14/5/12 - She's a Waterfall

Distance - 7 Miles
Geocaches - 4
Weather - Almost Sunny
Walk from - Walking World

No driving Today!

Last Night
Too rainy for the one mile walk into town.  Instead, I drove to the Glen Nevis restaurant at the foot of Ben Nevis and watched the rain stream down the side of the impressive slab of rock.  I'm not going up there!  Get back to room, wait patiently for all the scottish football to be shown before seeing the climax to the Prem and plot another route for tomorrow.

The Walk

Glen Nevis

10 minute drive along the River Nevis.  Have to stop for photos, its so beautful.

Enigine Still Running

Park up at the lower falls for geocache 1 of the day.  Last but one log was from a Midlands geocacher that I recognise the name of.  Small world. 

If you are going to look at waterfalls, it might as well be after a monsoon.  Well impressive, with the spray coming up over the top of the bridge.

The walk is simple - follow the river up through Steall Gorge, see the upper waterfalls and then return the way that I came.  It can be broken into three stages.

Stage 1 - The River
Easy walking in the shade of the mountains.  Cross river and walk the next bit on a road.  Contemplate why Range Rover drivers are all tossers.

Where's Wally

Stage 2 - The Gorge
This is the best walking as the path makes its way uphill on rocks, crossing streams with the river thundering way down below.

Gorgeous

A mere trickle of a waterfall

Slippery when wet

Stage 3 - Open Land at Upper Falls
This opens out into broad flat land at Upper Falls.  This is one might waterfall, thundering down the side of the mountain.  A gent comes up to me and asks if I know what happended in the Premiership.  He was out last night wild camping in a bothy. Hats off.  What he probably wasn't expecting was a response from someone who has not said anything to anyone for four days apart from "Cooked Breakfast Please".  Its my chance to relive the drama of yesterdays football, complete with Stan Collymore style "unbelievables".  I regale him with the goal by goal chain of events, but I can see in his eyes he just wants to know who won the title.  Turns out he is a Man U fan, so the build up was a bit of an anticlimax.

Big Ben

Its a Steall

Get to the ruins for the last geocache of the route and have a look at the "bridge" to see if I want to get closer to the waterfall.

Looks fine from this side

Walk back, the way I came.  Had a FB chat with Sonia last night about not leaving wet clothes in a bag, so I decided to lay out yesterdays trousers, boots and fleece on the the backs of the seat of the car.  When I get back, the sun has done its thing.  Unfortunately, all the windows of the car are steamed up and the smell is not that pleasant.  Good idea though.

Lazy afternoon and night now.  As the sun is shining, I will explore Fort William.