Morning!

Today was the day we’d been afraid of since we first heard about it. We had to climb the Devil’s Staircase! If that doens’t intimidate you, then.. you were not one of us. We got a pretty early start, being on the trail before 9am, which might not seem early, but I was proud of us. The entryway to the diabolical climb was our point of departure.

The start of the Devil’s Staircase. I’m intimidated.

So we started to climb it.. and then.. we had climbed it! We totally dominated the Devil’s Staircase! It was cool!  From maybe 400 feet to 1800 ft.  And it took us maybe an hour or so. So we were pretty proud of that.   Unclear whether we are just awesome walkers or whether the staircase might have been over-hyped, but nonetheless…After conquering the climb we’d been worrying about for days, we felt.. tough!   So after that, we took our time. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate with our relaxed mood. It wasn’t rainy, exactly, but it was so foggy there were few reasons to stop and take pictures. We didn’t let that stop us from stopping, so there are plenty of pictures of what would, on other days, be really beautiful scenes.

Backside of Kinlockleven.

The last leg of the trip consisted of following 6 giant hydroelectric water pipes down to the old aluminium smelting plant which is the town’s raison d’etre. IS that right? I usually hide from French words, but I’m sticking with that. After we got to town, we checked in, showered, and went to all the bars in town. 20 minutes later, we settled into our hotel for dinner, darts, drinks, and a generally peaceful evening.

We’re about to do our biggest / second-to-last day, from here to Fort William. Breakfast is served.