West Highland Way Day 5

Tyndrum to Bridge of Orchy

7 miles

383 ft of elevation

I was determined to stay in these little Hobbit huts on this trip as they are adorable and cozy.

And I would 100% stay in them again. (We are staying in something similar again in a couple of nights.) But it is noteworthy that the huts are part of a campground, so I got to make several night walks through the campground to the shower and bathroom block in the center.

It was cloudy the first two times I made the trip, but on my 4am loo visit, the sky had cleared and the stars were out. It’s been a hot minute since I could see so many stars at night in the UK, and I had to stop and stare for a while, until I was too chilly to be outside anymore.

I haven’t done much camping lately and I miss it. Well, I miss parts of it. I miss being around a campfire and seeing the stars and living outside. 

I think that the little huts in the campgrounds you find along the West Highland Way are a great compromise to camping. If I did it again, I think I’d pack a sleeping bag and stay in more of them. (We are renting sleeping bags on the couple of nights we’re doing it this time.)

I also enjoyed getting to chat to the campers. There are so many folks carrying all their gear and camping on this trail, most of them a good bit younger than us. But we enjoy cheering them on when they pass us (with packs three times the size of ours) and hearing where they set up their tent and how they weathered the rain. So it was fun to be at the campground with lots of them for the night.

Our favorite camper is the gal we met from Germany on the first day and she was in the same campground as us, so we got to walk part of the day with her today.

She was still asleep when we went to breakfast at 7:30am in town at The Real Food Cafe. We sat in the little dining room because we weren’t in any hurry to get going. We all three ate porridge with seeds, nuts and honey for breakfast. A welcome change.

When we got back to camp, most everyone had packed up and gone but our sweet friend was still getting ready. I stopped and got her number because I told her she’d probably get ahead of us today so I wasn’t sure we’d see her again. Most everyone else is going on a good bit further than 7 miles.

We headed out before her but even with a huge pack, she caught us later and hiked with us a good bit of the way to Bridge of Orchy.

We were taking it slow today as we didn’t want to arrive at the hotel too much before our check-in time.

Plus we just wanted to soak in the sunshine and not be in a hurry. After all, this was our rest day.

We stopped at an inviting stream for second breakfast.

We paused for any photos we wanted to take or to look up the name of a mountain we were walking along (Ben Dorain) or to watch a train go by.

We stopped and talked to an 80 year old man who was hiking this trail for the 5th time. (My hat is off to you sir!)

The only task was to enjoy the day. Which is pretty easy to do when the path is a gentle 7 miles in the sun. It was another day where our rain gear stayed in the bottom of the packs.

We arrived at the happily-situated Bridge of Orchy Hotel shortly after noon. We sat down and had a drink with our friend.

We compared trail notes and laughed in the sun. We sat there so long that we decided to order lunch. It was a luxuriously slow afternoon!

Finally at 2, our friend decided she needed to push on. I walked her to the bridge and wished her well for the 12 more miles she had left!

Then I went down to the river, took off my boots and had a good long soak. I can’t actually believe it was warm and sunny enough in Scotland to be soaking in a river. I saw a whole family strip down to their underwear and get all the way in for a swim! What a day!

After a while I went and got showered and settled at the hotel. We washed clothes and set them in the sun to dry. I had a wee nap! Ate a plate of vegan haggis, neeps and tatties for dinner. And sticky toffee pudding of course. Tomorrow is my birthday so we called tonight’s gorgeous meal my birthday dinner and the waiter brought us wee proseccos on the house. So much fun!

Our German friend texted sometime around 7pm that she had made it and that it was the most beautiful stretch of the hike so far. We’ve been told something similar multiple times now by locals, so I’m so excited to get out there and see it!

I think it’s a clear night so I’ll just peek outside and check on the stars before bed.