The Victoria Bridge Two, Grand Views.

[martin.h]

For some reason, whenever we've wanted to have a go at these two, something has prevented us from doing them whether it was something else closer to our base, Roybridge, or the weather, we've never managed to get there.

This visit we decided to prioritise them, we did want decent weather though, for the great views that people have told us about more than anything and, of course, two new blue balloons Keeping an eye on the forecast the first Monday of our holiday was going to be good, starting off a bit dull but getting better as the day went on, so that was the deciding factor, lets go and do 'em and see what happens, this is how we got on

We're early birds at home, up for work at 05:30 so we decided to do the same today just to make sure we could get parked and, also, the run down from Roybridge to Victoria Bridge was going to take a good hour at least. We had our breakfast then left the campsite at 20 to seven. The roads were quiet, we arrived at Victoria Bridge at 8 got the boots on and were off by quarter past after doing battle with the midges

The forecast was spot on so far, there was a bit of low cloud over the tops and it was dull but it looked like the clouds were breaking up and with luck we'd get the views once on the tops.

P8020001 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

On the track to Clashgour Hut we could see our intended, they were clearing so a good omen, all the mountains around us were losing their clouds too as we progressed along the path into Coire Toaig.

P8020002 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

P8020003 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

P8020004 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

P8020006 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

P8020007 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

We arrived at the branch in the path that starts the climb up Stob a'Choire Odhair and prepared ourselves for our first double Munro day for two years or more, we were going to take it steady, especially now that the sun was making a very welcome appearance, it was warm so no rushing about

As the walk description suggests its a nice steady ascent, we stopped a couple of times for the views which were getting better and better and the odd photo, well that was my excuse, we were progressing very nicely.

P8020008 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

P8020012 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

We arrived at the summit and, as promised, things were looking good.

P8020013 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

P8020014 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

P8020015 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

P8020016 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

P8020018 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

We stayed on top for a while just taking in the views all the time the lure of Stob Ghabhar was getting stronger, it was like being pulled by a magnet, we felt fit enough to crack on so off we set for Munro No:2

It's a nice plod down to the bealach, looking back the descent looks really picturesque

P8020021 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

and the views to Rannoch Moor look...... watery

P8020022 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

All the way we could see the start of the climb up Stob Ghabhar, it looks pretty daunting in a steep kind of way I can't say we were looking forward to it, but we kept reminding ourselves we'd been up similar in the past and, as we were climbing the views were good too

P8020023 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

P8020024 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

P8020027 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

P8020028 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

P8020030 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

It's not that bad really and soon we were looking along the Aonach Eagach ridge, this adds a bit of interest to the walk, the views from it are pretty good too.

The walk along the ridge makes the steep nasty ascent worth while, it's quite airy, to be honest it was good fun, just not long enough

P8020031 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

We were soon at start of the climb up Stob Ghabhar, it turned out to be a plod and we were soon on the summit. We sat down to have lunch, all around us were hypnotic views.

P8020035 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

P8020037 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

P8020038 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

P8020039 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

P8020040 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

P8020041 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

Once we'd snapped out of our hypnosis we packed up and reluctantly set off for the decent to reality.

Back at the bealach there's a cairn to mark the start of the decent proper, easily following a line of fence posts, The only thing to stop for were the views

P8020043 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

P8020046 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

P8020048 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

The path is easy to follow until you get to the waterfall where there's more than one path to follow, we found ourselves on a path that descends to the right of the waterfall, luckily we saw a way across the burn just above the main fall and got to the path we should be on, it is a steep descent and care is needed but it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, this was probably due to it being bone dry, in the wet it may be a little interesting

P8020049 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

P8020051 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr

Once back on the main path it was an easy yomp back to Clashgour. We stopped at the hut for munchies then set off for the carpark. 20 minutes later we were at the car, the midges were gone so we could take our boots off unpressured and reflect on a brilliant day out