L2L Day 69 Inverarnan to Crianlarich - 8 miles

After 4 memorable days in Neil's company it was sadly time for him to head home. We've met some lovely people on the WHW and had great fun. The WHW  is like a party bus with everyone experiencing the same hills, the same rain and probably the same midges and despite all the challanges like Tony, Neil sees the funnier side of things. 

He'd booked the 09:43 bus and almost to the minute the rather swish charabang arrived heading for Ardlui and Glasgow.


I finished packing and headed out into the drizzle and midges.






By now I was starting to recognise the cohort of walkers that must have started on the same day so along the way, I bumped in to people we've talked with along the way.

Today's route was much more open than yesterday 
and when the mist cleared the views were stunning.




I branched off the main route of the WHW to drop down through the relative quiteness of the forestry to Crianlarich.





As I checked in to the hotel, I meet David and Karen. David had damaged his achilles and was going to shorten his day and go by bus to Tyndrum. I was intrigued that the bus he was catching was leaving within minutes of the train leaving for Tyndrum. Particularly curious seeing that they're both heavily subsidised services. Why should one compete with the other when both are being publicly funded.

The mystery was solved when I went up to the Platform Tea rooms (unfortunately shut) and saw a packed train with passengers with prams and bicycles queuing to get on while the guard tried to rearrange the contents of the train to fit them all in. Public transport does work. 

An early night.





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