Preparation for the 96 miles that make up the West Highland Way starts with a couple of key questions,

• How many days ?
• How many miles each day?
• Will you carry, camp, hostel or go for the more luxurious option?

We chose to go for 5 days across the Easter Bank Holiday weekend and the reasoning for us was the number of holidays we had left at work. We did meet two lovely people, Meghan and Owen with their dog Jess who did it in 4 days for the very same reason.

Over 5 days, your looking at 20miles a day with what we thought was an easy 16 miler on the final day.  The plan was

• Milngavie to Balmaha
• Balmaha to Inverarnan and Ardlui
• Inverarnan and Ardlui to Bridge of Orchy
• Bridge of Orchy to Kinlochlevan
• Kinlochlevan to Fort William

Walking 20miles a day sounded tough enough without adding the prospect of camping and carrying all that camping gear so we took the luxury option of getting our bags taken each day along to the next stage. We also opted to stay in hotels and B&B’s, really anywhere that had a bar and a great breakfast!

I booked all our accommodation in advance as certain places along the Way can get busy and fully booked and you don’t want to walk 20miles to find you have no where to stay.

Our accommodation picks were

• Oak Tree Inn, Balmaha
• Beinglas Farmhouse and Campsite, Inverarnan
• Bridge of Orchy Hotel, Bridge of Orchy
• Alt Na Levan B&B, Kinlochlevan
• Ben Nevis Hotel and Leisure Club, Fort William

Whilst we intended training and doing some long walks a couple of broken ribs stopped our training in its tracks we set out on the Way with very little training which shows that you don’t a huge amount of training just the stubbornness to keep going and some great shoes!

The gear we took and reviews of all the accommodation will feature in the next few posts along with a stage by stage report.