Newish projects: part 2

I didn't get around to blogging about it before it happened, but in August I walked the West Highland Way in Scotland.

To prepare for this 96 mile walk from Milngavie to Fort William, I had to get back in long distance walking shape. I had initially planned to walk progressively longer distances each weekend starting in April, but things like our trip to New York, visits to in-laws, errands, and other activities got in the way. I was also a bit choosy about the walks I did since I didn't want to repeat the ones I had done to prepare for the Dales Way and I also didn't want any that had too much road or paved walking.

This lead me to walk a circuit around Pibrac, visit the back country north of Toulouse, discover the burial grounds of the British soldiers who died in the battle of Toulouse in the Napoleonic wars, and even walk from my apartment to Muret (with a pick-up service by my loving hubby).

In the end I did living room workouts targeting leg/pelvic flexibility and overall strength and did a lot of my practice walking late June and through July. My overall fitness is alright since I bike to work and dance, and 6-ish weeks of preparation were sufficient.

After my Dales Way experience, I decided to use a baggage transfer service during the 8 days I was walking the Way. I went with AMS, although all three major baggage transfer services charge the same fee (45£ for the duration of your walk). This made the walk much more agreeable because I wasn't caring more than 3-4 kg each day (waterproofs, lunch, water, walking poles, first-aid kit, extra sweaters, gaitors, etc) and all my extra clothes, sneakers, towel, toiletries, and occasional souvenirs were in my suitcase transported each day to my reserved accommodations.

After the walk I visited with friends in Mull for 2 days, a day in Inverary to visit the castle, then spent 2 days on Arran, before a last day in Glasgow and then returning to Toulouse.

Overall, I much prefer the WHW to the Dales Way. Part of that is due to the fact that I started out the Dales Way with stomach problems (not great for walking 10 miles each day) and was also carrying all my stuff. But the WHW is much better sign posted all along the path, so I never lost 45 minutes by walking 20 minutes in the wrong direction and then 25 minutes trying to get back to the path like happened repeatedly with the Dales Way. There were also a lot more people walking it than the Dales Way, and this meant that there was an incredible sense of camaraderie along the trail. There are only so many places to stay in each village, and since most people do the same stages, I ended up seeing the same people along multiple parts of the trail and often sharing the same hostel. One night everyone stayed in the hostel common room chatting till 11pm. The last night in Fort William the hostel employee lent a guitar to a French teenager who walked the way with his brother and parents and an Italian lead a multi-lingual round of Brother John in French, Italian, English, and German. I met two German girls along the way and we walked two days together and then ended up cooking together the last night.

It was wonderful spending 8 days out in the Scottish countryside (well, my entire trip was spent walking outdoors except for the 2 days in Mull when it rained and we played games and had lunch at the pub) and I would really like to go back to visit some of the more conventional tourist sites like Edinburgh, Stirling, and Skye.

But I have my eye on the South West Coast Path for my next long distance walk, so Scotland might have to wait.