Well, its time to book in the next trip, 2011 is here and we’re not getting any younger! There is a lot of world out there!

2010 was a relatively quite year in travel for us, with only 3 trips, and only our fortnight in the Mekong Delta, and Phu Quoc island, the only new destination. The other two trips were really just getaways, to the perennial Australian favourite holiday destination – Bali. This was probably to be expected, having needed to recover from 2009, where we visited Malaysia, Thailand, Nepal and India, over an extended 3 months of travel.

Anyhow,  We have decided to go a bit further afield this year, yet wanted to continue on our passion to hike. Annapurna base camp trek in Nepal got us into it, and for-filled a long term goal for us, so we have decided to make part of our next holiday to also have a trek (or walk) included. Having visited Scotland back in 2000, we have always remembered our few days driving through the highlands fondly, and even then, though it would be a special place to hike.

So, a little research, and voila – we have decided on -

The West Highland Way

This hike is probably going to be 8 days, and we will walk from Glasgow, 152km north to finish at Fort William. The official website -http://www.west-highland-way.co.uk/home.asp, gives a lot of information, and we also got hold of the Trailblazer book – West Highland Way, by Charlie Loram.

Trailblazer

 We bought the book through a major Australian book retailer, but i am sure you can also refer to their website, http://trailblazer-guides.com/book/west-highland-way.  As I haven’t been on the hike yet, I have no photos, so I have used a couple off the official website above, just so readers get a “feel” for our adventure!

 A little investigation has shown this a to be an officially designated walking path, marked throughout with way-markers. It is well maintained, and by the sound of it, quite busy. This doesn’t bother us greatly, as Annapurna Base camp trek was like a highway in parts, but you still manage to catch peaceful and quite patches as well. We expect it will be a little easier than Annapurna Base camp, although hope it will still have plenty of “ups and downs”. One way it will be tougher, is we will have to carry our own pack, but the trade-off is we think we will be able to stay in B&Bs and even hotels each night.

We have a bit of research to do yet, but at this stage, we think May should be convenient for us, and also a recommended time on the walk. In addition, we think we will add a week or so to the trip, and visit a snippet of Italy on the way home. We are still working on these details as well, as more info to come on that one.

At this stage – we would love to hear from anyone who has done the West Highland Way, and hear how great it was! We need inspiration, so we can get a bit of a fitness regime going (remember at 40+ you go soft, quickly!)