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With the end of my holiday approaching, I knew 3 days of hillwalking in a row was pushing it, but I could not let the opportunity pass to climb one last Munro. Even though I was itching to climb some more Munros in Torridon I wanted to keep them for another day and I opted for Maol Chean-dearg. A single Munro which would only take 3-5 hours, (that’s if you believe one of my hillwalking books). It sounded easy enough and I was looking forward to it.
The night before I had seen an increase of people at my wee campsite, including two hill runners, who wanted to join the hill race up Slioch on Saturday 2nd of June.
They are all mad
in my opinion anyway, but the fasted person competed the 20km race in 1:54:17 this year.
I had a chat with one of the runners and shared some midgy repellent, after watching him fight with the midges, while trying set up camp for the evening. After wishing him good luck for the race, I settled in my car with a glass of wine and did some research on some more Munros before I went to sleep.
With plans to stay at another campsite in Glen Carroch, I left in the morning and arriving at the camp side, I was told it was fully booked – bummer!
Not really knowing where to stay next, I decided to climb the Munro first and worry about a place to stay afterwards.
The small car at the foot of the hill was full when I arrived, but thanks to my wee car, I managed to squeeze in a corner. I set off and with the sun shining and a cool breeze it was a pleasant walk. After 45min I was surprised, to find the wee bothy on the way in such good conditions. I walked inside to have a look and thought it was a nice touch to see the information about the first owners of the house.
- The bothy
I left the bothy and felt pretty tired at that stage. Yawning profoundly, I carried on and soon the path started to lead up the mountain. From that time I became aware about the condition of the path. Loose rocks and boulders littered the path and made every step annoyingly difficult. I am not sure if it was the combination of feeling tired, or the cold wind, which seemed to have picked up, but my mood seemed to be on a downward path and I became more and more grumpy. With every step I seemed to slide on the loose stones and cursing the person who made the path in any way possible I moved on.
- This is no fun to walk on!!!!!!
- The first glimpses
I usually love hillwalking, but in a bizarre way, that day reminded me about days as a child when I was dragged on walks I did not wanted to go. Only the beautiful views towards the mountains around me seemed to lift my mood a bit, until the drag up boulder fields continued. The path seemed to go on forever and after 3 long hours, I finally reached the top.
I was rewarded with some of the most stunningly views this country can offer you, but the freezing wind soon saw me in 3 layers of cloths. Huddled in a corner, at the great cairn up the top (brilliant cairn), I had my lunch while cursing the wind which seemed to come from all directions and made me feel the cold even more. The Corbet right next to the Munro looked amazing, but even though I kind of planned to climb it, the 3h of hell on the way up, did not convince me that it was a good idea ...there are only so many loose stones I can take for one day.
The way down seemed to be even worse than the way up and by the time I reached the bottom, I was more than happy. On my way back I decided that doing this hill in 3h would be madness…possible? maybe, but the book was definitely wrong, as it took me 6h including some breaks.
Close to the end of the path, I suddenly saw another person carrying a Mountain bike.
Not surprisingly, when you think about the condition of the path!! When we passed each other, he told me, that he was on his way to Torridon. I did check my map afterwards and only then realized, that it was indeed the public path from Glen Carron to Glen Torridon…interesting!
- Easter islands in Scotland?
Back at my car I set off to find a campsite. I had a few in mind, but after driving through Glen Shiel, I decided to try the wild campsite close to the Cluanie Inn. Driving down the wee road I managed to find a place and set up my tent right next to the burn.
Sitting outside my car, while cooking a large pot of food on my camping cooker, I was approached by another woman, who asked me if I could give her a lift.
- Wild camping
- Cooking dinner
Looking down at my boiling pot of food and back to her I wondered if she really expected me to leave my food to give her a lift?
Don’t get me wrong, I am usually happy to give anyone, but that was taking it too far!
After telling her I could not, she left and soon after I was able to enjoy my food while watching a grazing deer in the distance.
