WHW - athletes prepare for challenge
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.
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