The Cheesecake Expedition.

[quagga64]

Set off at 10 o,clock on Thursday 19th August, having put my new 66 L rucksack complete with new Asda tent in the boot of the car the night before. Drove up the M9/A9 up to Inverness and then on to Garve just as I had done 3 days earlier to climb Seana Bhraigh. (Stopped at the McDonalds at Inshes Retail Park in Inverness for the first time and had a chicken select meal and mcflurry). After Garve I cut along to Achnasheen then down to Loch Carron arriving at Attadale Gardens at 3:15. My rucksack weighed in at 18.10 kg. It was bulldozed track all the way into Bendronaig Bothy the first half of the walk being all uphill and the second half all downhill, made good time and arrived at 6p.m. a walk time of 2 hours 50 minutes to cover the 7.75 miles. It rained lightly for about 45 minutes on the way and then began raining again as I started setting my tent up behind the bothy which if it had,nt been padlocked and bolted shut due to covid I think I would have spent the night in instead of my tent as the midges were horrendous attacking me as I pitched the tent and my wet boots were caked in grass so after getting water from the stream I zipped up my tent and stayed there for the remainder of the evening. Watched Family Guy on my phone and made a dehydrated hiking meal and a coffee using my mini treking stove for the first time. Fell asleep just after midnight and woke to my alarm at 6, as usual not a good nights sleep waking and turning regularly. Left tent at 6.40 and headed for the munros, again along a bulldozed track and was soon at Loch Calavie where I began the ascent, the munros were in cloud and by the time I reached the bealach my feet were soaking from the wet grass and visibility was zero, had to use view ranger to locate the route up Lurg Mhor, got to top at 9.30, fairly easy ascent and took my usual photos and a short video on this my 264th munro and the least climbed of all the munros according to Walkhighlands. Descended back down to the bealach and then up the other side again in thick mist and soon reached the tiny summit of Bidean a'Choire Sheasgaich or Cheesecake as its more commonly known. Hung around the top for a good half hour as the mist was threatening to lift, again made another short video then left the summit at 11.30 and ten minutes later as I was descending the SouthWest ridge, the mist cleared and I saw my surroundings including Lurg Mhor for the first time ! The mist had been threatening to lift all morning with little glimpses here and there but this time it lifted for good and there were great views of the Coulin Forest mountains just to the NorthWest of me and also out to Loch Carron. The ridge brought me back down to the outward track and by 1:40 p.m. I was back at Bendronaig. By 2:15 I had taken the tent down and packed everything up ready for the long trek back out to Attadale, the walk out was just a slog with the bad nights sleep, lack of food and the fact Id already climbed two munros added to the weight of the rucksack meant I had to dig deep mentally and phsically and just get the head down and march on, at least it was dry and bright, had several stops along the way usually finding a large boulder or banking to rest the pack on and take the weight of my shoulders and neck for 5 minutes and when I reached the holiday cottages at the end of the tarmac road with just a mile to go, I stopped and changed into dry socks and had a good rest. Reached the car at 5:30 p.m. so it had taken 3 hours 15 minutes to make the return journey from Bendronaig Bothy, 25 minutes longer than the outward journey had taken the previous day. In summary I set off at 6:41a.m. and finished at car at 17:28 a duration of 10 hours 46 minutes, total distance was 17 miles, total ascent was 4,524 feet and my average speed was 1.6 mph. My max speed being 5.1 mph. Drove the 225 miles home stopping again at McDonalds in Inverness and was got into the house about 11 p.m.