The last day. The last few miles. The last hills. The last of our strength.

It was really, really, really hot. There were no clouds in the sky and even at 7:30am we were feeling the heat. There are not many pictures from walking on the last day- I was tired, I was hot and the camera was in my gilet, in my bag. I wasn't that keen to stop and look for it to take pictures. It's a bit of a shame though because it was a pretty section of the Way and the clear day meant we could see the peaks in the distance and the colours were spectacular.

This is where we said goodbye to civilization- no more houses, roads or mobile phone reception until Fort William. See you Kinlochleven.

There was no shelter, the sky was a gorgeous blue. And of course there were cairns. The boys are now fully fledged cairn builders... they can't resist to add to them.

The route was mostly constructed from the path through a glen between some very serious looking mountains. The path was visible for miles and miles into the distance- always seeming to be on a slight incline. We seemed to always be climbing, which made no sense since we knew that we were finishing in Fort William which is at sea level, at some point we were going to have to go downhill. Or at least I hoped so.

See that big hill, that's Ben Nevis. Yes, that's the kind of company we keep on this walk. A lot of people like to climb Ben Nevis after they finish the way, erm, no thanks.

But eventually the road did go down, it wasn't fun, it was an industrial access road. A little disappointing after the spectacular routes we had taken but given how very hot and very tired we were, we weren't that bothered.

We were very nearly finished. Fort William is just over there.

We just had to pick up some extra people...

Milngavie to Fort William. 96 miles. Now where is my medal?

This was to be the first day I had to walk after walking the day before. Up til now I'd had at least 3 days to recover before getting the boots back on, and to be perfectly honest I thought I really needed those days to recover.

I was stiff when I got up I was a little sore, my ankle was still swollen, my pack felt heavy and my hair was interesting. Oh well, at least I was getting a proper breakfast inside me. Toast, fruit, cereal and we all ordered the "West Highlander Breakfast", I'd like to report that the waiter responded with "there can be only one"  but sadly, no, we had a polite response of "thanks". Disappointment is difficult to take at that time of the morning. Oh well.

First up we had to cross the river. Over the Bridge of Orchy if you will.

Everytime we walk mum likes to offer out little nuggets of knowledge, little helpful bits of wisdom. One of her favourites is still "it's always best to start with a hill". It goes against every grain of my being, it is exactly the opposite of what I want to do at seven thirty in the morning, hell, it goes against what I want to do at any time morning or afternoon. But after days of starting with a hill and days where the first hill didnt arrive until after lunch I have to agree with her, starting with a hill is better than waiting till later. Good thing since, we started with a hill.

This one has a pretty good cairn at the top that is in rememberance of a bloke about whom all I can remember is his surname is Fleming and he was good at escaping frim occupied countries. That seems a good reason to have a cairn at the summit of a pretty big hill to me.

This same hill now has another reasonable sized cairn too, not at the top but looking out to a pretty view towards Inveroran. A little cairn for Catriona.

A quick hop skip and jump down the other side and we were ready for the real challenge of the day. Rannoch Moor. Fifty square miles of wilderness and barren bog and moorland and one safe route through- the old Drove Road. It's not used now, except for hikers and climbers and boy is it tough on the feet- rocky, and cobbles and bouldery all the way to Glencoe.

It is one of the most stunning landscapes I've ever seen in Scotland, to see nothing that marked out human habitation as far as the eye could see in every direction except the very road we were walking on. It's a landscape that was at the same time exceptionally similar but strikingly different in every direction. It is amazing to be surrounded by the giant mountains and so them recede into the distance and new ones to loom into view.

But in the midst of the barren land the most lovely thing happened. We had stopped for elevenses at a bridge with other walkers. We got chatting and I explained to this one man walking on his own why we were all crazily hiking this route- I told him about Catriona, about Emma and about SANDS. And right there he handed me cash to add to the money we've raised. 10 miles from anywhere someone cared. Meet Tony, Tony is awesome.

Mostly though, It's nice to stop tramping on solid rock  and find a place to lay your bag. Even if it is another mile uphill to dinner. The view is pretty good for dinner too...

...the view of dinner is pretty decent. Good job because tomorrow it's a long way to Fort William. And the finish.

This was to be the first day I had to walk after walking the day before. Up til now I'd had at least 3 days to recover before getting the boots back on, and to be perfectly honest I thought I really needed those days to recover.

I was stiff when I got up I was a little sore, my ankle was still swollen, my pack felt heavy and my hair was interesting. Oh well, at least I was getting a proper breakfast inside me. Toast, fruit, cereal and we all ordered the "West Highlander Breakfast", I'd like to report that the waiter responded with "there can be only one"  but sadly, no, we had a polite response of "thanks". Disappointment is difficult to take at that time of the morning. Oh well.

First up we had to cross the river. Over the Bridge of Orchy if you will.

Everytime we walk mum likes to offer out little nuggets of knowledge, little helpful bits of wisdom. One of her favourites is still "it's always best to start with a hill". It goes against every grain of my being, it is exactly the opposite of what I want to do at seven thirty in the morning, hell, it goes against what I want to do at any time morning or afternoon. But after days of starting with a hill and days where the first hill didnt arrive until after lunch I have to agree with her, starting with a hill is better than waiting till later. Good thing since, we started with a hill.

This one has a pretty good cairn at the top that is in rememberance of a bloke about whom all I can remember is his surname is Fleming and he was good at escaping frim occupied countries. That seems a good reason to have a cairn at the summit of a pretty big hill to me.

This same hill now has another reasonable sized cairn too, not at the top but looking out to a pretty view towards Inveroran. A little cairn for Catriona.

A quick hop skip and jump down the other side and we were ready for the real challenge of the day. Rannoch Moor. Fifty square miles of wilderness and barren bog and moorland and one safe route through- the old Drove Road. It's not used now, except for hikers and climbers and boy is it tough on the feet- rocky, and cobbles and bouldery all the way to Glencoe.

It is one of the most stunning landscapes I've ever seen in Scotland, to see nothing that marked out human habitation as far as the eye could see in every direction except the very road we were walking on. It's a landscape that was at the same time exceptionally similar but strikingly different in every direction. It is amazing to be surrounded by the giant mountains and so them recede into the distance and new ones to loom into view.

But in the midst of the barren land the most lovely thing happened. We had stopped for elevenses at a bridge with other walkers. We got chatting and I explained to this one man walking on his own why we were all crazily hiking this route- I told him about Catriona, about Emma and about SANDS. And right there he handed me cash to add to the money we've raised. 10 miles from anywhere someone cared. Meet Tony, Tony is awesome.

Mostly though, It's nice to stop tramping on solid rock  and find a place to lay your bag. Even if it is another mile uphill to dinner. The view is pretty good for dinner too...

...the view of dinner is pretty decent. Good job because tomorrow it's a long way to Fort William. And the finish.

The wedding has been and gone, Callum and Selena's teeny tiny honeymoon has been and gone. Damn it, I am going to have to walk the last 50ish miles to Fort William in three days of straight walking. I'd need to carry a pack with all my stuff. I had to get to our destinations before food stopped being served if I wanted to eat something more substantial than sandwiches and bananas. Yeah, I was nervous and downright scared.

You know how somedays you just love your family, that you could spend all day with them and it would be a never ending day of fun and laughter? Yeah? Well this was the opposite of one of those days. I don't know if it was nerves, the walk, the pain (I suffer from excruciating pain in both my ankles due to old injuries for the first 2-3 miles, it was particularly bad that day), my bad mood, a clash between family (hey, we are normal!)...who knows. This won't go down in my mind as one of the best days ever but it wasn't awful either.

In terms of walking it was reasonably straight forward. The climb back onto the Way from Crianlarich (yes, extra miles) was described by the guidebook as "pleasantly serendipitous". Having now walked this section of the way I can only suggest that the definition of that is "steep, springy underfoot, twisty, potentially midge infested"... if you ever walk it, I'd be interested in your thoughts on the matter.

Other than that initial climb the way was reasonably easy going with odd little distractions to keep you distracted from the number of miles to go, and people pretending to be raptors. No I don't know why they were doing it either.

Including the welcome sight of the Green Welly. The last real place to pick up supplies before Kinlochleven (which would be half way through the last day). By this time though, the welcome sight of the Green Welly wasn't enough to consider taking on extra weight- our packs were heavy to us, used to only carrying day sacks- so we had a coke and a calippo and before we were ready to head out, it was inevitable that since the Green Welly is the  stop for bikers in the area that my brother would meet someone he knew...sadly he could not be convinced to take our packs to Bridge of Orchy for us so it was onwards and upwards.

Straight out of Tyndrum it's  a long slow climb up into the valley. The way follows the line of the railway more or less all the way to Bridge of Orchy. It's the first time you really see the drama and sheer size of the Highlands, the stern and barren look of those giant hills. It's quite a scary thought knowing that that is what we were up against all the way to Fort William. There is no "easy" terrain in the Highlands...

This was a fairly simple walk onto Bridge of Orchy, once we were up at the height of the valley it was more undulations than hills all the way. There were one or two tunnels under the railway line- known locally as "sheep creeps" which allow people and anaimals to cross to the land either side of the single railway line. My brothers were super keen to turn mum upside down and put her feet on the ceiling on the tunnel. Sadly, despite the number of opportunites in the 96 miles she never once allowed them. I would suggest that this just means it'll happen when she least expects it.

It was a long, sore, hot, slightly bad tempered day and we were all glad to get to Bridge of Orchy. To a hot dinner, to a supply of hot coffee or beer, a hot shower, an opportunity to put on flipflops not boots and a bed of sorts. Before bed things were better between us and we had a plan for the next day, we had reassured mum that there were no ridgewalks or truly terrifying things in front of her tomorrow, I was distinctly less grumpy and Kris and Callum were their usual buoyant selves.

Night All, Glencoe tomorrow.