Day 4 - Beinglas Farm to Crianlarich

Our last day. Sean couldn't remember where we were supposed to leave the key to our wigwam. Good thing we paid cash. Today was going to be our shortest day. It started off cold, windy and rainy as usual. We decided to leave early so that we could catch our 9:30am train back down to Glasgow where Lucy G. would pick us up (hopefully).

The first landmark on the last leg of our journey was more waterfalls. These were slightly bigger than the ones we had seen previously. Apparently they have a name.



I might have forgotten to mention the many fences that are along the WHW. These fences serve many purposes. Their main purpose is to keep animals from leaving certain places.



Then the cows came home. We opened up the gate to get through when we were swarmed with a SWAT team of cows. Thank goodness they weren't very stealthy. They looked very hungry and vicious but our survival skills really helped us "battle through."

What I really mean to say is that we walked by as the mooed in our general direction. Clearly, they must have figured we were not in fact farmers with food. We were men! Men too tough to die...from the death rays coming from the cows' eyes (Sorry, the last day was really not at all exciting)!

These weren't the last cows we would encounter on our last day. We came to about the last two miles or so of our ENTIRE hike and we managed to keep ourselves relatively clean. That's when the cows deployed their most dangerous weapon on us.

Poop. With mud.

A worthy foe. These cows think of everything. Sean decided to play the hero and shoo them away. They didn't listen. Instead they created a roadblock of the future hamburgers of the UK and fecal matter. These cows were dumb but persistent. They didn't want us to make our train.



Sean finally figured out that the magic word to make the cows moooove (see what I did there?). "OI!" That's it. As soon as he said that, it was like Moses and the Red Sea. That didn't really help the state of the trail though. Our boots were almost filled to the brim with fecal slop when we finally reached the point where we were to head towards the Crianlarich train station.



With the WHW behind us, we had a small amount of hiking to go before reaching our magical train ride. It wasn't long before the train station was in sight. It even boasted of a tearoom! I wasn't keeping my hopes up because April 1st was still quite a few days away. Sean saw a map and took the opportunity to sum up the last 4 days of our lives. Feel free to skip this.



We crossed the road and got to the train station around 8:00am. All we could smell was the aroma of perfectly cooked Bacon. Notice I capitalized the word. That's how important it was and continues to be. This was a clear indicator that the tearoom was in fact open...or that someone had Bacon scented incense.

A little further up the way there was a phone which told you if your train was on time or not. I've heard some horror stories about the punctuality of the British train system as a whole so I decided to give it a ring before Bacon. Scott picked up the phone and told me that the train was to take off at precisely 9:36am. That was good enough for me.

Press 1 for Scott. Press 2 for Scott. Press 3 for Bacon.

Ah, the tearoom. Walkers welcome. WHW paraphernalia lined the walls and cabinets of the tea room. The smell of Bacon filled the air. I ordered a hot Bacon roll (Bacon sandwich) and a hot chocolate. Sean had a Bacon and tomato toastie (grilled cheese sandwich with Bacon and tomato). We enjoyed it thoroughly.




It was time to call Lucy G. She said that her schedule would allow her to pick us up at 11:30am at Queen Street Station in Glasgow. Did I mention she's the best? The train was in fact, on time-ish and we hopped on.

That's it. That's the end of the trip, the WHW anyway. No dramatic ending. Sorry. You can start from the beginning if you like. I'll continue on with the train ride and Glasgow on the next entry.