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So December was pretty rubbish for going out walking.. Stormy weekend after stormy weekend had Dougie and I bored senseless, so with a few festive days off, we were going out come hell or high water, and the Ardgour/Sunart/Moidart area was our target.
I had scarcely visited before, I think it had been more than 20 years for Dougie too, so well overdue a visit.
Between being away for Christmas, and having to work, I felt quite disorganised, and Saturday morning was a blur of shopping and packing.
We finally got on the road about 1 o'clock – we would definitely be arriving in the dark! Worse than that though, Dougie and I got separated in Aviemore after a quick scook at the sales..
The last thing I said to him was 'see you in Fort William' so I made my way there and looked and looked for him all over
After an hour of driving about, I finally spotted him in Morrisons car park – Yaay!, what a relief
We bundled all his kit onto Sunny's back seat and set off round Loch Eil. The weather had been showery on the way over, but it had turned into a bonny mild night and we found a nice spot for the tent in amongst trees just across the water from Fort Bill
I was excited when I opened up the tent in the morning, as the weather looked great
We only had a short distance to drive down the road and we got going.. We paused by the graveyard for a wee look
and then it was steep up the hillside.. The underfoot conditions were saturated, and it was a relief to get on the occasional rocky slab to get some purchase.
Such hard work, but such rewarding views, and even at a slow plod height was gained fairly quickly.
It may 'only' be a graham, but you were climbing every last metre of it, and the gradient let your thighs know all about it.
After just one wee cereal bar break, we were up at the bealach to be met with more fine views of streap & co
On the final ascents to the first top of the day before long – Sgurr na h-Eanchainne. There were a few snow patches about and the clag had set in.
The wind was pretty chilly, so no hanging about at the trig and we were off down the ridge, that was made up with the same slabs and boggy bits. Round the corrie we tromped without a view, before we were up at the the main top of the day – Druim na Sgriodain.
It was still not exactly stopping weather, so we carried on down the ridge, bits of it incredibly steep, and with waterlogged conditions underfoot, it was a slippery descent.
We eventually made it down to the corrie, which was almost as steep, and over to the burn where we managed to cross beneath a beautiful waterfall.
The light was fading by now and that put some speed in our steps as we followed the burn down enjoying more waterfalls.
The last section down to the flat Corran peninsula was steepest of all. It really was dusk now, and it was difficult to see the worst of the mud as we followed a fence toward the road.. I had, as usual, forgot my torch
and the bog got worse so we crossed the fence.. We reached a gate which lead into the next field, but it was surrounded by a sloppy mess that was challenging to negotiate..
We made it onto a track down to Keil Farm, but were redirected across another marshy quagmire in the fading light
before being briefly trapped behind a deer fence beside the road.. Phew that last bit was tough and the rain was coming on..
A quick march back to the car saw us on the way to Strontian – We had checked out the campsite there online and it said it was open. When we arrived though, the rain was chucking it down and there wasn't a soul about.
We tried the phone number, but no answer.. So we decided to set up camp, intending to settle up in the morning. I didn't see an obvious place to camp, so I set off up the hill in Sunny.. then Dougie started asking me where I was going, it turned into an argument,
I was trying to talk and reverse down the hill at the same time, when suddenly there was a thump at the back
A quick look outside, saw Sunny was teetering, with one of her back wheels over the edge of a 5 foot ditch with a burn at the bottom..
We tried and tried to drive her out, but it was just making the situation worse so eventually Dougie went down into the ditch and with some herculean miracle, got her out..
Felt so good to have all 4 wheels on tarmac again!
We did find a camp spot eventually. Dougie went to find water, but came back with bad news. He had met the guy who was looking after the place, and he had said we couldn't stay – after all that faff! Ha!
So we dismantled the tent in the bucketing rain and went round to the bunkhouse, where a very nice woman gave us a room and we dried out a bit.
Another fine morning had us heading out fairly sharp for us. We retraced our steps back along Glen Tarbert, our target for the day Garbh Bheinn. We Parked right beside the path up the hill on a convenient bit of old road.
It had been showery weather so far, but it looked to be improving, and the hill looked so good, I was rather excited.
Just a short distance saw us up on another steep boggy hillside, but the slabs were way more frequent, and way more fun on this hill
We made it up to the first 'top' at 560m, and somehow got on to a path that skirted the hill.. I wanted to be on the slabs on the crest, so after a couple of hundred metres hoping the path would switch direction, we turned off it and headed back to the top of the ridge.
When we reached the ridge again we stopped for some food just below the snowline, where a fierce shower had us in full waterproofs. A family group that had been following us caught up, some of their party having turned back already. It was nice not to be walking the hill alone.
From there the going got rather more snowy underfoot, and the snow was soft. Not an issue at first, the snow got deeper and deeper. There were still huge rocky slabs sticking out of the white stuff, so we tried to stick to them, but it got more and more difficult.
The family turned back just before the first top, they must have been cold in the gear they had, and then we were on our own.
We dropped off the other side, not even pausing for a photo, heading down to the bealach. The snow was more drifted in places on this side of the hill. Fortunately going down in thigh deep snow is a lot more fun than going up
So we got down to the coll fairly quickly. From there though it was a bit of a slog, kicking out steps, and scrambling over some rocky bits.
False top after false top was passed before we finally got to the right one. Oh another chilly summit!
We retraced our steps. I followed our footprints, only to get stuck in a section that had been infinately easier to scramble up.
At that moment I saw Dougie cartwheeling down the slope to my right.. What a pair of numpties we are!
So I backtracked and found a way down, found Dougie almost recovered from his wee tumble.
After that it seemed to be easy going back to the coll, where we intended taking the gully down to the glen. As we approached there was that feeling of a sheer drop ahead, and when we reached the edge we realised we were indeed on a massive cornice with a near vertical drop below.
A hasty retreat back to nearer solid ground saw us discussing the viability of our route, bearing in mind our axes were in sunny's boot
I thought we could manage round the side, and Dougie is more confident in snow than me, so we carefully skirted round and started the descent.
I edged down a few inches at a time only a little bit terrified
, dougie said he would of run down if I wasn''t there!
Slowly we edged down and the going got easier after 50 metres or so. The less steep it got though, the more we sank into the soft snow
and it was hard work lifting the legs high enough to take steps.. We got down to a place with huge boulders which held the snow and we sank in deeper, bruising our shins between the boulders below.. We were sinking waist deep every two or three steps! So we stopped, which gave us a chance to actually look around us. The corrie we were in really was quite magnificent with huge jagged cliffs all around and another vertical feeling drop not far ahead ,giving an extra uneasy feeling into the mix.
Rejuvinated slightly by homemade shortbread, we carried on, walking on our knees, or crawling on our bellies some of the way, just trying to keep on top of this darn soft snow!
We reached the 'edge' which wasn't quite as steep as it seemed. The snow was getting shallower, and a path was beginning to become apparent. I'd just got down below a bonny waterfall,
when I heard a shout from Dougie above – he had fallen and lost one of his walking poles. It took me a few minutes to get back up to him, and in that time he had no luck in finding it. The snow had cost us a lot of time, and the sun was set.. I wanted to get down to the glen and across the river before dark, so was feeling the pressure as we looked for the stupid pole..
After a few minutes I saw it about 50 feet below – right next to the waterfall I had been down at before
So we retrieved it on our way past and were back on our merry way. Not far down the path I fell and landed on my walking pole making it crescent shaped.
More trouble than they are worth those poles!
The path was well defined now and the snow was far behind us. We passsed through the most gorgeous gorge I have ever seen, with huge boulders providing a variety of bivvying options, before we were down in the glen. Shame it was too dark for cameras now. We crossed the river nae bother in the end – my fears that it would be hard to cross unfounded. Dusk turned to gloaming as we set off down the path, it quickly becoming apparent that the path was in very poor condition indeed. Again I had forgotten my headtorch,
and Dougies batteries were somewhat ailing, so it was hard even to see where the path went, let alone what bits were bog and what bits were just wet. The drizzle was on..
It took us 2 hours to make it down that glen, fortunately our good humour lasted almost right to the end
It had been an absolutely braw day in every way – Great hill, fun conditions, just sooo special
We camped up at a spot right at the end of the walk. The rain got heavier all night and in the morning it was still coming down in sheets, so we decided to spend the day low down.
We had a lovely walk round the Sunart Oakwoods, then went to an interesting wee Dun out past Salen Bay which is on a tidal island.
The walk down to the shore was uninviting, with 'path closed' signs, but we ignored them and had to cross many fallen trees.. Must of been windy round these parts recently..
Unfortunately, we were just a little late for the tide and we couldn't of got out to the island without very wet feet. The tides are high just now. It was a spectacular location and we stopped there for lunch despite the driving wind and rain.
Then it was out to Castle Tioram, where the sun put in an appearance and it felt almost like summer
We carried on up the road, and almost stayed at the bunkhouse in Glenuig, but we ended up camped up on a wee cliff above the sea further along the coast somehow.
It was hogmanay, so we guzzled down our mulled wine with relish.. A bit too much relish as we both fell asleep, then woke up again a bit after the bells – these long winter nights are a killer
The following day, we thought we would go a walk out Ardnish Peninsula. It had been the stormiest night yet, and it was still raining in the morning, so it took a while to build up the motivation to leave. The rain went off about 10 though, so we got all packed up and after only a brief faff finding the right layby, we were getting our kit ready to go.
We headed up the track and onto the path which crosses the railway on a very steep bridge.
The woodland there was lovely. The once well built, but now ailing path continued over a shoulder and up the bealach. The views of Rum and Eigg were amazing once we got up a bit higher so we had a stop, even though neither of us were hungry or tired.
We carried on up a bit more until the path crossed the ridge we wanted, and we headed left, almost double backing on ourselves. We were instantly having fun up there, rocky fins sticking up from pleasantly springly ground gave good variety. At first I was climbing every little knoll on the ridge, but it soon became clear, that if I carried on like that I would be on the ridge for days!
Navigation became very difficult, picking out where you were in all the hillocks on the map was challenging. We finally got up to near to Cruach Doir an Raogih, and climbed up, only to find we were on the wrong one.
Which meant a descent and a leap over some peat hags before we got up to the wee cairn at a grand 292m – the highest point in Ardnish.
We sat in amongst the rocks for some shelter and a snack, and watched an eagle soar above the snowy corbetts over the glen.
Cold eventully spurred us on and we found a wee stalkers path, which was hard to follow, but took us down a steep section between some cliffs, to the narrowest section of ridge between some lochans.
It was a while until our next planned top, so I went up a couple of the more interesting looking hillocks en route. We were getting lovely views down to Loch Ailort and last nights camp spot for a while.
We picked up the wee path again as we skirted a lochan and ascended to our second peak of the day – Cruach an Aonaich.
Too obscure a peak for a cairn, or even a walk report from Malky-C it seems
– a shame because its a beauty. We again found some shelter from the wind and had some food. It was a rushed stop though as the sun was setting.
We could see Peanmeanach bothy from there – our shelter for the night – and it looked quite far away still.
We skirted round staying on the ridge. The way down looked very complicated on the map so we adopted a 'walk straight to it' philosophy that worked well apart from one 20 foot cliff that was easily negotiated in the end.
We were very close to dropping down into the wide glen behind the bothy now and had found a wee path to follow in the dwindling light. I had my headtorch today
But Dougie's had unfortunately broken, so we were in the usual situation of being out in the gloaming without sufficient light.
We reached the floor of the glen and the path continued right in the direction of the bothy – great I thought,
but after only 20 yards or so it was to boggy to follow.
I took to walking along an old dyke which took us another 200 yards with dry feet before petering out... I found the tracks of a 4x4 to follow – again too boggy
so there was nothing for it to head straight for the bothy..
Only 300 yards to go... but it was getting worse and worse, a huge quagmire opened up in front of us, we had to go round... The effort of it all had me roasting hot, but if I had stopped for more than a second to remove clothing, I would have been in it knee deep.
I have never seen a bog like it.. 'Just think light and keep moving' I thought, but the tussocks were getting fewer and farther between.. Dougie had started voicing his concerns and I tried to be positive.. Look I said, just 150 yards to go. 150 yards of this was a very long way though, and it took us a long time to reach dry ground. Oh I've never been so glad to get somewhere ever.
At the bothy, a chap already had a fire going, and we got in just in time as the heavens opened shortly after. We slept upstairs above the fire but were awoken by really heavy rain so it was an unnecessarily early start. The rain stopped and we went out to wander on the beautiful beach and check out the ruins.
The rain started again so it was a hurried finish to investigations so we drank tea and waited for it to let up before we left. At midday it was light enough to make a move so we took the path out in improving conditions.
The path had some bad boggy sections, but nothing like we had encountered the day before. It meandered through oak woods
and up past the big loch in the middle of the peninsula. The sun was starting to break through and we stopped for lunch near the bealach where we had turned off the day before. The lunch bag has since gone missing, so if you are up that way, you may well find some treats sitting on a rock..
The descent was a bit slippery on the eroded path, and we were slightly hanging back as getting back to Sunny would signal the end of the holiday
All good things must come to an end, and we had been lucky in that the weather seemed to clear up for us whenever we wanted to do something, and lucky we had chosen such a braw place to go. Memorable times
