In October half-term, Nigel and I (John) took a small group of WWESU’s Explorers to the West Highlands. As always, most of the plan was by necessity worked out on the (long!) drive up, but by the time the crew had crossed the border, there was a plan.
The group would do the formidable Knoydart traverse; a crossing of a remote area sometimes referred to as ‘the Highlands of the Highlands’, starting at the picturesque Glenfinnan Viaduct and finishing three of four days later at the only village on the British mainland not reachable by road. No light undertaking with young people, the route would provide enjoyment and challenge for all of the participants even with relatively benign weather conditions (anything not blowing you off your feet in Scotland). A fantastic time was had. Many thanks once again to Nigel for giving up his time in the name of hilly adventure, and of course thanks to the young people involved for being brilliant as per. Read on to find out what we got up to, in this blog post written by the Explorers who took part…

Day 1: Travel to the Highlands
We started our day at an early 4:45am and started the long travel up to the Red Squirrel Campsite in Glencoe. We drove for around 9 hours with stops at service stations where we got briefed about our expedition, which was traversing Knoydart.
When crossing the border Scottish tunes blasted throughout to get us in the mood for the glens, bothies and Munros to come. We had a quick stop at Morrisons in Fort William to stock up with food for the expedition ahead, then the short journey back through Glen Coe to the campsite, passing many iconic sights such as the famous Three Sisters. We put up our tents and sat down and had fajitas for dinner. Later on, we packed our expedition bags with food, clothes and waterproofs and bedded down for the night to get some much-needed rest for the journey ahead.

Day 2: Expedition Start (Glenfinnan to Glen Dessary)
We woke up in the morning at 7 and had, for the first and only time, dry tents, feet and bags to put on. We struck camp and were on the road by 9, arriving at Glenfinnan viaduct by 10. After being rejected by the car park, we got off the minibus round the corner and got walking. Hiking at a fast pace, we steamed over the first hill and had our lunch, while John’s group caught up with us. After some difficult marshy ground and a steep uphill, we reached our first saddle. The views were beautiful – grey cloud all around, with a touch of rain – so we went over the top and walked carefully down the steep slope on the other side. After some false information and a few river crossings, we ended up on the right side of the river with a nice path leading all the way to a forest. Here we waited, so both groups could enter the forest together, and we hiked the final few kilometres as a group, while it steadily grew darker. Finally we arrived at the A’chuil bothy in Glen Dessary, where we pitched our tents, cooked inside, and went to bed early!

Ruben’s top Scottish word: dreich (dreary, drizzly, bleak weather)

Day 3: A’Chuil to Sourlies
Day 3 was a long… long… day. We all woke up from our soggy tents in great spirits. After breakfast, which for most of us consisted of mainly oats, we set off, Nigel’s group first (Ruben, Akito, Max, and Louis) and then John’s group (Ezra, Tim, Fox and Tomas). We started our hike with a lovely walk through a forest. A few small river crossings later, where some of our feet may or may not have gotten wet (they didn’t dry for the whole exped).

After our wonderful walk through the forest, we entered Bealach an Lagin Duibh (or what John likes to call it, and a much more fitting name ,THE GATES OF DOOM). Which looks quite nice at first, until you venture deeper and it becomes a boggy, squishy, squelchy mess of constant ups and downs. After around 2 hours and travelling about 2.5 kilometers we stopped for a quick bite at a river where we met Nigel’s group and discussed how horrible the terrain was. After 5 mins Nigel left our little lunch spot along group to continue with their long, slow adventure (which we would follow 10 mins later) with the good news that Sourlies bothy, our main stop, was only 1km away and then all we had to do was climb halfway up a 946 meter tall Munro, it being 3:30 PM we figured that we had loads of time to do all that.

An hour and a half later we had  just made it 1 whole kilometre to Sourlies. It’s now 4pm, sunset finishes in 40 minutes and we still have to climb from sea level to 500 meters and find a campsite. This was not going to happen unless we hiked hours into the dark. So the decision was made to stop at Sourlies and stay the night there.

The view from Sourlies was amazing, we were just next to the sea, where Ezra, Tim, Louis and Fox took a dip. There were also some lovely Dutch people there who were very impressed that young people were undertaking such a challenging expedition. Nigel and John then went on to explain how amazing, sensible, and mature we are. At about 6 one of the Dutch brothers came out to offer us some mussels that they foraged for and steamed in the bothy, yum. Later on, due to two inexperienced hikers turning up without a tent, John and Nigel did the heroic thing of giving up their beds to sleep outside in their tents – we collapsed into our tents, calling it a very late one at 8:45pm.

Ruben’s Top ‘thing I can say I’ve done’: been to the only village in the UK not accessible by road – it’s only accessible on foot or by sea: Inverie.

Day 4: Sourlies to Torr an Tuirc, via Meall Buidhe

This was the big day, not the longest day but we went up. And up we went from a cosy bothy called Sourlies where there were six Dutch people who had been going there for over 20 years. From sea level across salt flats up to a bealach at 549 on long boring switch backs then we hit the Munro where we took the unnecessary items out of our heavy exped bags and mixed hiking and scrambling to get to 946m – the summit of Meall Buidhe – the only Munro we did on the trip. At the top when the clouds cleared we got beautiful blue skies and a cloud inversion at points. Our way down was slow. We descended almost 900 meters to get to a lovely wild camp by the Allt Gleann Meadail (the river of Gleann Meadail) where we got some beautiful views and stargazed until we turned in.

Ruben’s Top Camping Spot: Sourlies – it was so refreshing to arrive at a warm bothy after a difficult day of hiking, also being by the sea was lovely and we got given some mussels given to us by generous Dutch hikers. These all led to this being my personal favourite moment of the camp.

Day 5: Torr an Tuirc to Inverie
We woke up to a crisp morning in our picturesque wild camping spot. Vibes were happy as breakfast and faff continued throughout the chill morning….. Then, disaster struck!!!!!! Ezra lost his bowl in the river! As we are such amazing Scouts, we wanted to ensure that we left the campsite we stayed at better than it had been when we arrived, so we couldn’t leave the bowl behind.
First, Tim was brave enough to enter the chilly waters. Tim’s unsuccessful searches led Fox, our saviour, to also enter the river. With everyone spectating, Fox grasped the bowl from the bottom of the river victoriously! John promised them a prize for their hard work.

The hike was a short one – only 4km down a well trodden track. Our pace quickened as we saw our first glimpse of civilisation and other people! We lounged around in Inverie eating lots of squeezy cheese at lunch along with other food not finished on the expedition and visiting the local shop and post office many times for more snacks and food. The rest of the afternoon, we spent in Inverie playing on the beach and skimming stones. It was really chilled and a nice end to the expedition.

Later, John surprised us with indoor accommodation!!!!! All 8 of us boys were put into one room full of bunk beds. Throughout the evening, we played Minecraft on the xbox 360 and figured our how to use a VHS. We finished the night off with a movie. They provided us with sheets and blankets so we passed out quickly as soon as we went to bed. It was a great night’s sleep!

Ruben’s top expedition snacks: Nigel’s trail mix, Louis’ home-made power balls, and the unexpected taste sensation that is dehydrated rice pudding

Day 6: Inverie to Auchengillan Outdoor Centre
We started our day in the bunkhouse at 6:30am for our trip back to the minibus. We travelled by boat from Inverie at 8 to reach the town of Mallaig. There we took a brief tour round the town and looked at the bakery. From Mallaig we took the train to Glenfinnan, arriving at our starting point next to the minibus. We then drove to Fort William to shower and then chill down at Auchengillan Outdoor Centre.

Day 7: Auchengillan Outdoor Centre to Scout Park
We started our day bright and early at 6:45am to pack down our now semi-dry tents – a nice change after having to pack down wet tents daily. Once bags were loaded into the bus, out first destination was Tesco. We all got a lovely meal deal and set back onto the road for another six hours. Finally, we arrived back at Scout Park and all headed off home for food, sleep…and a mountain of laundry!

Written by Ezra, Tim, Fox, Max, Louis, Akito, Ruben, and Tomas