Ben Nevis… Just a long walk!

We have been carefully monitoring the Met Office weather predictions for the last two weeks to identify the best day to attempt Ben Nevis. At long last the heavy grey rain clouds finally disappeared from the forecasts and on Friday we packed the rucksacks with everything for our Everest style expedition!!! (waterproofs, hats, gloves, first aid kit, blister plasters, water, energy drinks, walking poles, map, compass and the essential chocolate and extra chocolate for Sarah) to take advantage of the window of opportunity. As you can see from the photos we did most of the walk in shorts and T-shirts!!

The weather was perfect and with our fully loaded rucksacks we said goodbye to Andy the Landy in the carpark and headed for the top… little did we know what was in store as we had been told it was “just like a long walk!” So we headed off expecting a gentle saunter up the big hill. 3 hours and 54 minutes later (and after lots of puffing and panting) we arrived at the summit of Ben Nevis having crossed rivers, boulders and even snow.

Lunch was at the highest picnic area in Britain at 1344m before heading back down to the pub for a well deserved beer. Surprisingly the beer incentive meant we made it back down in 2 hours 56 minutes… Not bad for a pair of walking rookies.

On Saturday we had to pack up to head down to Oban and Sarah couldn’t get out of bed or use her legs…perhaps we should have started with something a little shorter than 8 ¾ miles and 6 hours 50 minutes for our first walk without any training! However, she now knows the joy of the Ben Nevis walk! From my London marathon days… I reckon the next couple of days will be even worse…