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During my first evening at the Alchmelvic beach campsite I met 2 other hill walkers and over a few beers we shared hillwalking stories and hearing a cuckoo in the distance wondering what a male cuckoo is saying to a female cuckoo after they met…. Male‘Cuckoo’, Female: ‘Cuckooo’,….. Male‘Cuckoo’ Female: ‘Cuckooo’ not a lot of vocabulary in my opinion…
When they told me that they wanted to climb up Ben More Assynt in 2 days I told them to use the route up I found by mistake while getting lost . It would give them a bit of a variety and a nice round. With no real plan for the upcoming day I asked for advice and when Canisp was mentioned I thought it would be a nice Corbet to do on my rest day. But I was not 100% sure, so I decided to plan in the morning and retired to my tent.
I slept until I was woken up by a rather loud Baaaa right outside my tent. Being completely startled I opened the tent door and was face to face with a sheep….Good morning to Ewe!
And good morning to a campsite which was a working croft and had sheep walking around everywhere lol.
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- Campsite at Alchmelvich
Looking at my watch I realized it was nearly 9am (I want a baaing sheep as an alarm clock now!!!) and slowly I started to get ready. Taking it easy I took my time and had planned a drive into Lochinver to refill my food stock. Thinking about my day I decided to take advice from last nights conversations and climb Conival.
The only problem was that I had no walk description, but after the previous day climbing I thought I don’t need any! Looking at the map I could see the route which was probably suggested, but as I fancied a wee scramble I decided to walk in from the first parking area after driving south from Inchnadampf…about 2km down the road.
It was a sunny day and with a fresh stock of food in the car I arrived refreshed at the wee car park (more a lay by) A sign told another tale about the mountains up there and I learned that the mountain I was due to climb was in the middle of a glacier many many moons ago.
Getting ready I climbed over the wee fence and there is a lovely river to cross (in summer no problem at all). Hoping over the stones I managed to stay dry and started walking towards the 2 small hilltops – aiming for the middle I continued up hill.
Walking along listening to my ipod I did not pay that much attention to the seeming less ‘dry’ ground until I managed to sink in ankle deep bog. I am not talking about ‘normal’ bog I am talking about bog I never experienced before…it’s the second generation of bog I know…treacherous… sneaky….willing to swallow boots without any warning ….while looking innocent and sweet…just like a field of dry moss. Annoyed I moved on and the same happened another 2 more times, but after the first half an hour you have some amazing new knowledge about second generations of bog fields!
With the new knowledge I plodded on and soon saw a burn flowing down the hill in the not to far distance. From the map I knew it would lead up to the mountain and as it was lovely and pretty I aimed for it. The stone slabs were mainly dry and in sections formed as great big climbing steps, I walked up the steps which required a wee bit of a scramble at times…fun!
From the top of the first hill I saw Conival in front of me. Not spectacular like other mountains, but I was here to find an exciting route up. From looking at the map I had decided to follow up a wide gully towards the left hand site but seeing the mountain in front of me I looked for some alternative routes.
Liking ‘straight up the mountain’ routes, I discovered a route, which I decided to follow up and moved on. The walk levelled out to a wide open plateau and wee lochs scatter the landscape – beautiful!
When I reached the bottom of the mountain I saw 2 other walkers in the distance who were about half way up. Looking up towards them I realized they stopped and looked in my direction. Not sure if they have seen me but if they did they might have been a bit confused, as I was no where close to a path.
The scramble up was easier than I thought and it was then when I saw a Ptarmigan…awww so cute! Moving on I saw a couple more and stopped to take photos.
Carrying on I moved straight up and was happy that there was no loose scree. I arrived at the top of the hill 2h after setting of from the car and had a break at one of the 2 rounded resting areas, which give great protection from the wind. Finishing my lunch I started feeling the cold and decided to move down the mountain towards the south along the ‘normal’ route I guessed, but after the first bit I aimed towards the gully to get back to the route I followed up.
Bizarrely the 2 people I saw on my approach had disappeared and I kept on wondering if I had starting seeing things…. It remembered me about a story I have once read about a mountaineer who had been walking solo in a great wilderness area high in the mountains when he suddenly saw people walking with him, which equally quick seemed to disappear after a few hours….I guess it was time to head back for a well earned pint and a meal in Lochinver.
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- Looking back towards the road
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- The gully route up
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- Looking down the gully
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- My mascot
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- Looking towards Inchnadampf
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- Suilven
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- Ptarmagan
