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Great Glen Way. Part 2: An epic first day

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I formulated two options. One was to turn the trip into a three-day assault on my fitness levels and the other was to continue as normal but power-walk my way to hostel number one with limited rest time. Three o’clock was my decider time. If I arrived at 3, it was too late and I would find somewhere to stay in Fort William. Speaking to the owner of the hostel for night one, I asked if it would even be possible for me to arrive well after their requested cut-off of 9pm. Thankfully, they agreed to leave the door open for me and even told me my room number and where I would find it, so I didn’t have to think about that at the end of a really long day. What absolute gems. Pulling in to Fort William, I checked my watch. 4pm. I paused and thought for a moment. “It’s not 3pm though, is it? Let’s get going!” And so, I pulled out my map and headed off in the direction of the start. A ceremonial selfie, quickly sent to Flo, and I was on my way. The start of the Great Glen Way is not that i...
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Great Glen Way. Part 1: Procrastination and Setting Off

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Planning for an adventure can send me into anxiety mode. Thinking about the Great Glen Way was no different: how many days, where would I stay, do I need extra kit, where would I eat, how do I get to the start, how do I get home, when do I start, could I really do this? There were too many variables. I started to panic. But then I voiced my concerns to let them escape my head. After pouring my thoughts out to a friend, I was asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”. That was it. No, I didn’t want to talk about it, I wanted to get on with it. Half an hour later, I had booked my train ticket to Fort William and three nights of accommodation. I would walk the Great Glen Way in four days, leaving Glasgow by train on the first day. Sorted. With my husband gone for a week of Mountain Leader training, I had a couple of days to myself to prepare at my own pace. That, of course, meant absolutely not preparing and instead baking a three-tier cake for my boss’s birthday, personally delivering i...
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Bothy adventures: What they are and where to find them

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Originally published in Intrepid magazine online for subscribers and in print in September 2019. Disclaimer: Please refer to the Mountain Bothies Association website for advice on visiting Bothies safely whilst covid-19 is a risk. Always take alternative sleeping arrangements (a bivvy bag or a tent, or a Plan B of nearby accommodation) and consider a Plan B. If you want the wild feel of camping but don’t want to sleep on the ground, battling wind and rain overnight, you’ll want some walls and a door. A bothy can provide that. What is a Bothy? But what’s one of them? A bothy is a building, usually in the middle of a beautiful glen or near a loch, or river, or tucked away in a forest. It might look abandoned, but it is definitely loved. The structure is likely to have been part of a working farm or estate, perhaps used as a feeding house for livestock, or it was once a home to family living away from more densely populated areas in simpler times. It almost certainly won’t have electric...
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