West Highland Way Copyright © Barry Smith 2012. All Rights Reserved. Day 1 - Milngavie – Drymen 12 miles After the previous week’s constant rain and showers, it was no surprise to find that our start was to be in the rain. With this area’s reputation for weather, we hoped this wasn’t to be a precursor for the rest of the route. For some strange reason, and as we were like coiled springs eager to be at it, we unusually decided to forgo breakfast. Around 9am, we left our luggage in reception, trusting that the bag carrying service would be efficient, and would also collect Phil’s large and extremely overweight bag. (We had omitted to tell him that 18kg was the limit due to the fact we considered that 18kg was excessive for 1 bag for 6 day’s support wear.) We made our way to the obelisk in the town centre which was the official starting point of the walk and to take the obligatory photos. Upon turning the corner toward the obelisk we were slightly dumbfounded to see many other walkers, and counted another 19 souls over the next few minutes who were similarly attired, and who were obviously doing the walk as well. (Considering some 10,000 people do the walk annually, this should not have been a surprise.) Having dispensed with the photo taking, we were off. This first stretch of 12 miles proved to be mainly a gentle, flat amble which was a good introduction for those of us who, thinking the walk was going to be a ‘stroll in the park’ compared to the C2C, had done little preparation in respect of practice! How wrong we were going to be! Along the way we were soon upon the Glengoyne whisky distillery, which we felt unable to pass by without going on a tour and sampling their end product. This did however, give us a chance to get out of our wet outer garments whilst ‘doing  the rounds’, and to sample the not so obscure 12 year old 57% malt. At this point it should be stated that Phil was - as he put it ‘not terribly over familiar with whisky’ – but by the end of the walk would be stating that he had consumed enough whisky during 6 days to last him the rest of his life! We lunched at the Beech Tree Inn, where we were to espy more, hitherto unseen people on the  walk, and then continued steadily onto Drymen where we were arrived at about 4pm. We were booked overnight at the Clachan Inn, which again proved to be an adequate establishment as well as being the ‘Oldest Inn in Scotland’. Thankfully, all of our luggage, and Phil’s, had arrived. Apart from sampling the local brews, the highlight of our night was observing the interestingly attired teenagers of the village passing by outside, who appeared to be going to some party.