338-West Highland Way
Show notes
The 154km West highland way is one of Scotland’s best known hiking trails and in fact is listed as one of Scotland ‘Great Trails’. Having said that if you aren’t familiar with hiking in the UK then you may know much about this trail. In this podcast episode we talk with Aussie hiker Susie Ashton-Davies about her 8 day ‘end to end’ trip undertaken in September of 2025. www.australianhiker.com.au
Podcast Overview
In this episode we discuss the UK based West Highland Way:
- Podcast Introduction (time index 0:01:37)
- To help provide a bit of context, give us a bit of background on your hiking experience. (time index 0:02:18)
- How did you decide to do this trail (time index 0:03:42)
- Give us a bit of an overview to this well-known track. (time index 0:05:25)
- Distance
- Trail tread
- Typical trail
- Elevation changes across the trail
- Vegetation
- Was there any animal life on this trail or was it all ‘farm life’? (time index 0:09:13)
- Was this a ‘carry everything’ sort of trip or did you forward some gear to overnight locations? (time index 0:09:58)
- Luggage transfer
- What was your accommodation on this trip?
- How did you manage the food and water on this trip? (time index 0:13:46)
- What gear did you need to bring on your walk? (time index 0:16:08)
- What did your typical day on this hike look like? (time index 0:18:23)
- Take us through from the start of the day to the end of the day
- Midges!
- What was the temperature situation like on this trail? (time index 0:22:03)
- Maximums to Minimums
- Daytime length?
- Maximums to Minimums
- From a logistics perspective, how did you find this walk? (time index 0:23:40)
- Transport and trip costs
- What was the people interaction like on this trip? (time index 0:26:01)
- Other hikers
- Locals
- Navigation (time index 0:27:06)
- What were the highlights for you? (time index 0:29:00)
- What, if any, were the negatives with this trip? (time index 0:30:40)
- Midges?
- How did you find Scotland as a tourist destination? (time index 0:31:27)
- After doing this walk who would you say it is suitable for? (time index 0:33:16)
- Fitness
- Experience
- Age etc
One final question
-
- What’s your next great hiking adventure? (time index 0:34:34)
Closing discussion from Tim and Gill
- Final thoughts (time index 0:35:50)
Close (time index 0:47:29)
Resources
Wilderness Scotland They organised Sue’s accomodation arrangements and their luggage transfers on the trail
Susie (on the left) and her hiking partner on the West Highland Way
Honesty Box, a good place to get your food for the day
West Highland Way directional signage
Trail marker
Sheep on the West Highland Way
West Highland Way trail example
West Highland Way
West Highland Way Trail example
Some unique accomodation on the West Highland Way
West Highland Way trail example
West Highland Way trail example
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