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Monday, 25th. May:
These were a couple of bonus hills! Chalky, Sasha the Dog and I had left S.E.England at 5.00.am. for an uneventful drive north in Chalky’s Landover (punctuated by dog-walking stops) - but we arrived in Crianlarich by 3.00.pm. and the weather was good! We were booked in at the dog-friendly Ben More Lodge so said hello and immediately headed up the biggest hill in the neighbourhood, Ben More.
Experienced mountaineers that we are, we took care to take neither food nor a map with us, so leg power was fading significantly by the top (except for Sasha the Dog who must have climbed the hill twice once off the leash). Even though our preparation had been so bad that we actually debated mugging a couple for their sandwiches, we decided that the nearby peak of Stob Binnien was close and couldn’t be missed - but Sasha refused a small rock step just below the summit of Ben More and Chalky opted to take her down, leaving me to pull myself to this neighbouring top having only had a cup of coffee, a piece of flap jack and a scone all day. I was, luckily, able to sustain myself on three or four dried venison dog treats – not nice but effective enough – and I laboured up the final slopes before heading back down to the bealach and off down to valley level. Once we were down, we felt that we’d earned a couple of beers and a decent meal supplied by the friendly staff back at the lodge.
The next day we were off the Ben Alder...
Next Report:
https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=54364.
