WHW - day 1 - the hard work begins

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

The 5 of us who had stayed overnight in FW took the early morning train south to Bridge of Orchy and met up with John, who had stayed there overnight. Tea and bacon butties, gear on, and here we go:

It looks like John was having a bad hair day, but he blamed it on the anti-midge spray:

There was a bit of a climb at the start, but nothing to concern ourselves about and the walk was fairly steady after that - and in decent weather conditions. Towards the end, we spied the imposing Buachaille Etive Mòr and we got a fellow walker to take a photo with the hill as a backdrop:


Our hotel was now in sight and we were all grateful for the King's House's facilities - baths, in particular, but beds for some:

The real ale quality was a little disappointing so, after dinner, we reverted to drams:

I was using a Blackberry app on the walk (http://bimactive.com) and the stats are noted below (click on image to enlarge):

In short, our total elapsed time was 5 hours 23 minutes and we walked 12.18 miles, with the uphill stretches totalling 1,666 feet.

A nice start and not too painful - although we were all a bit sore after the downhill stretch.