Day 7 - Spean Bridge to Fort William

Breakfast awaits! Well it is a holiday after all.

We had discussed the ratio of wild camping to camp site / other accomodation which would provide the best balance and had decided that probably for us, 2 nights wild to 1 night with facilities would probably have been about right along the East Highland Way. This would be quite a realistic ratio to achieve in this area. I think for solo hikers or couples, having to book ahead would not be an issue if accommodation or a regular camp site was sought at any point. Those seeking family sized rooms, or rooms accepting pets would definitely need to research & book ahead. Very few guest houses / hotels accept animals. Taking refuge occasionally on a camp site or at a B&B enables kit and clothing to be dried, and integrates the wild camper with local people along the route. It also no doubt, in some small way helps the local economy.  After Easter, and I must stress "after Easter" several additional camp site options open up along the route. However it may be better to walk the EHW before high summer, particularly to take advantage of great wild camping. Statistically, April is the month of least average rainfall in the area.  Midge, birch fly and tick issues are less of a consideration earlier in the season also. At this time of year you may be lucky as we were with fantastic sunny days and crisp frosty star filled April nights.

None of us were unlucky enough to pick up any ticks. All of the tents taken have noseeum mesh or fabric / mesh inner bedrooms with sealed bathtub type floors. We wore long trousers at all times and avoided brushing through long grass or kicking up undergrowth wherever possible. On pathless sections trousers tucked into socks or gaiters may also have helped. We carried a little tool to remove ticks, just in case. Midges were not around at any point to spoil things. As a suggestion, you should discuss with your vet any precautions for your pets. Our animals received a good dousing of flea / tick potion  prior to walking the EHW as a preventative measure. As our vet put it 'prevention is better than cure'.  It would also be advisable to have a good search about ones own person daily, again just in case. Any soreness or rash around a tick bite needs medical attention. Flu like symptoms shortly after such a bite should be investigated for tick born diseases such as Lymes disease.

After breakfast, we walked past the local store and picked up lunch, then passed the train station, yes, everyone still present and correct :) to  rejoin our friends just outside of town.

Our aim today was to make for Glen Nevis campsite. Link here http://www.glen-nevis.co.uk/campsite. It is a fantastic site, full of like-minded international backpackers and hill walkers. The site is very well priced with clean facilities and a great bar / restaurant. Children can sit in the main area until 8.30pm, then should move to the family area after this time. We planned to complete the last mile or so of  the EHW the following morning just before hopping on the train back to Glasgow. I had called the site ahead and the answer phone said, if you are on foot, come right along'.  Motivational words for the final stretch indeed.

The last full day of walking ahead. We intended to really enjoy the scenery and try and stand and stare a bit, particularly approaching Ben Nevis, a chance to see the mountain from several angles. We promised ourselves a group photo once we had the mountain as a back drop.

The route follows the course of A82 through the Leanachan forest. for much of the day. Here and there aspects open out a little. The views improve radically after passing the North Face car park and natural woodland replaces the forest. The Ben is sighted!

We pitched without issue at Glen Nevis camp site. The site sits underneath Ben Nevis, and the surrounding hills. It is also just a short walk into town to the start / finish of the WHW. The site naturally attracts an international mix of backpackers / hill walkers. I enjoyed chatting to a group of Dutch backpackers heading out on the West Highland Way. I also had a lengthy chat to chap who had recently completed the Pembrokeshire Coast Path and had traveled to Scotland to complete the West Highland Way. He had rented his house and was off for several months of adventure.

We met no-one else heading out onto the EHW, everyone I spoke to was preparing for or had completed the WHW. Few people have heard of the EHW.

It would be accurate to say that we saw almost no other hikers along the length of the EHW. We stopped and spoke to really only one couple, who had been wild camping from the other direction along the EHW.

After showering we set off to enjoy a pint and a meal at the site restaurant.

"Haggis neeps and tatties in whiskey sauce please :)"


The following morning we all 7 of us, and the 3 dogs completed the route. Completion of the EHW does not come with certificates and tee shirts. The West Highland Way by contrast, a walk which is adopted as a long distance path has an official start / finish line monument in town. The EHW is not as yet adopted, so do not expect any fanfare.  No, it is more the feeling a gold rush pioneer may have had after anonymously walking back into town after having found a little nugget of gold, which he keeps stowed in his pocket.

"Only he knows".

Day 6 - Fersit to Spean Bridge

Was that cow bells? Probably a figment of my imagination but I got up anyway. Discovered one bag of frozen socks between the fly and the inner and then noted the condensation had frozen to the inside of the fly. That had been a very cold night. I then noted my phone had only picked up around a 10% charge from the full power pack that I connected the night before. The pack must have dissipated its charge due to the low temp. I reassembled the water filter, but thought this must have been damaged by cold, the instructions clearly state the unit must not be frozen. We collected water using the other squeezy bottle type filter, a very slow process by comparison.

We noted that we were heading back to civilisation today at Spean Bridge. Re-supply opportunities, shops, a post office, a train station for any-one wanting to bail. Well you never know? The Harvey map shows Insh Scout Camp just shy of Spean Bridge, and we had read an article which shows a group of EHW hikers using this as a first nights camp from Fort William. For once we had a definite destination, and the prospect of an early camp.

With the sun now high we set off towards Spean Bridge. The teenage girls, already checking out the scouts in their wild imaginations. We left the main bulk of forest behind and enjoyed some open aspects down to the River Spean. Another short forest section through Inverlair forest after passing the Lodge, and then a very attractive section alongside the Spean. We were greeted by an old sheep dog clearly put out to pasture with the sheep for a few hours a day. He followed us quite a way, no shepherd in sight.

After a short while we spied Bunroy camp site across the other side of the river. Another two kilometers of very enjoyable walking brought us to the road to Spean Bridge and Insh Scout Camp. One of our party had gone ahead, and was stood looking a little forlorn at the gates. "Bad News"

Although there are acres of great camping grounds here, plus taps and basic facilities there are clear signs advising that no admittance is permitted etc. The gates were unlocked there was no-one around to ask. So, what next? Find a make shift camp in the woodland nearby, walk into Spean Bridge and grab a cab to Bunroy ( was it even open? ), a hostel or B&B, a train ride to Fort William with a view to catching the same back for a pack free walk to the finish?

We headed into Spean Bridge to review options. Although this was now Easter weekend, surprisingly, most of the hotels and guest houses had vacancies. I rung the door bell at the first B&B I saw as we walked into town. Three of us could be accommodated. I asked about breakfast and received a full and detailed description. "Ok, I'm sold".

For those looking for accommodation at Spean Bridge you will find a notice board at the side of the convenience store in town. The telephone numbers and pictures are all there.

So having collected a card from our potential host.   We all went to talk over options and to buy drinks and and treats at the shop. We decided to split up at this point into 2 groups for practical reasons.

So we checked into the B&B, an opportunity to get clean & dry out, after 5 nights of wild camping. We put our boots in the porch and set our bags down in the room. I took off my socks and checked out my blisters, which had caused some suffering for the last two days. My daughter took great delight in photographing my feet, and got a real close up of the blood blister forming on my little toe. Nice!

After soaking in bath tubs for a while, we went to check out the local fish and chips. I would describe them as first rate. Incidently, the menu is fish and the other item is chips. The order was cooked fresh whilst we waited.  I started nattering to the lady serving. Now she stated that after 20 years of hillwalking, mainly Munroes, she had never had occasion to get wet feet. Also she suggested that the bothy's are better than tents.

"So, maybe we should have just slept inside Drakes and Glen Banchor bothy?"

 "Definitely" she said. Other customers waiting at the time agreed that bothy nights are the best nights.

After fish and chips we headed back to the B&B. We opened our bedroom door. " Who opened the sock bag?" "Everyone happy to sleep with the window open?"

Click here for Day 7 - Finale!

Day 5 - Loch Doire nan Sgaith to (somewhere near ) Fersit

Warm feet. Must be dreaming. "Anyway about the Blair Witch". I could hear the forest machinery starting up. Bit of a lie in must have occured! Time to move on. Just a quick cereal bar for breakfast, and collected one stinking wet pair of socks from the tree! Decided these now needed double bagging in carrier bags together with Lynns wet socks, and attached to the top of a ruck sack away from harms way. As we left camp I securely attached the 'bag' to the top of....well I now confess, Lynns Ruck sack! I am so not going to heaven.

We all cheerfully set off down to the shores of Loch Laggan, once again absolutely no idea where we would sleep that night. Really not stressing about this anymore.  We stopped for a bite, tea and hot soup beside loch Laggan.

I mention brewing up alot. Ultralight backpackers, brace yourselves now! I use an MSR Whisperlite International when cooking and boiling water, teamed to a set of Primus full size 2.1 litre and 1.7 litre Lytech pots, plus a nesting fryingpan. I took a litre of Coleman white gas which was more than enough for the whole trip, in fact around 700ml was used over the trip, thats 100ml of fuel  a day. Fuel is lighter than water, the whole litre weighs around 700g. The MSR Stove nests with the wind-screens inside the smaller pan. The whole set up weighs 1567 grammes including pans, stove spares, sporks, cups and bowls and the stove itself including the empty fuel bottle. Around 522 grammes each. Not light, but I find  that we just cannot manage for group wild camping with little canisters and tippy stoves and tiny small pans. The old faithful MSR whisperlite really does give that proper camp fire focal feeling and whilst we are ruthless with saving weight in some areas, this stove and pan-set has earned its weight in my pack. I am sure there are other good options out there too. Please do not hesitate to let me know your thoughts.

So, back to to the forest and Loch Laggan. Forest workers must really enjoy their work out here. All were friendly and courteous. In fact logging stops as soon as they know you are around, appreciate its a safety thing, but not once was anyone annoyed or frustrated by it. The 4x4's along the tracks all slow to pass and to be honest we were very impressed.

The forest had changed a bit since the Harvey map was printed, sections have grown a bit, other bits are missing, the navigation along the waters edge though is pretty straight forward.

As the scenery began to take on a samey view for mile after mile, conversations grew and the human dynamic took over. The pounding of forest tracks and the same view from one hour to the next makes the miles go slowly. From Loch Laggan you then join Laggan Reservoir and climb a bit, but basically its pretty much more of the same for the rest of the day.

We could see on the map an open bit of wilder ground beyond an area described of Fersit on the map, this was our destination but just before we reached this area a grassy bit of ground opened up to the left alongside what I think was the River Treig, or a tributoty of the same. There is a sluice on the river here, so I guess the ground was left open to allow vehicles to access the dam / sluice. Clearly this was not agricultural ground, but, I could see that a local farmer must be using the area for watering cattle as the cattle had left some little tell tale clues. I went for a walk-about to make sure the cattle were nowhere nearby and we kept our tents well back from the water just in case. One of the great things about camping with dogs is that really nothing takes you by surprise. If the cows come we would know! I did not make a note of the grid ref, ahh!, and the Harvey map only shows forest at this place. Its an easy one to spot on the ground though. As I say if you are heading from Laggan its on the left just before the open ground. If you are heading from Spean Bridge its on the right just after the open ground.

We got our tents up, and started cooking. I went to collect water from the tributory, but found my filter was not working as well as usual. So, we all had to manage with a single filter that evening and the next morning. Not quite sure what happened to me that evening but I hit a sort of low energy moment. Even servicing the filter seemed an unusual effort. Unlike the stove  mentioned earlier I had little experience of my filter and whilst trying to fathom the problem shooting I was very grateful for the hard won 3 Litres of water provided by Nathan. I will post up a review of my MSR Hyperflow on a separate post. That night I left my phone lying on the groundsheet next to me along with the battery booster / torch, which was left charging the phone. The temperature that night plummeted to well below zero. The power pack torch unit unit lost all of its charge in one go during the night, and the iphone battery only held onto around 10%. I was also worried that the water filter cartridge would have been broken by the hard frost as well as this had been left in the same spot. Mistakes! nothing critical but mistakes never the less.

Where had Lynn put that bag of socks?

Click here for day 6 - to Spean Bridge

Day 4 - Glen Banchor to Loch Doire nan Sgaith

6am: I was greeted with "morning daddy, come and look" and look we did. You get a handful of these moments. This was one of them.

A little while later a helicopter flew over, came in low to have a look at us I guess? I filtered water for the bags and bottles again at the burn.

Overnight my bed socks had been warm, but I could not for the life of me get my wet ones back on the next morning. I really wish I had bought a new pair of Smartwool or similar. The ones I was using had a cotton like inner and then a man made outer. The inner was cold as ice, and had kind of shrunk a bit. I could not get the damp socks back on! The thick bedsocks had to go back on. So now, after putting on my damp boots, my second pair of socks were damp as well. I hung my first pair on the outside of my pack in hope. As the day wore on my feet swelled with the moisture, and on reflection I should have stopped to re-lace /loosen my boots, try the old socks again or whatever was needed, In a group setting it can be hard to hold everyone up to faff about. I chose to carry on, big mistake! I had given my daughter advice a day or two earlier -  to always stop and check things out if something isn't right. Really should follow my own advice.

The pace picked up as we headed down into Laggan. There are toilets and picnic tables here but no shop was open. There is a shop but it seems it may have closed a while ago. There is a detour along the busy road for cafe facilities if they are needed. There is also a local pottery,  but we decided to carry on.  This was another of those days where we had no real notion of where we would pitch. We knew we would be heading into commercial forest areas. A different sort of wooded area to the ones we had to so far encountered.

Next stop Pattack falls. The route to here involves a pleasant quiet road which follows a section of the Spey, and then a wooded section leading down to Feagour and Pattack falls. It may be possible to camp around this area, but it is quite close to the A86, and we hadn't really covered sufficient distance.

It had been very warm and all the water taken from Glen Banchor had gone from our bottles. So I took water directly from the falls. A chap with his grand-daughter came for a swim at the falls, and seemed dubious about the quality of water from this source. Lets just say I am still here and lived to tell the tale. Other options might have been to pull water from the Spey, or to have carried more from Glen Banchor. The Harvey map suggests drinking from streams is unadvisable. Any advice anyone can provide about water quality along the Spey and surrounding Burns most appreciated :).

There are times when backpacking in hinterland, that halfway between wild and inhabited, where things can get quite difficult. Access to the waters edge may be fenced off for example, whilst at the same time there is nowhere to purchase water! In the heat at least 2 to 3 litres per person is needed just for drinking. For the next couple of days we were to pass through these hinterland areas which were either farming areas or areas planted with single species conifer forest. A sort of desert for hikers, we were definitly in the countryside but the streams were were full of acidic peaty water from the run off through the forest floor, or beside cow pasture or sheep pasture. The lochs are quite peaty also. But needs must, so we decided to both filter and pretty much drink our water as weak tea. Stopping a couple of times a day to brew up. This might have been belt and braces, no-one became ill.

Our party had split into two groups for a while earlier in the day. Our group followed the A86 between Pattack falls and over Gallovie bridge as the route suggests. Our other group followed signs for Pattack -  newly erected in Black wood. These signs apparently led to a dead end and a return to the A86 had to be made. You have been warned :).

We all met up at Sawmills, which actually is a sawmill on an industrial scale. We pondered the map here a bit as we had completed our daily distance at this point. We considered heading down to the head of Loch Laggan to the little beach shown on the map, or continue further into the forest to look for a camp beside one of the lochs higher up. We chose to try for Loch Doire nan Sgaith ( NN 515 863 ).

Along the way we saw hearth stones in a couple of the larger vehicle passing places along the forest track, seems these have served as camp spots. Just after passing one of them Nathan mentioned that we were passing a site where fairies had been seen. Now at the risk of being chastised, I will now mention that I actually saw a stone which looked like a rams head shining in the sun, then I looked down and saw fawn prints in the pathway. Maybe it was a bit of dehydration, or an effect from drinking the water at Pattack, or maybe fairies do exist?

At Loch Doire nan Sgaith we found a sheltered spot, large enough to pitch 2 tents, away from overhanging branches. Clearly the area is regularly used for camping as hearth stones are set up here. A few logging vehicles passed along the track nearby and a forest warden, with his land rover stopped to ask if we intended to build a fire. We advised we were using our stoves only. He wished us a good night :). Where did he come from?

Made a great spaghetti carbonara and filled our bottles from the stream leaving the loch. Enjoyed ginger tea with a hint of lemon. Very nice!

My original socks were still soaking, wouldn't even dry in the sun on my pack, so I hung my socks in a tree. Lynns socks also now were wet from the trackless section leaving Glen Banchor, Lynn donned her spares. I decided to sleep in my second damp pair to try and dry them.

The area around is wooded, and there was a bit of wind picking up as the sun fell. Some-one mentioned the "Blair Witch project" for some reason. Not the best thing to talk about lol. My daughter chimed up " what is the Blair witch? That night was really windy, and heavy showers came in.

Click here for Day 5 - to somewhere near Fersit

Day 3 - Kingussie Area to Newtonmore to Glen Banchor

So the dash to Kingussie for breakfast plan unfolded. We arose early and packed quickly. We hit the road which passes via Ruthven Barracks to Kingussie. Sun was shining, but the tents were still frozen solid. Only a few extra kilos of ice, who cares! Breakfast awaits....

We spied Ruthven Barracks from the viewing point along the road. There are some great information boards here to provide a potted history and some interesting facts. Won't spoil it for you here though.

We arrived at around 8 o'clock and looked for a good cafe, surely every town has a cafe to get a hearty breakfast? There were cafes, but none opened until gone 9. Could we wait an hour or so?, or should we carry on? We purchased breakfast from a good selection of items at Kingussie Coop. We found picnic benches, toilets ( at a price ), and an opportunity to fill water bottles at Kingussie tourist information. The sun was bright and so this probably was the best option anyway. The younger ones went for a swing in  the nearby play park, to burn off some spare energy, uhh?

Kingussie is certainly a very attractive town, and I would like to return another day for a proper look round when shops are open.

We headed off after breakfast to pass by Loch Gynack, and around the foothills of Creag Bheag. Here we made a navigational error, and finished climbing for a few hundred metres up Creah Bheag before realising we had missed a right turn. Although fairly early in  the day  we came across some keen climbers practising on the crags hereabouts. For future reference I think this area would have made a better wild camp, there is a grassy flat section here too. Provided rock falls are not common this could be one to look at in future. Views are spectacular too. Realising the error we used the iphone app called gridpoint to locate us on the Harvey map. This took just a couple of minutes, but at least we all had confidence to walk back on ourselves, which is always hard to do. Interestingly this app does not need a phone signal to work. It gives a grid ref  from a standing start in just a couple of minutes, which to be fair is all I would ask for. I dont own a GPS and feel more than happy to just use this if I need a grid fix.

Loch Gynach offers super views and even has its own little islands.

The Layers of clothing came off as the sun grew hot, very hot! ( nb. It turned into a mini heatwave lasting a few days, in fact for the rest of the trip. Scotland for those few days became scorching hot, the warmest part of the UK in fact - lucky us :) )

Beyond here we followed a little stream down into Newtonmore and a first real opportunity for a stores restock at the local supermarket. We would not see another proper shop for several days, so stocking here is essential. Instead of using this great piece of advice I just set off from Aviemore with a weeks shopping shared between us, well at least that was a weeks shopping minus 2 days now. Newtonmore is a super little town, and spoilt for choice now, for lunch, we settled on the garden area at the rear of a cafe. To my great shame I cannot remember the name of the cafe and have lost the receipt. It was dog friendly and had a little garden at the rear. If anyone can advise me of the name I will edit. Life at this point was just about perfect!

We now headed from civilisation into the remotest part of the EHW. Glen Banchor. This is a very wild and remote section, you will enjoy this section I promise. We passed through a deserted little hamlet along the way (Turn at the fence and gate here don't continue up the valley).  We headed up to the Bothy ( NH 648 984 ) which sits at the confluence of several valleys. 3 burns have to be crossed to make the bothy. Due to our group size, and with a desire to keep boots dry, we took a great deal of time crossing the burns. I managed to get a wet foot crossing the first burn, oh well! . I decided to help others keep dry feet by acting as a leaning post across wider stepping stones etc. I also found I could offer piggy backs across shallower bits. Come on kids! All very exciting. My good friend Nathan offered me some newspaper to dry out the boots, which I stuffed into the toes overnight. Great tip! Thanks man :)

We arrived at camp around 6.30, an hour to sunset.  Meals were quickly prepared. Soya Curry and fried onion cous cous with lashings of hot tea and meusli bars and nuts and starving! Good quality water was filtered from the burn, and was good enough to drink then and there.

This is pretty much the ideal as far as wild camping goes in my book. flat grassy dry ground. Bothy to run to if the weather turns. Set the tent door to an easterly direction and you may be greeted in the morning to a fine sunrise with mountain views :).

Click here for day 4 - Loch Doire Nan

Day 2 - Drakes Bothy to Kingussie outskirts

We packed our camp and set off into the relatively unknown with absolutely no idea where we would be sleeping. Several of us had carrier bags tied off to the outside of our bags until a suitable facility could be found for disposal. We thought we might be able to camp beyond Kingussie.

One piece of advice I would like to now give myself for future reference is to have a separate and fairly decent sized dry bag to stow rubbish and other potential waste in until somewhere suitable emerges. Carrier bags are easy to tear and leak. On at least one occasion did carrier bags leak onto the outside of our backpacks. Bit of food,  not a problem,  but other things could have been a problem. It is worth mentioning that rubbish bins are not a common site anywhere along the route except in towns and some villages. You will be carrying your refuse quite along way. Not even the car parks passed along the route have any means of disposal. Helpful locals  may take a bag or two if asked, but otherwise it's the main towns for depositing rubbish.

We decended through woodland until we emerged at Feshie Bridge car park, and a short walk further on we came to the Sculpture Park, the sun came out. There was no cost for walking around the park, enjoy!

Beyond the Sculpture Park we arrived at the side of Loch Insh. Facilities abound here. Accomodation options, cooked food, toilets, childrens play area, watersports, even a little beach. We settled for banoffee pie, coffee and more banofee pie in the cafe. Most of us had a quick spruce up in the loos here. Wet sailors everywhere so you wont feel under-dressed. Accommodation wise prices looked  reasonable but we had only covered a few miles and it was a little too early for calling it a day. Link here www.lochinsh.com.

If you had all day to walk from Aviemore, or just wanted a couple of short days you could use the wild camp at Loch Eilein and then a family room at Loch Inch the night after. Maybe rent a dinghy for an hour or two. This would be the way for me to go if I return to redo this section. The wild camping opportunities beyond Kingussie would then be a days stride away. (We made a nav error the next day and found a great place to camp with views to match beyond Kingussie, more on that later) For now, lets just mention that we got to 5.30 pm and were still well shy of Kingussie. We finished up with a 'make do' camping arrangement just before we hit the last 2 km of road down to Kingussie overlooking a wetland area. Water was collected from a nearby stream that had run off cow pasture. We boiled this to make weak tea, as well as using the filter. The area was unsuitable as a camp spot as the area is used by bird watchers and dog walkers at all times. We chose a stealth spot out of necessity as night fell. To avoid this area, aim to get beyond Kingussie by night fall to camp or perhaps book into a B&B / Hostel at Kingussie. We made a plan to get up early and dash to Kingussie for a proper fried breakfast.

The walk to this point had been most enjoyable through woods, and sections alongside woods with views across wetlands to hills beyond.

Click here for day 3 - Kingussie to Newtonmore

Day 1 - Travelling to Aviemore & hike to Drakes Bothy

So, the decision was made back in January to walk the East Highland Way over the Easter break 2014. We decided to walk the EHW from Aviemore to Fort William. We also decided that we would wild-camp wherever possible. Our group consisted of two families, so 7 of us in all, plus 3 dogs Hettie, Maisie and Poppy.

We picked up our train to Aviemore from Glasgow. The journey passed without drama, other than the train was completely full. We stood most of the way. Our very helpful guard offered us the opportunity of upgrading to first class as an option, we decided to stay as we were, but it might be worth considering first class if booking in advance as this train is regularly busy apparently. The journey offered some spectacular views, especially as most of the hills still had snow on the caps.

My own family consisted of  3 plus 1 dog  My friends family, all seasoned walkers comprised of 4 plus 2 dogs.   I packed my kit into a 50 litre Lightwave Fastpack. My 14 year old, Ellie took a Berghaus 25 litre, and my other half Lynn, carried a 40 litre Lightwave Fastpack. Our all up weights were around 15KG, 12KG and 6KG at the start without water and almost half this by the end of the walk.

Our all up weights were pretty high. With no experience of  the area, the time of year and really very little idea about supply points along the way we hedged all of our bets. Food at this stage occupied around 40 per cent of our all up weights. On reflection way too much, and we took several items which were never used or could have been left at home.

A few things to note about the EHW - it is 82 miles in length, a route proposed by Kevin Langan in 2007. It is not an 'officially adopted' long distance path. The EHW was created to link existing long distance paths. Some sections are fairly remote and unspoilt, whilst many others follow a hinterland halfway between wild and inhabited. These hinterland areas are areas such as managed forestry, nature reserves or livestock areas and so wild campsites for family sized tents are not the easiest to locate. Also many of the facilities, such as stores expected in villages for resupply are sadly no longer present, even the campsites were closed until 'after' Easter - Post Offices and shops are located in the towns of Aviemore, Kingussie, Newtonmore and Spean Bridge plus of course Fort William. A detour could be made to Kincraig for supplies also if need be. For some sections, wild campers will need to carry food for 3 days to keep a little in reserve. To help with wild camping , I have indicated our own spots chosen along the route. These were the best ones we could find, three of which I would say were pretty much perfect. A couple of others were not ideal, but served their purpose. I have suggested alternatives to these less ideal spots.

It is quite a weighty feeling setting off with ones family without every detail planned out. There seemed to be a lot of questions and virtually no information out there on the web. Most of the articles and blogs we found were solo walkers staying in accommodation each night. Some of which took road detours around the remoter sections. We were using the excellent Harvey map which covers the whole route at 1:40000. We had the East Highland Way Handbook by Kevin Langan, with a foreward by TGO's Cameron McNeish as a resource. All in all we alighted at Aviemore with the sort of feeling true explorers must have felt. That feeling of not quite knowing what lie ahead. The rain started as we alighted. I decided to write this blog to provide some additional information particularly for those intending to wild camp.

It was around 2pm, and so we left Aviemore behind aiming for Drakes Bothy, following cycle paths for a mile or so before walkers paths opened up. We were plagued with showers but the scenery was no worse for it. We took around 4 hours to walk to Drakes Bothy and passed through a managed wild camping area around 4 miles south of Aviemore near the car park adjacent to Loch an Eilein ( Grid Ref NH 896 084). This would have made a perfect overnight stop with toilets and near enough to Aviemore such that we could have spent an hour or two looking round.

We made our way to Drakes Bothy as planned ( Grid Ref NH 884 056), knowing what had been left BEHIND. Drakes bothy is set in the stunning nature reserve area of Inshriach.

We were not disappointed. We camped on the grass beside the bothy, taking care to avoid the overhanging branches of nearby trees. You are required to leave the area as you found it and to pack out all of your waste. Yes, all of your waste! On this occasion we were lucky, the dogs less so. We saw only 2 people pass the nearby path in all the time we stayed. We filtered excellent drinking water from a nearby stream which can be accessed either just before or just after the path which passes the bothy. We erected 3 tents as the sun went down and cooked our first camp food.

still raining as the sun goes down!

As mentioned the setting was idylic. Due to a little issue with one of the dogs having an upset tummy I spent much of the night up and about filling nappy sacks. Nappy sacks aside, the rain had gone. The moon was near full and the skies cleared. Temperatures dropped to below freezing and the wind had become just a vesper. I could see without torch light so went for a short walk.  Seriously this was truly awe inspiring. Just needed a wolf howl to complete the picture. Fantastic!

Click here for day 2 - Drakes Bothy to Kingussie