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Cape Wrath Trail May 2011Day 1 14th Fortwilliam to Achnacarry NN157892 14.0
Day 2 15th Achnacarry to Sourlies NM869950 20.2
Day 3 16th Sourlies to Kinlochhourn NG953065 15.5
Day 4 17th Kinlochhourn to Morvich NG961211 14.4
Day 5 18th Morvich to Bernais Lodge NH020430 21.3
Day 6 19th Bernais Lodge to Kinlochewe NH030619 18.7
Day 7 20th DAY OFF Kinlochewe Caravan park
Day 8 21st Kinlochewe to Shenevall NH065809 16.7
Day 9 22nd Shenevall to Knockdamph NH287954 23.3
Day 10 23rd Knockdamph to Benmore Lodge NC328130 19.0
Day 11 24th Benmore Lodge to Glendhu NC284337 18.6
Day 12 25th Glendhu to Rhicinich NC256524 21.3
Day 13 26th Rhiconich to Sandwood bay NC219650 11.6
Day14 24th DAY OFF (IF ARMY RANGE IS LIVE ?)
Day 15 26th Sandwood bay Cape Wrath NC260747 9.3
223.9 miles in total
Day 13 and 15 to be joined together, weather permitting and if not live firing on the ranges.
Ok! This is my walk report of the CWT which is not meant to inspire anybody into doing it but just a report of how it can turn out in the West of Scotland due to the sun and heat.
I have lived in the West of Scotland almost all of my life and can’t remember a May as wet as this year, Three weeks where every day it rained. I was looking forward to it and had planned it for many months. The duration was to be 14/15 days, Half my food was posted forward to Kinlochewe caravan park where I was to take a day off to rest and reorganise myself for the second half of the walk.
Day 1. I started at 11:00 in FortBilly
- FortBilly
- Coal
, it was a nice easy stroll along the Great Glen Way
- Neptunes Staircase
as far as Achnacarry where I turned off to go along the shores of Loch Arkaig, The weather in FortBilly was dry but overcast with a light breeze, By the time I reached Coal it had started to rain, The temperature dropped and the wind picked up, but at least it was at my back. After turning off to Achnacarry I stopped at the Clan Cameron museum
for a break, a look around and to get out of the rain, which by now was getting quite heavy. Out of the museum through the estate and back onto the B8005 which had now turned west along loch Arkaig. MY GOD!, The wind was howling down the loch driving the rain into my face, which I’m sure was horizontal and not touching down until it hit a vertical tree or mountain side. Hood up, head down and plodding on, I eventually found a nice sheltered pitch for the night out of the wind beside a burn at NN153894.
- Zzzzzzzzz!
Day 2. I had a great nights sleep, a good breakfast and was ready to set off by 07:00.
GOOD GOD! The weather, what can I say to describe it? I can’t find any words other than relentless. The walk along the shores of loch Arkaig itself was easy, Tarmac with gradual ups and downs,
I’m sure on a good day it would have beautiful scenery but the cloud base wasn’t far off the water. I met several bedraggled TGO challengers and had a good blether with them.
- Strathan
Once I reached Strathan the tarmac was over, It was now onto a farm dirt track all the way to upper Glendessarry where I turned right over a stile, I could see the path that crossed the grassy hillside, it was running like a burn so I walked beside it, the grass was like a sponge, no point trying to keep my feet dry. Once I had passed Lochan a’ Mhaim I made a big mistake, I remember reading somewhere that “when you get to the end of the loch, cross the burn as soon as you can”, But I didn’t, I forgot, So I kept on going down the South bank instead of the North, It wasn’t long before I was in the gorge with a rock face to my left and an almost vertical drop down to the burn, The further I went the tighter the gorge got. At one point in the gorge I was aware of a deep rumble, I turned round to look back up the gorge to be confronted with a helicopter creeping through between the cloud base and the floor of the gorge, It was at eye level and no more than 100 feet away, I gave them a wave but the two of them looked terrified so I got no response. Once I crossed the burn and corrected my mistake, which I can only put down to tiredness and being fed up with the weather the going was much easier down hill into Sourlies at the head of loch Nevis.
- Looking down into the head of Loch Nevis (Sourlies bothy)
Sourlies bothy was full so I set up camp right outside on the well manicured lawn, had dinner and went to bed fully dressed as it was cold. At 03:30 I awoke to the roar of the burns which by now had turned into rivers, confused by the floor of my Vango Tempest 150 feeling like jelly and being up in the air around me, I got out of my sleeping bag and opened the door of the inner only to be met by a wall of water rushing in, Well my arse was a blur, I was out of that tent faster than a fast thing. The only things that weren’t under water were my down sleeping bag and the Pacific outdoor air mat, they were floating. Camera, phone, Satmap and battery pack all under water, jiggered! So no more pictures !
Day 3 A non eventful day relaxing and drying out, met Meg from over the pond, she was walking Scotland with no agenda, Also met a bloke from down south who was doing Munros, sorry I can’t remember his name, but any way he left in the morning when the tide went out, to go into the next glen so that he could set up camp as a base to climb the next munros on his list, that was the last we saw of him, or so we thought, Late in the afternoon, He was unable to cross the river in the next glen so had to return back to Sourlies but found the tide in by that time. He got back to Sourlies by wading through the sea up to his chest with a full rucksack on. He burst into the bothy, saturated, water running out of everything and had to spend the next day drying everything out.
Day 4 The river down into Sourlies had now returned back to a burn so I made the decision to bail out as the forecast wasn’t good for the next few days. When I arrived at Sourlies I had taken the paper map out of the waterproof case because I wasn’t needing it again, the last I remember having it was in the tent where I put it on the floor. The white thing floating in loch Nevis on the morning I was washed out must have been the map, Now I didn’t have a map to get back out. I knew of a bothy (Glenpean) further back which I decided to go to in the off chance that there was a map left behind by someone else.
The rain had eased off to torrential rain on the way back to A’chuil Bothy which I found empty, A nice easy, soaking wet, short walk. Had dinner and went to bed early.
Day 5 Started 06:30 because of the extra miles to go to Glenpean bothy and back looking for a map of the area, which there was, So thank you, who ever you are for leaving the laminated map, because of this I could now get out via Glean Cuirnean to Glenfinnan. This was a simple, wet underfoot, howling gale, uphill most of the way, in as usual, driving rain and occasionally a good hail shower thrown in just to make it interesting, Finally arriving at Glenfinnan in the afternoon. From there the train was the simple way back to FortBilly.
I have been doing long distance walks for several years now, but I have never walked in such horrendous, miserable and cold weather. I will try again at some point in the future but will split it into two separate weeks when it’s easier to pick the weather.
I take my hat off to any of the other people that were doing it at the same time if they completed it, well done!