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With George and Parminder being unavailable I decided to head out all by myself, so where to go - the usual problem.
I opted for Geal Charn as I didn't think George and Parminder would fancy being dragged/forced to wander up it again. As it is almost 20 years since my last visit and I don't remember anything about it, so I did my usual research and one thing I did notice was that there haven't been any reports for Geal Charn for a couple of years. As we know things do change over a couple of years, fences appear, bridges disappear paths become eroded etc.
The only reason I am making this post live is because there are no recent reports for Geal Charn on it's own.
I arrived at the parking area about 9am and noticed there were 2 cars parked already. I would meet both parties after covering about 4km and as usual I had a wee chat with them all.
I have just realised Geal Charn was my 50th Munro this year and definitely one of the easiest.
Garva Bridge from the parking area
The River Spey
Looking the other way
Parking area
Looking back at the bridge and parking area
The burn that the path will follow uphill, not much water in it - taken from the metal bridge that is used to cross it
The view the other way
The way ahead
The path is fairly good and easy to follow until the boulders are reached on or near the summit plateau area
Way ahead
Low cloud on the cards yet again
Looking back
Plenty of berries on the trees
A fairly well trodden path
The view up the glen - not on the walk agenda though
Another photo further up
What remains of the style, the fence is also showing signs of wear with so many walkers straddling it
Geal Charn hiding in the the cloud
Looking back
The burn continues in a different direction and the path meets one of it's tributaries that has to be crossed
Looking back, also shows how obvious the path is
Looking back - just before the cloud closes in and get's rid of the view
Still going up, the ascent is fairly gradual and because it was very humid - energy sapping
As soon as I was on the open moorland I was constantly pestered by keds, they were either landing on my neck or my bare arms. I am not sure they bite but they are very annoying and I am not a fan of anything crawling over me and I did cull one or two.
Looking back, bit of a view of the moorland
If you look really carefully you may spot the cairn on the summit
There it is
And again
Still getting the hang of this selfie lark
Descending now and I was convinced that the cloud was lifting
The way down and ahead
I opted to have my lunch after the majority of the descending was done, picked a nice comfy rock and it wasn't long before I heard a buzzing nearby - I looked behind me and there was a rather large swarm of midges, so I grabbed my final brioche & quickly continued my descent munching on the go.
Water feature - with not a lot of water
This is the river crossing spot - could be a bit more difficult after days of rain
Local flora, I had to get on my hands and knees to get this photo as the petals are pointing down the way
This blurb is near the bridge
Here are a few bonus photo's, I made a few stops on the way back to Laggan as the views were quite impressive, certainly better than the grey stuff when you are in clouds.
Man made canal type feature that links the reservoir to Loch Crunachdan
Looking the other way, I stopped on the bridge on the way home to take the photo's
I have to say the drive along the single track road from Laggan to Garva Bridge is on one the better single track roads, visibility is pretty good for the majority of the time.
A defunct bridge - looks quite cute though
The western end of the reservoir, water levels like most lochs are pretty low
The reservoir, not even a slight ripple on the surface
Looking west
North
This turned out to be much better than I expected, just a shame the little flying things tried to spoil the day.
Unfortunately we won't have many more weeks to tackle Munro's especially as the majority all involve a 3 hour drive each way, Hopefully I will compleat my 2nd round next year alongside Parminder who will be compleating his first.
