by Dave Hewitt » Tue Oct 05, 2021 11:47 pm
An update on this, as it's had a happy ending, I went back to Ben Vorlich today, alone, to look for my friend's specs and their case - it seemed worth having another look even though six days had passed. Plodded up the main path thinking that at most it was a 33% chance of finding them, probably more like 25% really - but it wasn't zero, so I kept looking in the pathside ditches etc as I went up.
It always seemed most likely to have been dropped at one of the places we'd stopped for drinks etc a week earlier, but the first couple of these didn't bring any joy. Then at the large cairn at the top of the steepish section at about 700m I stopped to have a look as we'd stopped there last week too. A young couple with a nice little brown dog were also there, heading down, and they proved to be the heroes of this story. I mentioned that I was looking for a grey spectacles case and if by chance they found it could they please leave it on the bridge beside the road. I then carried on uphill, but about two minutes later there was a great shout from below. I scurried back down and the young chap ran up, clutching the case with its contents safe and intact. Seemingly I had put my rucksack on top of the case at the cairn while looking, and they'd noticed it when having a look themselves after I'd gone. Enormous thanks are due to the couple - I've no idea if they'll read this, but their help was much appreciated and the specs have now been returned to a very happy owner.
What's remarkable really is that my pal and I - plus another friend - specifically searched at the same cairn on the way downhill last week, but didn't spot the case. It's amazing how a grey rock-like object can look just like a rock in such a situation, even when being searched for. And the young couple who found it clearly have better powers of observation than I do.
Anyway, with it found and there thus being no need to come down the same way for a further look - and with the weather improving nicely - I went up Vorlich, across to Stuc and down into Glen Ample before returning along the road - all very pleasant. The close-up dipper sighting near the end felt like a bonus, as did the stags roaring in the glen to the east of Vorlich on the way up. And my friend has now been advised to put some red or orange sticky tape on his spectacles case to make things a bit easier next time. (Incidentally, his lunch - also "lost" last week - rather predictably turned up on his kitchen table when he got back home that evening.)