Skip to navigation

Walking Land's End to John o'Groats with Mark Moxon

Kilsyth to Drymen

The Forth and Clyde Canal
The Forth and Clyde Canal

Over the last few days the weathermen and women have been glowing with the news of the hottest heatwave to hit the country in years. Their charts have been beaming with pretty yellow sun symbols and the temperatures have been soaring above 30°C, setting new records for the time of year and giving the forecasters the happy task of predicting clear skies and wall-to-wall sunshine for the next few days. It's a happy time.

Scenery? What Scenery?

Dunglass, near Strathblane
Dunglass, near Strathblane

Annoyingly I have just bitten off more than I can chew, and it hurts. Although the longest individual day of this walk remains the 24 miles from Tiverton to Taunton – matched only by the 24 miles from Melrose to Peebles, though that was done with a lighter pack – the last few days have collectively been the longest haul of the trip. Since my bonus rest day in Peebles, itself following on from the long Melrose-Peebles leg, I've covered 14, 18.5, 22 and 21.5 miles per day, and today was another long slog at 23.5 miles. That's 99.5 miles in five days straight, and it's a been a long trek.

Strathblane and the Campsie Fells
Strathblane and the Campsie Fells
The disused railway line near Duntreath Castle
The disused railway line near Duntreath Castle

Relief

The West Highland Way
The West Highland motor-Way

I didn't do anything except keep on walking, but slowly the pain subsided from an intense and unavoidable jolt to a dull ache. It wasn't comfortable but I figured I could cope with it, and it was in this state that I reached Strathblane, the point in the walk when I decided to test my shortcut theory.

Dumgoyne from the West Highland Way
Dumgoyne from the West Highland Way