Читать книгу Not the West Highland Way. Diversions over mountains, smaller hills or high passes for 8 of the WH Way's 9 stages онлайн

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But the best-laid plans of mice and mountaineers… Something happened to throw the whole scheme into confusion. It was, as always, the weather. To our shock and surprise, the sun came out.

So it was that we found ourselves on a route that, by Day Three, was to be Not the West Highland Way by a span of about 20 miles sideways.

There’s a lot to be said for using Inverarnan, Inveroran, all the WH Way’s orthodox overnight stops; and looking upwards each day at the weather, downwards at the legs, and deciding between the well-built path and the mountain excitements alongside. And if that’s your idea at the moment, you’ll skip a few pages down to Part One, rather than reading of how my Czech mate and me hauled rather large rucksacks up the Cobbler on what will, later in this book, be Route 18. You won’t want to know how we almost needed our crampons up there, except that the people before us had left hippo-size footsteps in the snow. Cloud was wafting around the three rocky tops, and forming beautiful hoarfrost over them. We stood and admired the beautiful hoarfrost. We weren’t tempted to climb through the hoarfrosted hole, along the hoarfrosted ledge, and onto the exciting true top of the Cobbler.