Day 12

Quite an early start and on the canal before 07:00 this morning (after a short portage along the road from Laggan Youth Hostel). We got onto Loch Lochy a few minutes before daylight and paddled with a light wind at our backs for once! We weren't going to miss the opportunity the weather had finally given us and pulled in to rig the sail. The wind was getting up quickly by now and we spent a glorious (if cold) hour speeding along under sail, surfing the waves going down the Loch. The wind died and was replaced with brilliant sunshine and we paddled the last two miles as the mist burnt off the valley.
We elected to paddle the River Lochy rather than the canal to finish the trip. We reckoned on it speeding us along with the flow and delivering us to downtown Fort William in double quick time (Oli needed to be on the 14:15 bus to Inverness to pick up the car from where we left it nearly two weeks ago). The way was littered with shallow sections and hundreds of fishermen, which slowed progress considerably, but the biggest problem was to come about three miles from the end. We rounded a corner to find a very short section of quite lumpy water. We could see a line down it but didn't fancy taking the risk of a swim (it was the biggest white water we saw all through the trip) if it went wrong. The portage past it was short but arduous and time consuming. We arrived at Fort William just before 14:00, pulling into a grotty inlet a bit before the pier with barely enough time for a photograph before Oli raced for the station. Several hours later Oli returned with the car and Alex pryed himself from the comfortable armchair at the pub to meet him.
We're now in Glen Nevis where we'll spend the night ready to climb Ben Nevis tomorrow morning.