Sunday, 24 July 2016

West Highland Way Day 1


Milgavie to Drymen GPS 14miles
Our walk started at The Best Foot Forward B&B in Milgavie, pronounced 'Mullguy' where the owner donated to our charity. As we walked to the start of the West Highland Way, an obelisk in the centre of Mulgavie, yes first morning it's raining. With just light rain we removed our coats to reveal our T-Shirts.
The rain was light and on and off until lunch time. We became quite warm and removed our T-Shirts (don't want them too smelly for later) while coats went on and off several times.
The first section of the walk takes you through Murdock Country Park with well kept paths and easy going. We were told the first day isn't the most exciting as you're on the out skirts of Glasgow, going away from the city there isn't a great deal to see Kirsty and I can always find something to talk about but not sure what was going on here.
As We walk along a disused railway we see our first loch and the volcanic shape of Dumgoyne is spotted through the cloud.
Not far from here we were warned by the owner of last nights B&B to watch out for a frauster who claims you are walking on private land and asks for a donation to keep the path open, he would be blonde and have a dog he claimed was half Dog and half wolf. We came across him talking to others so walked away quickly but he called me back, I must be honest I was rather abrupt with him, Kirsty said bad mannered. He looked at me and put money in our charity collection box. Oops! I felt quite bad and Kirsty  did rub it in.

We were making good time so made a detour to the Glengoyne Distillery. 
We had time so took the short tour and very informative it was. Obviously we had to taste the whiskey we tried the 12 year single malt. I think I'll stick to Guinness.
You've got to admire the guides nerve wearing those trousers.
After the distillery we push on until we reach Drumgoyne and ate lunch at the Beech tree Inn. 

From here the rain became heavier for a while. We were walking on a disused railway again and were quite wet. There a couple of sections where you need to cross the A81 so have to take care. We pass through Garness and just as the rain slows find an honesty box so Kirsty and I couldn't resist a lolly.
We love our ices.

We reach Drymen which is just off the main trail which is our stop for the night.
We walked 14 miles in total, during our training we have become used to this distance and with only a few ups and downs the going was not too bad and we feel in fine fettle ready for day 2.

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