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An evening with Sgurr a' Chaorachain, Applecross

An evening with Sgurr a' Chaorachain, Applecross


Postby Frogwell » Sat Jul 02, 2011 10:43 pm

Route description: Sgùrr a' Chaorachain, Bealach na Ba

Corbetts included on this walk: Sgùrr a' Chaorachain

Date walked: 02/07/2011

Time taken: 2.5 hours

Distance: 7 km

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The forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday was promising good walking weather - broken clouds, no major rain and decent wind to keep the midges at bay and the temperature down. I made a few plans, printed a few routes and downloaded a few GPX files and packed my overnight rucksack with the intent on seeing where the best weather was in the morning. Unsurprisingly, by Tuesday morning and forecast had changed to say overcast, possible heavy showers and most importantly, no wind. I hate windless summer walking - far too muggy and midgy.

I had really got in the mood for taking a couple of days away from work though, so a quick transfer of my gear from the rucksack to the motorbike panniers and I was happily trundling up the A82 in the direction of the pointy bits. By dinner time I found myself in Applecross. I had been considering pushing on to Gairloch, but as I came over the Bealach na Ba it occurred to me that walking conditions were actually just about perfect (damn you forecast people) and I also remembered there was a fairly straightforward Corbett accessible from the top of the pass. My little PDA dug out a memory map of the area and confirmed that it was a perfectly decent little hill an hours walk from the road.

After a quick plant of the tent at the Applecross campsite I sampled some fine Thai vegetables and rice (actually, they weren't that fine. They were okayish, but not fine) and took the bike back up to the top of the pass, dumped it at the viewpoint and started ambling up the track towards the transmitter thing. It was only after this that the view started to come out and play. It was a shame it was so late in the day as the East side of the hills were all in shade - probably better as a morning walk, but a damn fine walk none the less. The walk to the summit is really very easy and there was absolutely no need to break into a sweat whatsoever.

I was just doodling about on the summit wondering whether to wait for the sunset when I remembered that Applecross campsites claims to lock it's gates at 10 pm, which gave me less and an hour to get back to the bike and get back down to the campsite. I didn't bother going back round the same route, instead cutting pretty much cross country with relative ease and I got back to the site ten minutes before their curfew. I'm not actually sure whether the do lock the gates or not, I did hear a couple of cars come in during the small hours. That coupled with the fox that was trying to steal the food from my tent porch and the heavy rain for a while gave me not the best nights sleep ever, but not the worst either. The next morning showed that was a very industrious fox as just about every tent had litter and food strewn all round about.

Anyway, that was that, if you're looking for get rid of a couple of hours with some decent views and light walking (perfectly suitable for small children, the elderly and non walkers) then this walk is to be highly recommended. I think I'll probably return in the Autumn or early winter so get some decent photos taken on a crisp morning, but in the mean time here are some hazy summer pictures.

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Frogwell
Hill Bagger
 
Posts: 177
Munros:266   Corbetts:117
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Joined: Mar 29, 2011
Location: Hills above Comrie, Perthshire

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