West Highland Way (nein)

7/5/11 Saturday.
The rain overnight was fairly heavy at times leaving wet tents to pack up. Our Golite Pinnacle sacs have useful straps on each side, ideal for strapping wet gear on to. Rain continues intermittently and we have the usual game of on and off with waterproofs until the sun peers though the mists. We had hoped to climb Ben Lui on the way to Tyndrum today but the rain, mist and forecasts of 60mph gusts of wind on the tops rather turned us against the idea. So the low route it was, following the WHW as written with both guide books exaggerating the 19 miles to travel, only at our peak of fitness in Spain would we cover this distance in 5 hours and then with light packs, we think it is being talked up.
The main road and the railway line are crossed several times by the WHW, the first under line is a cunningly shaped cut through that gets lower as you pass through necessitating a hands and knees exit for those burdened with sizable packs.
The day improves and we dry out slowly, but the tops are in cloud and we see the sun occasionally. We have coffee at a farm shop midday by St Fillans’s priory, now ruined and pass through the Millennium forest., this is the local attempt to reintroduce the Caledonian forest. Finally, via a still bare area where lead ore from a mine in the hills was separated, poisoning the ground, we arrive in Tyndrum at The Green Wellie Stop. That well known tourist mecca is humming with activity. A gold mine has replaced the lead industry in recent years.
We have a couple of hours drying out time then the next front reaches us and this post sent from our tents with rain pattering on the outsides.

Link to where we are on Google Maps