Did we mention that we walked a lot on our trip to Scotland? I didn’t use the GPS feature on my watch, and based on the GPS routes Jack was able to download, we think that my watch overestimated our mileage because we were taking shorter than average steps on the wet rocky terrain. In the table below, the steps below are accurate and the mileage is not. However, we also deserve credit for carrying all of our stuff, all of the time, outside of Glasgow and Edinburough.
20ish miles!! The 13.44 mile was actually harder for me becuase we started in the afternoon and my feet were recovering from having been soggy throughout the previous day.
The long distance walks we did were part of the West Highland Way (Tyndrum to Kinlochmore in three days) and the full Dava Way (Grantown-on-Spey, to Dava, to Forres in two days). The West Highland Way felt pretty remote. We were very rarely in forrests and could see long distances. Most of the time there was one road in sight, though it was often far accross a valley. The first night we spent at a hotel that was one of a handful of buildings miles down a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. The second night we stayed at a hostel that was next to a ski slope. The Dava Way is a former railway route that has been improved by volunteers over the last 15-20 years. We passed farms and some houses, but not a single business other than the Dava Schoolhouse B&B where we spent the night. Our tranist routes are shown in orange in the map below.
In terms of packing, I think we did pretty well. We each had about 2.5 outfits, our hiking boots and a second pair of lightweight sneakers. My boots especially weren’t cut out for the wetness, because I sadly had to give away my nice heavy duty boots post-pregnancy. Buying new boots before a week of walking is not a good plan. We brought some boot dryers which didn’t make it with the voltage differences in Europe. We also brought a water filter for peace of mind but never needed it. I am kind of obsessed with having enough water while hiking, but in the cool weather I wasn’t as thirsty as usual. If we did it again, I’d bring our gaiters and my hiking poles. A lot of other people used poles and they really help offset the weight of the backpack, in addition to making it easier to walk on wet ground. We booked airbnbs with washing machines at several points so our clothes weren’t too dirty.
