Day 7 was Kinlochleven to Fort William and quite possibly the hardest thing I have pushed myself to do.
I was again looking up buses to quit the walk and finish. My feet had never been as sore in my life, I had had about 5 hours sleep in the worst bed and I felt physically and mentally exhausted. I could barely walk on my blisters I’d picked up. I’d packed my bag to get the bus, told Chris I was done. I had a word with myself, taped my feet up, got my boots on, filled my water up and got myself to the shop to stock up on lunch and went on my way to finish the last day.
16 miles and 7 hours later I was at the end. I can’t explain how I felt when I hit mile 9 and I still had 7 miles to go, I had no other choice but to just keep putting one foot in front of the other. I couldn’t even bring myself to put on my music I walked in silence for the whole 7 hours! There was so much relief when I finally turned the corner and saw Ben Nevis which is an absolute beast of a mountain to see up so close. A lifesaver of a coffee truck was sat 2 miles from the finish and a mocha got me the last two miles into fort William.
I met my Canadian friends at the end and celebrated with a non alcoholic IPA (not breaking my 1 year 9 month sobriety!) and I think that might have been the best tasting drink I’ve had.