In what was now a pattern, Crianlarich took far longer to stagger into than expected, not helped by a wrong turn, bringing a descent through boggy bracken in the first rain we'd had. It was like walking in porridge. Awful, endless -- but we did spot a deer.
Pain: 9. Pleasure: 9.
Day 4: Crianlarich to Kingshouse, 42km
Mercifully, this stretch uses the sturdy military road built in response to the Jacobite risings. From Tyndrum onwards, it's all staggering, especially Rannoch Moor: a wild, desolate, dangerous place. Here, lined by Munros, the path threads round lochans and over streams to Ba Bridge, the Way's remotest stretch, where we'd been told to listen for "the cry of the eagle and the rutting of the deer."All I could hear was silence, a deep silence worth walking 112km for, broken only by the gentle hurlygush of the Ba. It's a great place to sit and feel the hum of the earth, the crackle of the universe, as something deep inside you slowly realigns itself, like the needle of a compass finding north. This is real detox -- and all it costs is a bit of boot leather and puff.
Pain: 6. Pleasure: 10.
Day 5: Kingshouse to Fort William, 35km
The good weather had ended. In horizontal rain, we zigzagged up the well-named Devil's Staircase with legs burning, heading away from Glen Coe. From the summit, the Way's highest point, we could see for, oh, meters and meters.
Torrents swept the path. Sometimes you picked your way over. Sometimes you just ploughed right through. At Kinlochleven we checked the map. Not. Even. Halfway.
And the climb out was worse than the Devil's Staircase. Still, the weather lifted at the top, allowing superb views of Loch Leven and the Pap. Now it was just one long slog towards the colossus, Ben Nevis, dominating the skyline ahead. Past a loch, up a hill, through a forest and our spectacular trek -- 152km wearying, uplifting kilometers -- was finally over. We reached the pub at the foot of Glen Nevis near dead with exhaustion, yet never having felt so alive.
Pain: 10. Pleasure: 10.
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