free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
Having changed my existing plans last minute (walking one day) to 2 days including wild camping in Glen Etive (mainly because of a bad morning weather forecast), I left home at 9:30 just to remember 5 miles down the road that I left my wallet (argh) Doing a detour I picked up my wallet and was finally on my way just before 10:00.
The roads were blissfully empty and I arrived at Glen Etive at 12:15. Putting up my tent in word record time and organizing the car I was ready about 15 min later and knew I had about 4h of daylight left…too much to hang around, but also not very much time to climb a mountain.
Checking different options I decided that I would finally climb Stob na Broige. I have done Stob Dearg about 6x but never managed to do the whole ridge so far. Having also recently finished a painting of the whole Buachaille Etive Mor I felt, that I knew every inch of it anyway.
- My painting
As the whole ridge walk would take far too long, I decided to head up Coire na Doire straight from Glen Etive. Having checked the map and the mountain, it looked a pretty easy way to do it.
- The start
Driving down Glen Etive I parked my car, packed my bag and set off. It was pretty rough terrain, but an easy mix of grass and heather with the odd boulder thrown in.
When I was about half way up I saw a herd of deer in the distance, but it was too far away to get a good picture. When I continued walking up, I suddenly felt watched and when I looked up the hill, I saw a stag and 2 deer looking at me….cool
They seemed quite nosy and while I took some pictures they kept on looking at me until they decided that I was getting too close and started to run away.
By that time I was alert and saw more deer on 2 further occasions…I have seen a lot of deer and stags in my time but that was topping all of it (Stag party up the hill)
After 1.20h I managed to reach the top of Coire na Doire and walked towards Stob na Broige . At the bottom of the hill I I actually haven’t seen a single soul (quite rare for a lovely Saturday afternoon up the Buachaille) but was greeted by a row of rucksacks at the bottom of the path…looking around I saw no one but guessed the owners left them to do Stob na Broige ….lazy buggers
On my way up I met a group of walkers, who told me they were from the Lomond Mountaineering club. While chatting to them, one of them asked me, if I was by any chance Mountainlove from walkhighlands. Lol first time I was recognised on the hills. (do I need to get worried? hehe). I said yes and he told me he is (MGMT also from walkhighlands) I continued chatting to the group exchanging some tales and after telling them I was solo camping that night, they invited me spontaneously to a ceilidh which they had that same night.
As I had kind of dreaded the lone long night in the tent, I was happy to accept. Saying my good byes I continued walking up to Stob na Broige. When I reached the summit, being happy that I finally made it (1.45h after leaving the car) I sat down in the wee shelter, had some snacks and while I looked around I saw a little angle statue hiding under a rock…cute!
As I was getting cold I decided to head back and met another group of 3 walkers. They had done the Buachaille Etive Beag and Mor in a day and were on their way back down. I walked a bit with them and said my good byes when I got to the grassy area down to Glen Etive. Walking down in the sunset was lovely and really peaceful. When I looked to my right I saw a herd of about 20 stags and deer grazing in the distance ….Awwww
When I was half way down the hill, I suddenly saw another group of stags. They eyed me up and stayed where they were, while I made my way towards them. I was wondering why they didn’t run away but they seemed quite content until at the last minute they decided to leave the spot and run down the hill.
After a gentle walk down the hill with many stops I reached my car just after 16:00h and drove back to my tent ready for a lovely tin of cullen skink and a can of beer listening to the burn and watching the moon rise over Creise…sometimes you cant beat wild camping!
To be continued