Characters on the WHW

On these types of vacations, you almost inevitably run into the same groups of people over and over again who are on more or less the same schedule as you. I made up nicknames for some of the more memorable characters described below to protect their anonymity, and because we usually didn't know them.

On day one, we met the young couple "Teresa and Steve" walking hand in hand along the way sharing a backpack and (for some reason) carrying a plastic bag which annoyed me no end (why couldn't it fit in the backpack? I thought this all afternoon). They were very nice and were always well matched in pace with us and finished the way on Friday along with us.

Also very early on we met two 50-something buddies "Ben Doon and Phil McCavity" who set off on an electric pace and cruised past us a couple of hours into the walk. I thought they looked like really experienced walkers. Their pace gradually slowed over the day and was reduced to a hobble as we reached the Oak Tree in Balmaha. Ben had awful blisters and Phil had a dodgy knee. We never saw Ben on day 2 (or again for that matter) and he must have caught the bus home. Phil bravely hiked onto Inversnaid but the last we saw of him, he was in a sorry state catching the ferry over to the other side of Loch Lomond bound for home also.

A lot of 50-60-something married couples seem to hike the trail (at least they did this week). We met Terry and June, a couple of apparently empty nesters with a bit of time on their hands and our paths criss-crossed right the way to the end of the way. Like many people we met, they were amazed at how well Dad did, and he usually got to his destination quicker than they did! They had a good laugh when he dashed back to return his keys at the Bridge of Orchy.

A very agreeable character we bumped into in the pub at the Bridge of Orchy was Jock from Montrose. Jock wanted to hike the way last year for his 50th birthday but broke his ankle. He's an early riser and starts his hikes at 6 am when nobody else is around. We weren't quite on the same schedule and needless to say we didn't bump into him again!