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Hills can become special memories because of their grandeur, the challenge or the weather, but for me, the most special days on the hills are those that I share with my son, Thomas. The same will be true for those that I climb with his little brother, Peter, who recently climbed Ben Bhraggie and will be big and strong enough for bigger hills next year.
It had been a couple of years since I was out on the hill with Thomas, as I had remained in Kazakhstan the previous summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thomas had been in training ahead of joining the army, so I knew that I might struggle to keep up with him.
However, like Baldrick, I had a "cunning plan"! I short way up the hill, I realised that I had left my camera in the car. I asked Thomas to pop back down for it and much to my surprise, he took the car key and ran back down to the car.
This plan was marginally more successful than Baldricks, but it was not long before Thomas was well ahead. He can be seen in the photograph below, wearing a blue top and stood next to the bridge.
Heading up steeper ground, I told Thomas to stay with me. Perhaps it was the headphones he was wearing, but instead of heading left towards the shallow grassy gully, he headed up more directly over rockier ground. As a result, I found myself waiting for him. For the rest of the day, Thomas was to be ahead of me and from time to time waited for me.
It was definitely getting hot and on arrival at the summit, instead of sitting on the cairn, we looked for a bit of shade to have a bite to eat. I left him in the shade while I went back to the cairn to set up the tripod for a summit selfie.
But first a panorama shot of the way ahead: Sgùrr na Muice. Sgùrr Fhuar-thuill to the right of Sgùrr na Feartaig (left) and is hidden behind Sgùrr na Muice. Creag Gorm a'bealach and Sgùrr a' Choire Ghlais are to the right.
So when Thomas finally joined me, I directed him to where I wanted us to be for the right composition, but he would not keep still while I focused on him. He waved his arms about and quickly got up as he was surrounded by flies. Now to Thomas, every flying insect is a biting insect. I told him not to be such a sissy and reminded him that he was planning to go into the army. To be fair, they were extremely annoying, but I still managed to almost smile. It did seem like an extremely long 12 second shutter delay!
We headed down the northern slopes. Over the years, I have sprained my ankles numerous times, so I tend to take greater care going downhill. I used to run down such terrain. Thomas, with his stronger and younger joints forged ahead.
As Thomas gets older, he seems to gain a better appreciation of his surroundings and is happy to take a rest and look at the scenery.
Loch Monar. Spot the Cuillin in the distance left.
Besides not being as young and fit as Thomas, I also fell behind every time I saw something interesting to photograph.
Tachina grossa
From Wikipedia "Like most tachinid flies, the female lays eggs on other living insect larva, the fly larvae then develop inside the living host, devouring it and eventually killing it. Its main hosts are the large hairy Lepidopteran caterpillars, particularly the oak eggar moth (Lasiocampa quercus), the fox moth (Macrothylacia rubi) and other Lasiocampidae"
Sgùrr Fhuar-thuill is centre and the stalker's path used for the descent is visible to the left. It was in fact now easy ground but in the heat, I was finding it hard work. Thomas was carrying twice as much fluids as I. One drawback of water reservoirs compared to my old SIGG bottles is that you do not know how much water you still have left unless you really investigate. Later in the day, I thought that I had ran out of water. I sucked and nothing came out. When I arrived home and sorted out my kit, I found that I still had about half a litre of water! There must have been a twist in the hose or perhaps the bottom of the bladder was compressed by the contents of my backpack. I will be sure to check next time!
Looking SSE to Sgurr na Lapaich and An Riabhachan.
Looking back to Sgùrr na Muice.
Thomas chilling out in the sunshine while he waits for me to catch up.
Taken on the summit of Sgùrr Fhuar-thuill, Thomas' seventh Munro. As part of my second round, I did the other three Munros in the North Glen Strathfarrar group from a bothy in Glen Orrin in December 2018. That nicely left Sgùrr Fhuar-Thuill to be combined with Beinn na Muice.
I stopped to talk to a party of three at the top of the stalker's path. Thomas did not wait and he was way down the hill by the time I continued walking. He did eventually wait and we walked the last bit together. Here, he looks totally fresh and like he could go back round and do it all over again!
