Readers, have I got a cure for jetlag for you! Fly from Brisbane to London then right up to Glasgow. Spend a night in Glasgow then next morning take a commuter train about 25 minutes north to Milngavie – this being Scotland perhaps it’s unsurprising that it’s pronounced ‘Mul-guy’. And here you start Scotland’s most famous and picturesque walking trek, the 100-mile (160 kilometre) West Highland Way.
As I write this my wife and I are just about halfway through this six, seven or eight day walk (you choose, we picked lucky seven). I was coming over to Europe to give talks for the Thatcher Centre, the British Free Speech Union and John O’Sullivan’s magnificent Danube Institute. The timing was such that if we landed and went straight up to Scotland we could just squeeze in this walk, nine hour time difference be damned! Here’s how it works. About half the trekkers carry all their own gear and camp. My wife and I are way, way beyond that. So you pick a company and it organises both your accommodation and the daily moving of your bags from place to place. No longer being spring chickens, all we carry are day packs. The company also gives you excellent maps on its tailor-made app, though the West Highland Way is sufficiently well-marked that you probably wouldn’t get lost. You see this isn’t a group hike. You’re on your own.
And yes, you need a modicum of fitness because going up hills and down glens, sometimes for an hour or two over loose stones of all sizes, takes it out of you. Choose our seven-day option and you’re looking at doing an average of 14.5 miles (22.5 kilometres) a day, though there are pretty big differences in the distances you’ll do each day. And boy do people love this trek. We’ve run into walkers from all over the world – North Americans, lots of Scandinavians, Japanese, French, English and Scots of course, more than a few Australians, and surprisingly big numbers of young, fit Germans. (To be abundantly clear, these are most definitely not the Germans one sees on the nudist beaches of Greece.)
Well, so far my wife and I have not made it past 8pm before falling asleep comatose. And we’ve been sleeping through to 4:30 or 5 in the morning. As I said to start, if this isn’t the world’s greatest cure for jetlag I don’t know what is. Of course, there may be another factor at work. You see the days run to about seven or eight hours of steady hiking. So when you reach your hotel at three or four in the afternoon it is straight to the bar where the beers magically drink themselves. And if the ensuing hot shower isn’t the best you’ve ever had, it’ll be right up there. As the West Highland Way takes you up the eastern shore of Loch Lomond and then over a bit west to finish in Fort William the companies have to put you up on or near the walk. So you’ll be in centuries-old three-star hotels or Bed & Breakfast places. It doesn’t take long to realise that this walking trek brings in a wee bit of money – make that huge amounts – to any businesses on the route. Our first night we stayed in a charming B&B that over a hundred years ago had been for a year or two the home of Eric Liddell – and if you know who he was without looking it up then you are a very valuable pub quiz team member. There are pubs on the route going back to the 17th century and more than a few really old hotels. In our immediate future we’ll be staying at the Kingshouse Hotel, which dates back to the 1600s and where we’ll finish our longest day, a 19 mile (30 kilometre) day that is supposed to have the best scenery of all. And given the beautiful sights we’ve seen already walking the eastern side of Loch Lomond that’s some claim the company is making.
By the way, if you’re wondering how crowded the trek is we’ve found that for about two-thirds of the day you’ll be walking on your own, no one else in sight. Starting off in the morning you’ll be with others but it doesn’t take long for people’s differing paces to spread everyone out. You get the same bunching effect for a while after lunch, especially if some ancient pub is well-placed for your midday meal. Throw in myriad choices for your evening whisky, some pleasant pub company, that feeling that you’ve exhausted your body but know you’ll feel human again in the morning, and I can’t recommend this enough. We’ll be done as this goes to press.
I have a few words left so let me shift topic rather dramatically. Plopped in an afternoon bed in tonight’s 150 year-old converted hunting lodge, and after a restorative pint or two of beer while waiting for our 6:30 dinner reservations, I made the error of looking at the Australian only to see big business groups were urging the Liberals to do a deal with Labour. What the big end of town seems to want is for the Libs to get on board with anything other than Labour’s unrealised capital gains tax. Let me say this slowly to the Libs. Do Not Be Morons! Labour’s plans are indeed impoverishing and woeful. But it is a huge mistake to help them pass a bill that is a little less woeful and impoverishing. It then just becomes your bill too. You become a party that attacks pensions as much as they do. (Though of course then-Treasurer Scott Morrison already set the precedent.) It’s this sort of thinking that has seen the Libs totally abandon any pretence of caring about free speech, such is the party’s willingness to make compromises here and there. Remember, the big end of town were the same people who threw huge sums to the Yes side in the Voice referendum. They’re the same people who say virtually nothing to attack Labour during election campaigns. In my view the whole lot of them are useless, woke and haven’t a brave bone in any of their bodies. But faced with a Chalmers’ thought bubble Bill they’re now urging the Libs to help enervate and soften a truly stupid Bill. No. Your job is to oppose it. Fight it. And make sure Labour wears its consequences. As for the business lobby groups, remind them they were all in Labour’s camp during the referendum. Or to put it in Scottish terms, the only kiss they deserve is of the Glaswegian variety.
James Allan is the Garrick Professor of Law at Queensland University. This article was first published in Spectator Australia.
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