GGW Day 1 - Gairlochy locks to South Laggan

My first day of walking on the Great Glen Way. Having pottered around Fort William and the surrounding area yesterday – and thus unwittingly covered the first few kilometres of the route – and after studying the map, I decided to take a taxi to Gairlochy Locks and start my walk there.
Once you’ve left the town, you walk nearly 10 km straight ahead along a canal until you reach Loch Lochy at Gairlochy. There were two reasons for my decision: the first being that it was 25 degrees and I couldn’t tell whether the trail was sheltered from the sun or not (the latter part is relatively sheltered), and the second, and most important, being that I’d been having problems with a foot that, as it turned out, didn’t appreciate long walks with a heavy rucksack on hard ground, and as far as I could tell, the trail runs mostly along roads…

It was a wise decision, even though it felt a bit silly to arrive just after lunch. In fact, you walk virtually the entire stretch on roads – either main roads or forest tracks/gravel tracks… there are a few lovely viewpoints and a nice little rest area/campsite where I had lunch, but otherwise this stretch is, unfortunately, dreary and hard on the body. I think you’d get much more out of it if you cycled. The hydroelectric projects just west of Laggan are fascinating and they provide good information, but unfortunately that stretch is still a bit of a building site…
The café at the Laggan lock was a lovely way to round things off before I headed up to the Great Glen Hostel