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In the morning I woke up to a loud mooing of cows in the distance. It sounded distressed. Had one of them lost their calf? Were they in mortal peril? I didn’t pay any further attention to it, instead I got up, had breakfast, and started packing. I dismantled the tent from the inside, as it was still raining. Went out for a wash. The cows were further down on the track looking in my direction. When I got back, the cows had started coming up the track. I still didn’t think anything of this and began to take down the outer shell of the tent.
- Tent and Ben Challum
Until the cows in front left the track, sauntered towards me and stopped to watch. O dear, the rules of herd behaviour say: if one stops to watch, the rest will do so too. It didn’t take long before I was the centre of the tent-packing-show and the cows were my appreciative audience, gathered around me. They were very inquisitive (as cows are) and slowly edged forward. Generally speaking, cows are friendly, and these sisters certainly looked placid. But considering a. there was at least 10 of them, b. they had encircled me, c. they were bigger and heavier than me, d. the rules of herd behaviour, I didn’t feel very comfortable. Pretending to be calm I stuffed the tent and the last bits and bobs in my pack, swung it on my back and ‘confidently’ marched towards a cow, which luckily let me go past. Phew!
When I looked back, they had all continued their way to the river. It dawned on me that my tent had been in the way of their intended route and that this had been the cause of the dismayed mooing in the morning.
After this little adventure, the walk back was welcomingly uneventful.
Yesterday the river Lochay had looked not too bad. And indeed, it was easily crossed at the ford near Lubchurran. I found a spot behind a wall to hide my big rucksack. After transferring some bits to a smaller pack I was on my way. I followed the track past the cottage uphill. Ignored the ford and crossed the Lubchurran burn just above the dam.
- Looking back towards Lubchurran cottage
From there my route went east, first on gentle then steeper slopes, aiming for the bealach between spot height 577 and 580. It looked straightforward on the map, but it took surprisingly long to cover less than a kilometer. Once on the ridge the wind was there to accompany me. The cloud was waiting a bit higher up. At least I could see a bit more of Beinn Heasgarnich than I did yesterday.
- Beinn Heasgarnich coming out of the clouds
The ridge was rather knobbly, but that improved the nearer I got to Meall a’ Churain. What didn’t improve was the wind. It got very gusty and nearly threw me off balance on a few occasions. Feeling a bit peckish I stopped at Meall a’ Churain for an early lunch out of the wind.
Coming down from Meall a’ Churain I made a point of paying attention to the surroundings for later, as my descent route to Lairig a’ Churain would start here somewhere. There weren’t many features and in the mist all looked pretty much the same. I hoped I would recognise at least something. But first there was a munro to be bagged.
It wasn’t far to Sgiath Chuil, which has got a tiny cairn.
- Summit Sgiath Chuil
Took a summit pic and was off again, back to the bealach. Didn’t recognise a thing, but had been navigating on the map, so knew I was in the right place.
The descent gets steep pretty quickly and a few bum shuffles were needed to get down the most sharp decline. After this it was just a matter of getting on with it until the bealach. Good to see the cloud was lifting!
- View towards Beinn Cheathaich
The bog at the bealach was dry and a big peat hag provided the perfect spot for a snack and sussing out the ascent route.
- Sussing out the ascent route along the spur on the left
I walked west to Coire na Saobhaidhe, then south west to reach the spur. Followed the spur, which brought me up to the flats of Coire nam Moine, with views!
- Meall Glas coming into view
- Beinn nan Imirean
- View towards Sgiath Chuil and Sgiath Chrom
From there it was only 20 minutes to the summit of Meall Glas.
- Summit Meall Glas, Ben Challum in the background
What a difference views make to a walk! I could now see Ben Challum, Creag Mhor and the knobbly silhouette of Sgiath Chuil.
- Beinn Cheathaich left and Sgiath Chuil right
- Creag Mhor
With a spring in my step I continued onwards to Beinn Cheathaich, on a good path along the easy angled ridge.
- On Beinn Cheathaich looking back towards Meall Glas
The views to the south west from this top were stunning with layers of hill in different shades of blue-gray stacked behind each other.
I followed the NNE ridge down, heading straight for the track, which brought me back to Lubchurran, where I retrieved my rucksack, then crossed the river and walked back to the car. At Kenknock farm there was a welcoming committee of heifers waiting for me. What a fitting end to the day!
- Welcome!