.....The plan had been, for me and my munro-baggin chum, 'Rennie', to hike the west highland way sometime in July, this was now early August and I had not heard from my erstwhile friend for a couple of weeks, what with work commitments etc.....

.....No I hadn't heard from him, until yesterday, when he appeared without warning and announced "day yay waant tay day the west highlun' way the morra". I detected a challenge in his tone and replied immediately "no problem", off he went saying he would call round bright and early the next day. No problem? there was a problem all right, I spent the rest of the day retrieving all the essentials from here, there and everywhere. I had not bothered to assemble them before now as the proposed "walk" seemed to be forgotten about. Up early the next morning and the final checks were done on my packed rucksack.....

.....So here we were, at the pedestrian precinct in the town centre of Milngavie, a glorious sunny day, fit as fiddles and all the equipment we needed and some that we did not, as we discovered along the way of our epic journey! Through the woods on the edge of Milngavie and we were out in the hot morning sun and then into the woods at Mugdock country park, a meander through some open country and into the Carbeth area.

.....It was now midday and getting hot, very hot! the temperature was getting near the 80's, the water-bottles had been refilled and emptied again long before now. It looked as if we could not have picked a better time to do the walk. Through the Carbeth area and we took a well earned rest overlooking Dumgoyne on the edge of the Campsie fells, this was when I began to have serious doubts about my footwear! I only had on my winter mountain boots that were beginning to clamp round my heat swelled feet like vices. True to traditional glaswegian banter 'Rennie' chipped in that his "mountain slippers" were very comfortable and that I should have known better than to wear "those" boots, what's more, if I felt like chuckin' it the main road back to Glasgow wasn't far away and I could hitch a lift! Well, that was it then, after that jibe I would have crawled all the way to Fort William.....

.....Back on the track again and the heat was beating down. We were somewhere between Dumgoyne and Drymen, through some farmland and skirting the river Endrick, did I mention my boots? no way could they be mentioned.....to be continued

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