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The time had come and I was as excited as a kid on christmas day! After a couple of call offs for different reasons, today would be the day I would climb my first munro.
My dad wanted to do a bit of fishing at his usual spot at Kenmore, Loch Tay, so it was agreed that myself and Donnie...and Teo of course! would climb 'Schiehallion' and leave my dad in peace (probably means he slept most of the time we were away lol) to do a bit of fishing.
With no charge left in my phone and therefore nothing to wake me up
I slept longer than planned, which meant a later start (given the heat, this turned out to be a good thing). Shorts, t-shirt and flip flops on, bag packed and I was on my way just after 1pm.
A few stop offs at several fishing shops to try and buy some maggots and we were on the motorway, Kenmore bound around 3pm.
Not yet reached Callender and the wildlife begins, first a buzzard then pheasant after pheasant as well as a few roe deer grazing in the passing fields. After a nice drive via Falls of Falloch, we arrive at Kenmore and drop my dad off at his favourite wee spot before the short drive to Braes of Foss Car Park to begin our walk.
Swap my flip flops for my boots and just after 5.30pm we begin our walk. Weather is perfect, warm, dry and no wind on the ground.
We made good progress and climbed the first part of the walk, which is a good but steep path in 1 hour. Stopping only briefly for a rest and to take in the beautiful scenery all arounds us. The wildlife was really good from this point also, we saw red deer, red grouse and ptarmigan. The second part of the walk is a pathless scree, steep at times but once I was confident Teo would be ok, I really enjoyed it. The summit looked far in the distance, but it didnt take long (45 mins) and we had reached our destination. The views were stunning but im sure they would have been even better if we had reached the summit an hour or 2 earlier, as the mist was starting to come down.
A short break for a rest, some photos and a cup of Tea and we set off for the descent, making sure we would reach the clear path before dark. The descent took just as long as the ascent, 1 hour 45 mins. but we did stop several times for photos, to take in the views and a look at the wild life. We saw a ring ouzel, a mountain hare and more red grouse and ptarmigans.
The short drive back to Kenmore to collect my dad and his 3 rainbow trout
and homeward bound we went.
Not long after leaving Kenmore and i'm faced with 2 big eyes staring straight at me on the road, turns out to be a tawny owl on a suicide mission
, making no effort what so ever to get out the way. Luckily enough it was on the other side of the road and lives to fight another day! Not long after 1am and i'm back in the house with my first munro safely in the bag!
12 hours. 1 munro. 1 buzzard, several pheasant, many grouse, lots of ptarmigans, 2 red deer, 1 mountain hare, 1 ring ouzel, 3 rainbow trout and a suicide tawny owl. Not a bad day out in my book. Where next???
