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I did this walk at the end of February over two days, mainly to test my new tent and rucksack on something that was not going to be overly demanding (or far from the car should things go wrong).
On the first day I arrived at the little parking spot on the B8083 mid afternoon and despite one or two passing angry showers the day was pretty nice. The two and a half miles to Camusunary were straightforward and provided some great views over Camusunary bay and Sgurr na Stri. I'd decided to camp at Camusunary Bay, but still had a couple of hours of daylight before the sun was to turn in for the night so I just ambled about a bit, walked up to Loch na Creitheach and back, had an look round the bothy, although I declined to go in as I knew there was a crazy man with far too many beef burgers and cakes in there.
The Cuillins from the path to Camasunary
Camasunary. Apparently you can rent this holiday home.
Slat Bheinn
Being February, the sun finds it too cold to put in a full days work so it had buggered off by half five/six-ish, which left me with not a great deal to do for the night. I ambled about in the dark some more, played with memory map on my pda and various other existing pastimes. I think I was probably asleep by 21:30.
I was up before well before the sun, sometime around 05:30 and by 06:30 I'd had my morning tea, de-iced the tent, packed everything away and was plodding along the coast hoping to be able to get a decent distance so I could get some photos of the sunrise on Sgurr na Stri and the Cuillins. The Walkhighlands description of this route really doesn't make mention of exactly how bad this path is - it's in pretty poor shape and despite having no real ascent, there's a fair amount of minor ups and downs, altogether making it fairly tough going. It probably didn't help that I had a full overnight pack on and many of the rocks were ice covered.
I had high hopes for a good photo day, but it turned out to be another one of those washed out sky days
Not a whole lot more to say about the walk really. Despite the slightly annoying quality of the path on occasion, it's quite a pleasant walk and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a low level amble. I suspect it would be a lot better with more snow on the hills - more dramatic views and all that. I was a little disappointed that they were so clear of snow. Probably a good walk for kids - not too demanding but the presence of the Cuillins should give them a sense of achievement.
I arrived back at the car my early afternoon and figured I may as well take a drive up to the Quirang and get some photos of it. After the 40 mile drive to get to Portree I'm greeted with a sign informing me that the A855 is closed due to maintenance or something. No Quirang then. Still, at least I got to use two gallons of diesel and enough of the afternoon to prevent me doing any of the other walks I knew of in the area. Not a total loss then.
