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Camban Bothy [Kintail]

Camban Bothy [Kintail]


Postby HighlandSC » Sat Nov 12, 2011 12:05 am

Date walked: 06/10/2011

Time taken: 24.5 hours

Distance: 27.4 km

Ascent: 730m

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Date - Thu 6th & Fri 7th Oct 2011
Title - Camban Bothy [Kintail]
Route - From East of Cluanie Inn, N through glen (An Caorann Mor), passing Glen Affric YH, then W into Fionngleann to bothy.
Weather - Wet, improving on Friday
People - Me / Michelle
Time - 24 hrs (about 4hrs walking each day)
Distance - 27.4km (13.7km each way)
Ascent - 730m (Day 1: 400m, Day 2: 330m)
Max Altitude - 430m

[socialhiking]http://www.shareyouradventure.com/map/os/HighlandScott/Camban-Bothy-Route-274km-67-Oct-11[/socialhiking]

Camban Bothy Route Profile (6-7 Oct 11).jpg


We'd originally planned to stop at Camban Bothy along with Mountainstar and co back in Sep during the WH Meet in Kintail but couldn't make it in the end. The original plan had also been to take a high level route to get there over A' Chralaig & Mullach Fraoch-choire, a fine pair of hills that I've done before and Michelle was looking forward to scrambling on, but a crap weather forecast soon had that plan scrapped and we stayed lower down in the glens this time.

An extremely lazy start in Inverness including a full breakfast saw us finally booted up and walking just after 3pm. We thought there was a chance we'd arrive at the bothy in the dark - in the end we did put the headtorches on 15 mins from arrival.

Started just each of the Cluanie Inn.
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Lots of rain had the rivers going strong - wondered if it'd cause us any problems later on but only one crossing required real though which we made fine. Certainly wouldn't be taking any shortcuts as we got closer to the River Affric.
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The track itself was doing a fine job at becoming a river. Combined with boggy ground later on we finished the day with feet soaked to the bone
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After slogging in the rain we reached the end of the glen (An Caorann Mor) and caught sight of the bothy in the distance - thoughts of the fire we'd soon have put provided renewed enthusiasm which was needed considering we'd now be heading the other direction for a little while in search of the bridge to cross the river near Glen Affric YH.
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Zoomed in on the bothy
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Plane wreckage. Anyone know the story of it?
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Descending to the bridge
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Picture doesn't quite do the river justice - what a roar it had
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We were well soaked by now but glad to be on a decent track closing in fast on the bothy
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Another crossing yet though, the bridge (what's left of it) across the white water rapids
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Darkness came on rapidly - 20 mins after the last bridge we got the headtorches on for the last little bit
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Arrived at the bothy, as suspected being midweek we were the only people there. Camban is a decent bothy having been renovated with a new roof and good sleeping platforms over 2 rooms both with fireplaces. Got ourselves sorted out, collected some water (plenty about today!!) and got dinner on, but not before sorting out the most important thing.......
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The nights entertainment was provided by a nice single malt...
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And a laugh at some entries in the bothy book.... (thankfully we had no real problems with midges on our trip)
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We wrote in the book and Michelle summarised things in picture form....
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Slept quite well with the fire burning into the small hours. No rush in the morning - spent a couple of hours having breakfast and lounging around, finally departing about 11am.

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Having suffered showers most of the previous day things evened out a bit and we began our return journey in patchy sunshine. It did cloud over a bit but the main thing is it didn't rain today.

Beinn Fhada (Ben Attow) behind the bothy
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Looking back down the track leaving the bothy
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Ciste Dhubh (left)
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River Affric E into Glen Affric
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River Affric SW toward bothy
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Deer looking down on us from Mullach Fraoch-choire
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Walking under the rainbow
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Our route S back through An Caorann Mor
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Snow capped Sgurr nan Ceathreamhnan
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Mullach Fraoch-choire
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Ciste Dhubh
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Ciste Dhubh
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Me - knackered but nearly out the Glen and into the Cluanie Inn!
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Final push down to the car by the loch, looking across to the South Glen Shiel Ridge.
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A great trip :) Our first proper outing with big packs weighed down with coal and supplies - can't wait to do it again :)
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HighlandSC
 
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Re: Camban Bothy [Kintail]

Postby mountainstar » Sat Nov 12, 2011 11:41 am

Hi Scott, Better late than never and a pity you never made it on out trip.
It' so well worth lugging in the coal isn't it, did it last all evening?
Like "We wrote in the book and Michelle summarised things in picture form...." and your rainbow pictures.
Hope life is good in the USA (I bet it is!)
All the best Alan
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Re: Camban Bothy [Kintail]

Postby HighlandSC » Sat Nov 12, 2011 5:13 pm

Wish we could have made it on your trip but Michelle had to change the dates she was over here on holiday.
WELL worth lugging coal into a bothy! We took half a tesco bag full and a couple of small logs - lasted all night into the wee hours. We also saved a log for the morning - nice to have breakfast infront of another small blaze :)

Life here in the US is great- missing my Scottish hills but there's plenty new adventure to be found here. I'll find my way back to Scotland sometime though :)
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Re: Camban Bothy [Kintail]

Postby kevsbald » Sat Nov 12, 2011 5:59 pm

Is it just me or whenever M visits, she brings the rain with her. It's very dry otherwise.... :roll: Loved the midge cartoon.
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Re: Camban Bothy [Kintail]

Postby HighlandSC » Sat Nov 12, 2011 6:17 pm

Aye Kev, she tends to land here the week after a spell of high pressure! We've done okay though really.... just to balance things out a bit...
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kevsbald wrote:Loved the midge cartoon.

Us too :lol: sounds like someone lost a few pints of blood to the wee *&^%***
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Re: Camban Bothy [Kintail]

Postby ChrisW » Sat Nov 12, 2011 7:00 pm

Great report HSC, love the cartoon drawings (a far better way to communicate I think)...I began by thinking "back from the US so quickly" then rechecked the date. Hope everything is going well out there and you are getting out exploring :D

We returned from Calgary early having found a nice house, the clock is really ticking now on the move and we are bracing ourselves for a Canadian winter :shock:
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Re: Camban Bothy [Kintail]

Postby HighlandSC » Sat Nov 12, 2011 10:25 pm

Yeah this report is from my last couple of weeks in UK. Catching up on photos/reports now I've got time again. Getting out and about locally at the moment - hoping to get into a bit of rock climbing at random small crags here and there soon :)

Congrats on getting a house sorted- looks like you're only 2300 miles from us!
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Re: Camban Bothy [Kintail]

Postby ChrisW » Sat Nov 12, 2011 10:33 pm

HighlandSC wrote:Congrats on getting a house sorted- looks like you're only 2300 miles from us!


:lol: :lol: Small world eh :roll: :lol: :lol:
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