One fly in the ointment was I wasn't feeling too great this morning, I could feel "manflu" developing, had a bit of a tickly cough last night. But my theory was a day on the hills will get rid of it
I arrived at the layby near the railway armed with my WH printout of the route, I was first in the layby so didn't have the problem of having to hunt for a parking space. I did notice that the Power Station visitor centre car park had a locked gate across, so that would have been a no no, don't know what time they unlock, but did notice a lone camper van 'trapped' inside
- Parking area, me in pole position
- The rest of the make shift layby, with the start of the walk just at the end of the layby
I won't describe the route as that is already available. On opening the car door I was set upon by the Argyll midges who were trying to eat me alive. A quick rummage in my rucksack & it was out with the 'skin so soft', so that was splashed on any skin that was exposed to the hungry little blighters
That was the first time I have had to use the stuff & I have to say it may have actually worked even though it must be a few years old 
- Steps heading upwards into the wooded area
- Fish farm on Loch Awe
- Looking out over a calm Loch Awe from a break in the trees
The walk up through the wooded area is fairly steep, the good thing is you gain height fairly quickly
I was feeling OK at this time & moving quite rapidly, mainly to prevent the midges devouring me & I soon reached the edge of the woodland.- An obstacle to climb over
- Cruachan Dam, how many tons of concrete were needed, quite a few me thinks
- Cruachan Reservoir
- Cruachan Reservoir looking towards the dam
The walk round the dam & along side the reservoir are on a good path, my plan was to do the whole walk in 6 hours but things weren't really on track, maybe it was too hot - me & hot weather don't really go together. At the end of the reservoir you then turn left & head up to Coire Dearg along an easy path to start which then becomes steeper & to prevent erosion has been stoned near the top, which makes going tough
When you reach Coire Dearg there is a small lochan & a collapsed rusty old fence.
- The lochan
- The obligatory wind farm, is there a hill that hasn't got one on the horizon?
- The path up to the summit, hard going
The route up to the summit of Cruachan seemed to be hard work, I was really struggling & feeling lethargic, umpteen stops, eventually reaching the summit after 3 & half hours
- Looking back down through the gap
A few shots from the summit, sadly it was a wee bit hazy:
- Looking west to Coire Chat
- Looking south to Meall Cuanail
- A cracking shot of Cruachan Reservoir with Loch Awe in the background, you wouldn't think there is 1000' drop between the two
- Zoom
- The ridge to the east, slabs look a bit scary
- The remains of the trig point
I hadn't seen a single person all day & after taking umpteen photo's the plan was to head down the ridge to Stob Diamh. So the descending began until after about 30 metres or so I reached what looked like a drop of about 10feet, I looked for other options, but there appeared to be only one other & that looked worse
So being concious of how long I had taken so far (I had told Mrs Flyer I would be home at 4.30pm) I made an executive decision & decided to head back up & retrace my steps down Had I been accompanied I would have continued but I didn't want to take any risks, especially as the slabs were still to come 
The descent from the summit was so much easier than the ascent & I met my first human beings of the day a couple of guys not far from the summit, I was well off the rocky path picking my way down on any grassy bits that appeared.
The descent was actually easier than I was expecting, I met a couple on the path by the reservoir & they were looking a bit lost. So after a quick chat they confessed they didn't have a map as they had left it on a table at wherever they were staying. My good deed for the day was to hand over my WH print out of the route, so hopefully they managed to complete their walk
Arrived back at the car just under 6 hrs after leaving it, the midges weren't that bad on the descent, must have been too hot for them
Temp gauge in the car advised me it 20.5c so once mobile all windows were open I kept thinking whilst walking up towards Coire Dearg how similar it is to Creag Meagaidh, just a thought, shame I didn't complete the whole route but safety first with me, Stob Diamh will still be there next week & the week after
