LEJOG Day 80: Fort William to Gairlochy

Weather: Partly sunny and warm

Distance covered today: 19.5km (12.1mi)

Last night's B&B: Corrie Duff (£32)

Cumulative distance: 1626.7km (1010.8mi)/ % Complete: 85.0%

GPS satellite track of today's route: Day 80 (click!)

It was a minor shock to the system suddenly to be on the Great Glen Way so soon after completing the West Highland Way. Previously, there have been intermissions in civilisation, but this time, I was just thrown in the deep end. So much so that I didn’t properly prepare and left without checking on essential supplies (well, trivial luxuries, if I’m honest!) only to find that there will be no shops at all for a few legs of this trail!  I even managed to get lost in Fort William, trying to find a short-cut to the start of the Great Glen Way, which really does take some doing! Soon though, having had a good look at Inverlochy Castle, I was indeed trundling along the Caledonian Canal, ascending the impressive set of locks appropriately known as Neptune’s Staircase, and looking at some very expensive yachts making the passage from Inverness to Fort William.
 
The canal itself is in a different league to anything I’ve seen before; capable of taking small commercial ships, though most of the traffic is of course leisure craft.  The canal was designed by (whom else?) Thomas Telford and was the first canal not to be built by Navvies, but by Highlanders who had been thrown off their land during the Highland Clearances. The argument was that they were being prepared for work in the cities of the Lowlands by some honest-to-goodness back-breaking on the canal first!  The original intention of the canal was actually to shift naval vessels from coast to coast during the Napoleonic Wars, though it wasn’t used for this purpose until the World War 1.  It was also the first government funded transport project in Britain, or so it said in my guide-book, which I find very surprising, but I suppose it depends on how you define a transport project!? (What about the military roads, for instance?)

The walk was otherwise uneventful, and again, well-populated with walkers, cyclists, mums with prams and young hikers from the continent, so much so that spending a penny was a bit of a problem.  For those of you of a delicate disposition, I suggest you look away now, for I propose to address the issue of needing the loo on a long-distance walk!!

On any long walk, the issue of the availability of public loos is generally of concern, and  for some groups of people, the issue is so important that it may prevent them from attempting a walk in the first place. At a more general level, Barbara has commented on this blog that the provision of public facilities in the developing world is of particular concern, especially for women, affecting their ability even to participate in economic activity.  In the UK, there have been numerous press reports over the years, bemoaning the steady decline in the availability of public facilities, and various pressure groups have been outspoken on the issue. I don’t have any accurate or up-to-date figures to hand, but I did read somewhere that the British Toilet Association claimed that 20% of public loos closed down between 2000 and 2005. Local government claims that the cost of maintenance and the problems of vandalism and drug abuse are the major factors affecting decisions to close facilities, and as a result, organisations that represent older people regularly claim that a large percentage of older people are scared to leave home because they fear being caught short.

In my own case, I do have a vital interest in the issue, and as those who know me well will testify, there are few people around my home town who carry so detailed a map in their head of facilities available to the public in the area!  This of course is a direct result of my prostate cancer and its treatment. The radiotherapy affected my nether parts, increasing dramatically both the urgency and frequency of my need to go to the loo, both to wee and to poo. The problem became such a major issue for me that it eventually almost led to me abandoning the idea of LEJOG.  In the end, I simply decided to ignore the issue and to face whatever problems presented themselves as they arose. After all, I had survived numerous walks on the South Downs and the Ridgeway with my good friend Chris, without disastrous consequences, and I had developed some coping mechanisms which seemed to work. These included disappearing behind the nearest tree to urinate as often as necessary, irrespective of the entirely appropriate reluctance of the great British public to risk exposing itself in such a manner! I was more worried about No 2, which presented altogether more serious a problem.

In the event, I have made a surprising discovery. The nature of LEJOG, with its built in routine and the healthy business of constant and prodigious daily exercise, a big breakfast and a good diet, has led to a much more predictable bowel movement, so that the evacuation has been successfully completed before the start of the day’s walk on all but a few days since I left Land’s End. I have also become quite brazen in expressing an acute need to “go” where public facilities are not available. I have found that there are few people who will refuse to allow you to use their facilities if you look sufficiently desperate and you ask them urgently and politely. And frankly, it really isn’t embarrassing. It’s just a fact of life!

I have met only one brick wall, an insensitive knave who ran a pub in Monmouth in Wales, who rather rudely refused to allow me to use his facilities unless I bought a drink. It was too early in the day for me, so having questioned his provenance, I went on my way and found a public facility around the corner! Apart from that minor incident, I was once caught short in open country, but there was no-one around and I managed to dig a hole and do my business without too much inconvenience, though it would have been more problematical in full wet-weather gear in the middle of a downpour!

Once or twice, while rather brazenly urinating near the path in the hills, I have suddenly been caught out by fellow walkers of both sexes who have unexpected appeared. In almost all cases, they have behaved with complete civility, either ignoring me completely if far enough away, or sharing my embarrassed apologies with easy laughter and a quick joke.

I appreciate that this last is rather easier for men than for women, but I have found that the camaraderie of the long-distance path changes perspective sufficiently that women too are allowed to do their thing without silly hindrance or objection. I have even seen official notices that reasonably argue that if you have to go, just please avoid doing it anywhere near a stream, and don’t leave a mess!  The hills have their own ethos. And anyway, as I found in hospital during all those potentially acutely embarrassing procedures, sheer necessity trumps embarrassment on all occasions and the professionals are quite adept at rendering the whole thing quite mundane!

Which really just leaves the towns and suburbs. My experience to date is that there are public facilities still available in all the towns where I looked. These facilities were invariably clean if sometimes a little smelly, with good provision of paper, soap and hand-drying machines, and I saw no evidence of used syringes or other drug-related paraphernalia.  And besides the public facilities, there are of course accommodating pubs and restaurants. Suburbs presented more of a problem, and on one or two occasions I have found myself throwing myself on the mercy of a convenience store manager or a publican, even before opening!  Always they have been delightfully accommodating.

So what looked as if it might be a show-stopper, in the event is proving to be a minor inconvenience, and facing the problem has done wonders for my self-confidence. I do apologise to anyone for whom all this is just too much information! In fact I have been wondering whether I should address this issue at all, but eventually Barbara’s direct question forced my hand. I have no doubt she was after the problem much more from a public issue perspective, but by now she will have realised that this blog is far too self-absorbed to approach these things from a societal point of view!

Now that I have reduced the content of this blog to the level of the toilet, you may be asking yourself, where on earth will he go next?  Good question!

The West Highland Way used to end as you entered Fort William, but this couldn't have suited the shop-owners!

So the end of the WHW is now at the other end of town, where this old guy is understandably massaging his toes!

At last I caught Ben Nevis without a hat on!

The main street of Fort William

Another hydroelectric plant connected to an aluminium smelter, and this one is still working!  I smell a rat!!  A deal must have been done. It cannot be true that the Kinlochleven plant had to close, but this one, 10 miles up the road stays open!

The tailrace ploughing into the stancheons of a metal bridge

Inverlochy Castle

Neptune's Staircase from below

The wide expanse of the Caledonian Canal

She hails from Douglas, Isle of Mann. Inevitably!

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This one was more of a passenger vessel

The only original bridge across the canal, and one that is still manually operated. Its only purpose is to allow a farmer access, and yet there is a full-time bridge-keeper. Amazing!  He was a nice guy, too!

Upside down yellow bird??

The canal is on the left and the River Lochy on the right

At last, some evidence of rented cruisers plying the canal

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The view from my bedroom window tonight!  That is snow on the north face of Ben Nevis