glencoe - a stunning mountain valley surrounded on all sides by bulky green peaks, almost all of which were higher than any mountain England has to offer. As we stopped for lunch blue skies even appeared. Further and further we descended along smooth roads, as the steep valley closed in on us. The three sisters of Glencoe reared up on our left, each covered with sheer rock faces and forest-filled ravines. Finally the valley levelled out and we came to another finger of ocean stretching into the Highlands. The views and mountains were so appealing that we briefly decided we had to stay in Glencoe that day and explore the area more. But we realised we couldnt climb Ben Nevis from so far south so we pushed on around the fjord onto the home straight.

A panorama of the Three Sisters of Glencoe in all their splendour

And it was an absolutely horrible ride. The wind had swung round and for the final 20km was blowing directly at us. The road bounced up and down but the shear force of the wind meant that every section was punishing. Even with the nose of the bike pointing downwards, the sheer force of the wind meant stopping pedalling would still cause you to roll backwards. After seeing the sign for the entrance to Fort William I thought we were home and dry, but the road continued into the head wind for another 3km.

Finally though we made it into Fort William. This would be our final stop, our most northerly point and our base from which to climb Ben Nevis. But it didnt feel any different. Despite a long final days' cycle that, at any point could have been thrown into disarray, there was no relief. Just a feeling of 'So that's it?'. After a chat with some cyclists who had overtaken us (more LE-JO'Gs), a bite of afternoon tea and a quick supermarket shop we headed out of Fort William. As we turned the corner into Glen Nevis, the eponymous mountain revealed itself. We found our campsite and set up the tent on the opposite slope - thankfully there were no midges in sight. The strong wind and intermittant sunshine made for good drying conditions but forced our gas stove off numerous times, but we eventually got dinner cooked (more pasta). Even now, at 11pm, there is light in the sky. I imagine north scotland never sees true darkness at this time of year.

Arriving at our final campsite in Glen Nevis!

It is a strange feeling that we will not be moving on anywhere after tonight. The tent will remain pitched, our bikes untouched, our panniers unpacked. I guess this trip has turned us into drifters, where any form of settling down seems not just unusual but unnatural.

Tomorrow we will try to climb Ben Nevis, although 50mph gusts and low hill fog are forecast. The beauty is that we now have 3 days until our train home, so even bad weather tomorrow will not stop us eventually ascending britains highest mountain.


Stats:
Distance: 96km
Total Distance: 816km
Average Speed: 18.6kph