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Call me a 'fair weather walker' if you will, but this really did stink! Robyn and I were staying at Shiel Bridge for a long weekend and, although not a walking holiday, we decided to go against the warnings of the forecast and climb Sgurr Mhic Bharraich from our log cabin on the edge of Loch Duich.
The walk up through the glen is actually pretty pleasant, and despite the bad weather this was ok. When you reach the lochan and turn off right to begin the pathless ascent, it starts to turn sour! Steep lumpy (and in our case soaking) ground which is hard to navigate - it was a tiring slog to the top (which, incidentally, was covered in cloud). The descent is no better, in fact probably worse - again pathless, but through thick ferns and heather all the way back down to the path by the river. Managed to get a couple of decent views of the loch, the saddle, forcan ridge and the five sisters when some of the low cloud briefly cleared, however for the most part this was pretty miserable.
Doubt it will be my only day like this, but I think I've put Robyn off hillwalking for life! I will, no doubt, be back in this part of the world many times to tackle the big boys (and girls)
Robyn + the saddle by
Ross Thomson, on Flickr
P1010056 by
Ross Thomson, on Flickr
P1010062 by
Ross Thomson, on Flickr
pathless trudge by
Ross Thomson, on Flickr
image by
Ross Thomson, on Flickr
summit by
Ross Thomson, on Flickr
image by
Ross Thomson, on Flickr
image by
Ross Thomson, on Flickr
back on the path by
Ross Thomson, on Flickr
image by
Ross Thomson, on Flickr
image by
Ross Thomson, on Flickr
