Despite the awkward mattress, thin walls of paper and the smell of sweaty feet, I can sleep a little. I wake up with my right knee still hurt and I haven’t even got out of bed, it is not a good sign.
I hope that when it moves again, the pain decreases, so I decide to try this and take a short walk to the Carylarich train station. The walk unfortunately demonstrates this badly. The pain can sometimes be scorching and other times I feel that maybe I could walk a little.
I am not ready to give up, I take my time preparing myself, so some strokes in the hostel room and use my water bottle like an improvised foam roller.
Taking the train to Tyndrum
This WHW section has the benefit of following a train line for much of the route, which means that it is possible to obtain the train between sections. I decide to omit the first part of the walk to Tyndrum and get the train there. I hope a little more rest means that the section can walk from Tyndrum to Bridge of Orchy later in the day.
Tyndrum also has an outdoor store and I hope to buy something there to give some support to my knee.
He attracted the train to Tyndrum Lower and the short walk from there to the main street of Tyndrum is through the whw. It is a very short walk and yet it takes me a long time to go very slowly. It is clear that no amount of knee support or sitting on Tyndrum will be enough to walk from Tyndrum to the Orchy bridge today. I am disappointed, but tell me that if you rest today, maybe you can walk the next section from Bridge of Orchy tomorrow as planned.
Back in the Whw walking very slowly to the main road on Tyndrum
Making the decision to stop
I go to Green Welly Stop in search of knee support trying to gather some positivity, but the pain is very bad. I can’t see that a little knee support and an extra rest night will be enough. I know that tomorrow it would be my longest day in the Whw and that the devil’s staircase also involves a steep descent in Kinlochleven at the end. Even without that, the morning section of Whw crosses Rannoch Moor, a very isolated section of the route without options to rescue early if necessary.
The idea of starting tomorrow and having to call help because I can’t walk anymore is a real possibility. And also for me, irresponsible to start if I know it could happen. I sit at coffee at Green Welly Stop and make the decision that my time at Whw will have to end here. The disappointment is real. I had never had problems with my knees before.
Tyndrum – Hogar with two train stations
With my luggage transferred to Bridge of Orchy, I have no choice but to get there. Fortunately, there is a Upper Tyndrum train later today. Tyndrum, population 170, has two train stations in two different lines with two conventions of different names.
With the time before my train, I stop at Real Food Café to get a scam and disappointing chips. I make my knee and try not to revolt how I feel to know that deep down is the right decision.
Lunch but disappointing
The climate in the whw is still sunny and warm and is forecast tomorrow to heat even more. I’m really lucky in terms of sun on this trip. I am convinced that if I return to finish the Whw, I will meet with the rain.
I take a long time to walk slowly down the hill to the Upper Tyndrum train station. Fortunately, walking uphill is easier than below. And so I end with half an hour of waiting at a station with any appropriate place to sit. I feel comfortable in the gravel in the shadow and go to bed.
Lying at the train station train station
Sleep on a train platform
I arrive at Bridge of Orchy Station and my accommodation for the night is the West Highland Sleop. This is an old building station on the platform that has become and where I have a bed in the ten bed bedroom. I am very excited to be sleeping on a train platform.
Orchy Station bridge and the Sleope West Highland building
West Highland Sleep’s reviews are very mixed but tend to the poor. Therefore, my expectations are very low and I am pleasantly surprised. Helen, who runs the place, is very friendly, and one of the other guests (also walking on the whw) carries my suitcase for me while I limit and go to bed in one of the Literas.
The showers are hot, the bedding smells everything clean, there are plugs and for the first time in a long time, 5 g. In addition, there is the possibility of hanging out on a train platform and seeing rare trains.
Inside West Highland’s sleep
I make plans for tomorrow and I decide not to travel to Kinlochleven and then Fort William by bus, but simply to return home early. Unfortunately, although I can cancel my guest house in Kinlochleven, it is too late for reimbursement. And Caledonia’s sleeping refuses to let me change my train ticket to a day before, forcing me to cancel it and lose half of the money. I reserve a train ticket for the next morning to Glasgow, and then another to the south.
Celebrating my last night at Whw
I still have to eat and feel better now that I have made the decision to go home, slowly (and painfully) on the hill to the Orchy Hotel bridge. This is part of Whw and we walk to the bridge itself.
Whw Final Photo – It simply not where I expected
At the hotel, align my drinks and take fish and fries for dinner before walking back. With the long light night, I buy a Biscoff Kat kit from the honesty store at the station and accommodated in a chair with my feet up to read my book. A quiet and unexpected end for my adventure whw.
Dinner and three drinks
Facing on the Bridge of Orchy Station platform
Note: Bridge of Orchy is in Mile 59.5. Today I have probably walked 1 mile in total of the whw.
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