Highland fun and games

From here on, the story has every chance of being an almost  
repetitive litany of amazing scenery, inadequately described. As we  
move from the Trossachs into the Highlands, there's a marked shift  
from tree lined "aah, that's really pretty landscape", into rugged,  
bleakly majestic terrain where the best response is contemplative  
silence. Tom remembers this area very well from his solo walk of two  
years ago, and he tells us that Rannoch Moor is the largest deserted  
stretch of land in the UK. It's easy to see why.

A long descent into Glencoe is undoubtedly one of the highlights of  
the whole trip so far. We stop in the village for lunch and, just to  
add to it, the cloud cover breaks and we are in hot sun, the most  
unequivocally summery weather we've had.

We carry on to Fort William, a long town that from a distance looks  
like a string of pearls as its white shore side buildings catch the  
late afternoon sun. We've decided to cook in the hostel tonight, but  
we stop for coffee in the park before tackling Tesco and a local comes  
up to talk to us for several minutes before making a donation to the  
MS fund. These small human moments are one of the abiding memories.

The hostel cowers right underneath Ben Nevis, and Tom, James and  
Martin decide to go for a bit of a climb while Adam stays back to  
cook.  There isn't time to do more than an hour and a bit, and it  
takes a minimum of six hours to do the whole thing apparently.  
Besides, there's a chilli and beer calling...