The wall of heat

Thursday 28 June – Rowardennan to Inverarnan

It would have been so lovely to have stayed and enjoyed the Rowardennan YHA for as long as possible – such a picturesque spot. But we knew that today was likely to get up to 30’C so we wanted to get an early start and make the most of the cooler morning. So off we set at 8.20am!

The first part of the day was easy walking, with a gentle climb up to a forest track that we followed for about 6km. Cool and shady, although we could feel it warming up even then. Once out of the forest, the track became a path winding quite closely along the Loch edge through some older oak woodland, with intermittent views of the gorgeous Loch scenery. The path, according to the guide book, “undulated” with the occasional “rock slab to scramble over” – roughly translated as “not as easy as it may appear if you are carrying a 9-10kg pack”! And so on to Inversnaid by about 12.30, about half way for the day, where we were able to get cold drinks.

Suitably refreshed we set off for the second half of our day, fully expecting to be at our destination between 3-4pm. Wrong! The “undulating track” became a rock scramble which took far longer than we had anticipated and was actually very tiring. We couldn’t wait for it to end. And we were getting hotter and hotter as the temperature climbed during the day. Peter even found a quiet cove and had a quick dip to try and cool off – unfortunately as soon as you start removing T shirts etc the flies attack, and we do mean attack! The famed Scottish midges have not been a problem so far but the things we can only refer to as horse flies or similar are mean devils and bite. We both have the welts to prove it! Anyway – between swatting flies and tiptoeing over the sharp stones, Peter quickly decided it probably wasn’t worth the effort but at least he was a bit cooler.

Throughout all this we do have to emphasise that the views and scenery were amazing! This would be one of the most beautiful places we have passed through on our trip, and to have seen Loch Lomond glinting in the sunshine is a beautiful memory indeed.

Eventually the clambering over rocks came to an end and we found ourselves at the end of Loch Lomond and about to climb up over a small saddle to get in to the valley where we would find Inverarnan. As we left the shelter of the woodland, every time we entered open ground we were hit by a wall of heat. It was amazing!

As we subsequently learned, the Glasgow area (including us) had its hottest day on record today, hitting a whopping 32C! We had anticipated that Scotland would be cooler than points further south and truly were not expecting this searing heat, that is for sure. The walk up and over the saddle was punctuated by frequent rest and water stops in shade, and the wetting of hats and heads every time we passed a stream. It was ridiculously hot!

We finally reached Inverarnan at 4.15pm, and the welcome sight of the Drovers Inn where we are staying tonight. Having checked in our first priority was a long cold drink, closely followed by a refreshing shower before we had to interact too closely with any unsuspecting members of the public – we were very sweaty!

The Drovers Inn is a weird and wonderful place – elderly, a little unkempt, reputedly haunted, but clearly a walkers’ pub, with friendly staff and a good meal. We watched the first half of the England v Belgium game before fleeing outside to the cool evening to escape the very warm, crowded bar. It wasn’t much better upstairs – even at 9pm our room was still hot, and though we were instructed to keep the windows closed because of the midges, we chose not to.

Tomorrow will be a cooler 25C – we hope…

Distance today: 21km / 12.5 miles (but it felt like twice that ☹ )

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