Day 4

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Day 4 began with a leisurely look at the map. In my original plan I would have reached Kinlochmore on day 4 and so I was running a day ahead of schedule. This was going to cause a problem as, no matter how hard I tried, I could not work out a sensible route back to Corrour Station that would take me three days. I was a two day walk and that would have got me back a day early. So I decided once again to abandon my original plans and look for another option. The most obvious one would be to follow the West Highland Way and walk into Fort William. In the normal course of things, you can walk from Kinlochmore to Fort William in a day but with a heavy pack I thought that it would be more fun to take two rather easy days over the walk. And so I needed somewhere to camp along the way. I lay on my bed and examined the map once again. About half way along the path I spotted what looked like the ideal location, sandwiched between the banks of the river Allt na Lairge Moire and a forest and under Doire Ban there was a small tongue of open land that looked idea. I went down for breakfast and was surprised to see several familiar faces. Walkers from the Tail Race were staying at the b&b. I shared a table with a Frenchman and inevitable we spoke about the West Highland Way.

After breakfast I checked on my tent - it was dry. I quickly packed and paid and got on my way again. The day was overcast but the cloud base was fairly high. I felt that light showers were likely and the forecast agreed but said that there would be rain in the afternoon. This fitted in well with my plans because I would reach my chosen camping spot not long after lunch. As I was having an easy day, I called in at a local shop and bought some new batteries for the K1, that way I could spend the afternoon having a few contacts.

The path started from the road in Kinlochmore and was well marked - no need for a compass today. It ascended steeply through woods until it met a rough track along the course of an old military road. Easy going for a change. Of course I was not alone, in fact it reminded me of one of those travelators at airports. Every few hundred metres there were people walking in the same directions all going at about the same speed. All had daysacks on and my full pack looked a little out of place. Surprisingly I was walking faster than the others and overtook several people on the climb out of Kinlochmore. Eventually I got chatting to a young couple who were doing the Way. They had also been in the Tail Race the night before. They had started in May and I commented that they must have been walking slowly (since it is only about 100 miles from end-to-end) but it transpired that they had had to give up on their first attempt due to food poisoning; not much risk of that for me I thought since all I had was Cadbury's Smash and porridge. We walked along together for a while and it was pleasant to have some company for a change.

The track crossed many streams and at one point we caught up with a couple who seemed to be having some problems in crossing one of the wider torrents. The man had crossed and his partner was perched on a rock in the middle. Doing my "macho" bit I simply waded across - and got another boot full of water for my trouble. I don't think that anyone was impressed and I had a wet foot for the rest of the day as a reminder to be a little more sensible next time. Eventually I broke away from the couple and walked on alone. The path follows a magnificent wide valley and the walking was pleasant. Rain never seemed far way and the sky looked ominous but it held off.

As I rounded a bend on the track I could make out the tree tops of a coniferous forest. The start of the forest was the point at which I would leave the Way and head off down towards the river on my left to find my camping spot. It was only 1pm so I would be camped in time for lunch and a very lazy afternoon. Eventually I reached the forest and set off down the hillside to look for somewhere to camp. I was obviously not the first to have gone that was as there was a muddy track running alongside the margin of the woods. About 100 metres from the river there was a large flat area on my right. It was ideal being flat and dry, fairly close to the river and screened from view from any footpaths. In a few minutes I had the tent and aerial erected and a brew of tea on the way.

The K1 tuned up easily on both 20m and 40m and I had a test QSO with G2BGG. There was a contest going on and listening around it sounded like the Worked All Europe with it's QTC element. I relaxed for a while reading a book and drinking tea before having another tune about on 40m MX5IPX the FISTS club station was calling CQ and I called in and said hello to Geo. He gave me 448 saying that my tone was not good. I have no idea why that should have been. After a while I thought that I would investigate 20m and worked DL8WKR/QRP and DL2BXC. More tea followed and lots of relaxing. By this time, the rain that had been forecast had arrived. It is these elements of camping that I really enjoy and is the main reason that I take a roomy (if heavy) tent. Just lounging about always brings to mind, for me, all those hours and sometimes days, that I spent in tents in Antarctica. With the wind howling outside a cup of cocoa and a book there was nothing finer! There was even some radio there as we had a daily sked with the base.

Back on 40m I was called again by Einar SM5CBC/4. He was weak this time and we arranged a sked for later in the evening. 20m yielded QSOs with N4AF, UA9FTQ and 9K9O. I was using a microswitch as a lightweight key which made contest QSOs rather hard. I had a more successful chat with Einar later in the evening and also had my regular sked with Pat, G3IOR. Unfortunately, Pat had some difficulty in copying me and I was never really sure that he got my plans for the next day. He did, however, receive my grid reference. I had set up a facility on my website before I left that would allow anyone who worked me to see my exact location displayed on a map if they entered my grid reference. At about 2130 I settled down for the night.

The night was fairly comfortable with two exceptions. Some sheep wandered through my camp and one tripped over a guy for the mast. There was a loud "ping" and the aerial pulled taut but fortunately it held. I also found that I was camped on a very slight incline and tended to drift to one side of the tent as I slept. Thus I woke from time-to-time to move from the edge of the tent. Apart from that it was a peaceful night. Day 5.

 

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