WHW - athletes prepare for challenge

From http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.com/

Idle Friday night pub chatter over the last year or so had included amongst our sporting ambitions the West Highland Way. None of us were experienced walkers - complete novices, in fact - and all of us were still working, so couldn't afford to spend a whole week doing the full 96 mile walk.

The breakthrough came when Ian McWhinnie (John's son) did a mini version over a long weekend. This covered the prettiest and most northerly part of the route from Bridge of Orchy to Fort William, so a plot was hatched around this, and, after 9 months or more of planning, plus a few mini practice walks to test the gear, lungs and limbs, the time had finally come on Thursday 16th September, 2010.

The route we planned to walk over 3 days was:

Three vehicles set off - John McWhinnie left at lunchtime, taking Colin Kilgour and Ian Sharp with him. I drove directly from my office in Fraserburgh, leaving there not long after 2 pm, and Dave Williamson, having flown in from Paris early afternoon, then spending 2 hours in a conference call in his car, finally picked up Jack Simpson not long after 6 pm.

John's car obviously arrived first and they all went for a couple of pints in the Grog and Gruel before John hopped on the last train out of town, down to Bridge of Orchy, to spend the night there. I arrived in Fort William at 5:15 pm and Colin, Ian and I went to the Grog and Gruel for some ale and supper, and to await the arrival of Dave and Jack, who dumped their car at our hotel and hot-footed it up to the pub, arriving not too long after 9 pm. Just time for a team photo:

Is that a halo over Sharpy's head, or is he feeling light-headed?

So that was our training over - the real thing was to start on Friday morning.