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So with a week off work to use up the last of my holidays, I thought I would go for a wee low level wander for a few days.
There was a weather warning, but I thought I would go over to Kintail anyways to wait for it to pass and then set out. In Spean Bridge it was all drizzle and rainbows, but as I got north of the Great Glen, the weather became horrific! Definitely wouldn't be leaving today then
I went to the hotel, but no room at the inn, so I was camping. The rivers were so high that my usual spot was under 2 foot of water, but I found a sheltered spot just nearby and got settled for the night. Some of the gusts were scary, but the wee tent held up fine.
At around 10 the next morning, the rain went off and I was able to pack up my soggy gear - not the best for starting out, kit already wet and heavy, but there was a bothy en route, so might get dried out yet..
I drove down to Shiel Bridge, parking just outside the campsite. The minging weather had returned it seemed so I waited...
At 12.30 the skies brightened up considerably - Yaay, I could set off, only 24 hours late
I took the familiar track up Glen Undalain, the rain coming back for a short re-appearance after the bridge. It only lasted half an hour and by that time I was on the zig zags almost at the bealach.
I kept disturbing deer which were hidng in the gully's for shelter. At the bealach, there was an icy wind, and spindrift getting blown dwn from the surrounding peaks. Chilly, even though the sun was finally out. Nothing to hang about for but a last pic of the snowy sisters.
The other side of the bealach, the going was steep, and the path builders hadn't been this for so you had to concentrate on where you were putting your feet.
A short descent past bonny falls saw me traversing across bog, the way well marked with posts and ribbons, but you couldnie really call it a path. I reached Bealachasan - a bonny ruin beside a bonny run of falls in a bonny gorge. Bonny to look at, but I had some job crossing the river!
The other side, the track wasn't going my way, so I had to cross an area of felled forest to get down to the lower track. It was difficult - kept on slipping on, and tripping over branhes, but saw my first frogspawn of the season in a pool
A quick tromp along the track and I was over the bridge, and on the (very) boggy path to Suardalan. Couldn't get over the burn, but managed to find a hunk of bank that had been washed out and was marooned up at the ford, so that was fortuitous
Got to th Bothy in glorious sunshine, hung up all my wet gear outside on the fences, only for a hail shower to come on, so everything was taken in again in a flap
Darn you weather!
It was 5.30 before it stopped. Didn't seem like any point in going any further, so resigned myself to a night in the bothy. Found out a dinner time that my food dry bag doesn't work any more, so all my dehydrated food, wasn't very dehydrated any more
Damp logs, and a wet hearth made for a dismal fire, but it took so much work to keep going that it killed the evening quite successfully
During the night I awoken by the mice out to play. Weren't scared of me at all, until I started chasing them with the spade. I had hung up all my food, but they had nibbled and scattered my rubbish all over the place in a merry game.
In the morning, I awoke early to find the rain was off
But by the time I had made a brew it was back on, and with some gusty inds that made me shiver.. No rush t get going then..
By 1, it seemed to of died down slightly and it was dry again, so I set off, again having trouble with the burn, and a massive bog before finding the old path which quickly improves to a track - was nice to walk on something form for a while
I had a really enjoyable walk up the glen, taking the left turn for the pylon path to Kinloch Hourn. The track forded the river, which was actually no problem, and rises steeply to get into the glen beyond. It was a pretty unremarkable glen, like a thousand others, but the wind was getting up, and stopped me in my tracks periodically, so I fought harder to make progress. The path, and the track wound up the glen, sometimes together sometimes apart. I chose the least boggy looking option of the two, but it was as boggy as could be underfoot, and when the rain started up again, it was a dreichit as could be.
I made it up to the head of the glen, the wind gusting worse now and spinning me round involuntarily. I clocked a wee sheltered spot by the burn, but decided to push on, determined to make it over the bealach. The ascent began, steep and with the mother of all headwinds, it was exhausting, but I managed a good way up before a gust hit me so hard, I was sent literally flying. I have a slow-mo memory of the ground looking further and further away, followed by being hurled toward a rock at high velocity. I instinctively put out my hands to break my fall, ended up in a forward roll, then sliding down the hillside (still wind assisted) on my rucksack, legs flailing crablike, useless in the air. I managed to flip over and eventually came to rest on all fours, elbow deep in bog
I stayed like that for a few minutes until the shock wore off and I had made sure I hadnie hurt myself too badly. Stood up only to get blown back into the bog again
Jeepers, these winds!
I looked up to where I had dropped my walking poles - quite a way up, so I started back up to get them
It was arduous, and I was thrown down again a couple of times before I had retrieved them and culd head back down. Going down, it was even harder to brace against the wind and I got thrown over a bunch of times more before I reached the wee sheltered bit by the burn and I could think. The winds were so bad now that it was lifting the water out of the burn in huge whirlwinds and soaking the far bank. I wanted to stay, to wait until the winds had died down, but I knew there was no hope of getting a tent up, so my only real option was to retreat back to the bothy
I was having some food before the long walk back, when my rucksack was blown clear across the burn, my foam mat getting taken up really high and far! No time for hanging about, things were getting far too crazy, so off I went, wind assisted for the most part, but still getting thrown over in the heavy gusts, no matter how firmly I braced against the wind. Found my foam mat a couple of miles down the glen in amongt the heather, brilliant, as it wasn't actually mine, and was back at the bothy for 5. The winds got worse, and rain came through the walls at the gable end, and through the window at the side, the resulting dribbles forming a pool in the middle of the floor. Watched as a sheep got blown clean across the burn outside - I wasn't the only victim of the wind
The tiles rattled all night, and I had hung up anything that could rustle to foil the mice, but they still managed into my rubbish bag which resulted in another chasing with the spade...
Woke up on Tuesday morning all achey after the buffeting, and with waterproof troos shredded in the fall, it was time to head home early. Managed to catch the bus at the end of the road by a whisker, for the long trek home.
Found out today that in Bealach Na Ba the winds were up at 121mph, and that isnie so far away, so had a lucky escape probably