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In spite of return visits to Ben Mor Coigach and Fhidhleir, there are parts of these two that I keep meaning to explore, and this day was a day for one of those. Just Fhidhleir, no BMC, just a snoop around what's what in the north bits of the hills.
As we arrived and parked, under cover of cloud, a couple of other walkers - an older fella and his younger friend - were setting off. We booted up and followed on, until they veered off to BMC. We wondered if we'd see them later.
002 Beinn Ghobhlach -sail Mor - An Teallach As we got going, we were caught up by the only other person we'd see on the hill that day. He was a super-fit kayaker who'd finished guiding for the year, and was keen to walk the hills he'd been looking at from the water. After a chat with him, he bounded on, and we... yeah, well, we walked on
Walking straight up to Fhidleir's top, you'd never know what delectable drama it hides.
003 Unprepossessing Fhidhleir summit from west
004 Deer grass rainbows and BMC Before we even got to the top, however, we had our first sighting of a couple of other creatures who were checking out the north bits of Fhidhleir, two eagles.
007 Two eagles - prob WTEs Up on top, this was the first time I've been able to conjure up memories from walking each of the hills in view. What's more, we'd shared a fair few of these together now. (30 years ago we'd only shared Stac Polleidh.) We broke out a celebratory coffee and biscuit
and wallowed a little in the now and the then of it all.
009 All walked now - Assynt hills 
011 BMC from Fhidhleir top 
013 Fhidhleir flanks and Loch Osgaig 
014 Fhidhleir north tops 
015 On the edge by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
So now, off to explore.
I think we'd intended to head to the 648 point, but for some reason we changed our minds and opted to sort of beeline to Cairn Conmheall instead. Pretty sure it was the eagles that drew us that way, but I really can't remember. They were certainly floating about pretty much all the time we were there, and had headed west.
Anyway, it was a joy to root about up here. And it was all getting decidedly more alien.
019 On the way to Mars 
021 Fhidhleir flanks 
022 SP Suilven and Quinag 
023 SP Suilvenand Beinn an Eoin from Mars Below our feet, the grey of the gneiss had been replaced by a floor of broken sandstone. No tors and layers as on the BMC ridge, this was - well, as Euan said, you half expected to bump into a Mars rover. Meanwhile, as we dropped in height, we started to lose Cul Mor and Cul Beag from view, so it took on a different feel, a pleasant, isolated, peaceful feel.
024 SP Suilven and keekin Culs over an Eoin 
025 Cul Beag over Eoin and Fhidhleir summit r With eagles
027 WTE ... and croaking ravens
029 WTE and ravens I spotted a couple of rocks which looked familiar, and remembered a Weaselmaster comment about these two having conversed for many years. So there you go, I'd remembered the photo and the comment from whenever it was posted, but forgotten where. Nice to put those together!
031 Weaselmasters 190616 rocks 
032 Cul Mor - Beag - Beinn an E - Fhidhleir - Lochanan Dubh 
033 With Lochan Tuath and E for scale 
034 Mars below Fhidhleir north top 
036 Towards Conmheall 
037 Natural shelter I was really enjoying this side of Fhidhleir. No one around, so much that was new in somewhere so familiar. Lovely. I love days like this. I was also following very fresh large deer tracks, so had an eye out for a magnificent stag, but he was refusing to be seen.
039 Looking in vain for stag Then we found ourselves looking down at these guys...
038 Moonies of Fhidhleir ... who we called the Moonies of Fhidhleir. Actually, they looked like so many chaps in flat caps as well, but Moonies they were and Moonies they have remained. We went to take a closer look.
042 Moonies lovely lochan at 475 
044 Moonies and funeral platform 
045 Narcissistic moonies 
047 Not more photos At the risk of sounding morbid, I've always thought of this corner as the scatter-my-ashes, last-place-I'd-like-to-see-before, that kind of thing. Now I'd even found the perfect platform, with a peaceful view, fairly private and tucked away, and if those eagles were vultures, well! (This is actually a happy thought! Some of you will, I'm sure, know what I mean.)
048 View from the platform 
049 Tightening laces in gorgeous landscape Anyway, speaking of the eagles, they were coming a bit closer.
051 WTE 
058 WTE 
059 WTEThey stayed with us to Cairn Conmheall's little pointy top.
062 Assynt hills from Conmheall top 
063 BMC and Loch Broom in Autumn garb 
064 Summer Isles from Conmheall top 
067 Achiltibuie from Conmheall top 
068 To Point of Stoer from Conmheall top And finally down we went.
069 Easier terrain than a Galloway descent
070 Looking back up to Fhidhleirs north tops Intrepids in the title. Yes, intrepids. We got back to the layby and were about to drive off when we saw the other three folk approaching together, up from the bridge, so we waited to say hi again and bye. The first two, it transpired, were from the US, and had planned a circuit of BMC coming down the Choireachan ridge. (That is, the older fella had planned it and the younger was following.) But, when it came to it, they were massively relieved when kayak-man arrived, as they'd underestimated the scramble, so he guided them safely down. We were happy for them: an adventure, nice company, fantastic ridge, happy ending, just as well they were relying on kayak-guy and not us
.
The older guy was about 75, and I thought he'd be pretty chuffed at what he'd just managed, but all he said was that he was incredibly grateful. His younger companion, when I asked him what had been his favourite part of the day, replied: "the walk back up the road from that bridge".
