Ime on the road to recovery and down to my last hundred!

[Graeme D]

A week is a long time in hill walking. Seven days ago I could not have done this walk. To cut a long story short, after suffering for 5 or 6 weeks with what had started out in July as an apparent summer cold but had increasingly turned into a debilitating chest infection and rasping cough, I had gone to see my GP who, after two visits, had diagnosed a probable case of pneumonia and sent me for chest X-rays. A week long course of antibiotics seemed initially to have had little effect.

This was all hugely inconvenient as I had been eyeing up the first Friday evening in September as a potential hillwalking opportunity. From as far out as the previous weekend, the forecast looked favourable and with me finishing teaching by 3pm on a Friday this year, it was a golden opportunity. It would also potentially be the last or one of the last such chances I would get this year before the nights draw in and rule this sort of escapade out until the spring. But what chance did I have of managing to tackle my chosen hills, Beinn Luibhean and Beinn Ime, when even the two flights of stairs to my room at work were leaving me short of breath?

However, I awoke on the Thursday feeling much better and by the Friday, I was confident I was fit enough to tackle a short but steep challenge such as Luibhean and Ime.

As the Law of Sod would have it, my escape from Colditz was delayed by having to deal with the aftermath of some Friday afternoon shenanigans and so by the time I had negotiated the A85 to Crianlarich, the A82 to Tarbet (including the most unpleasant section of A road known to man) and the A83 through Arrochar and up into Glen Croe, it was after 5 o'clock before I pulled into the little parking space just south of the bridge on the east side of the road immediately at the foot of the south ridge of Luibhean. And the pleasant weather of most of the journey had turned into a heavy drizzle! What is it about the Arrochar hills I wondered? I've never had anything other than crap weather when I've walked here! And I'd forgotten my trousers! Oh well, good job I had put a pair of shorts in the car for changing into for the drive home, otherwise I'd have been walking in my work trousers! So, waterproofed up (waterproof trousers over shorts is quite a cool way to travel actually), I set off over the extremely iffy looking sloping bridge and past the dead eye stare of the sheep skull perched on a rock by the edge of the river. Is this an omen? Maybe I should just have stayed home and celebrated the end of the antibiotics by drinking beer next to the fire!

Anyway, initial bad vibes were soon forgotten about as the next few hours turned into a very memorable outing. The rain cleared up, the cloud came and went but for the most part it went, and I came through without any ill effects. If anything, the exertion and the fresh air have probably helped to speed up the final demise of the pneumonia.

And I claimed my 182nd Munro leaving me just the slight matter of 100 more to nail. Happy days!


A grizzly start


The south ridge of Luibhean - not looking too promising


The Brack across the shoulder of The Cobbler and Glen Croe


Beinn Narnain and The Cobbler


Narnain and the Cobbler behind the Bealach a'Mhaim


Beinn Ime


Ben Donich


The Cobbler and The Brack


Ben Donich and Beinn an'Lochain


Beinn Ime


Narnain and The Cobbler


Beinn an'Lochain and Loch Restil (Loch Fyne just visible in the background)


The summit of Luibhean


Beinn Chorranach and Beinn Ime


The Cobbler and The Brack from the Luibhean/Ime bealach


The Cobbler and a mini-Cobbler?


Beinn Luibhean from the ascent of the western slopes of Beinn Ime


The Cobbler (again)


Onto the Ime tourist track


Narnain


East down Coiregrogain to Lochs Lomond, Arklet and Katrine


Clag back down approaching summit of Ime


The three lochs once again


Luibhean through the clouds


Getting a bit nippy now to be hanging about up here this time on a September evening


Availing myself of the shelter cairn


Ben Vane and Ben Vorlich behind, with Inversnaid Hotel visible on the far shore of Loch Lomond


Vane and Vorlich once more


Narnain and a distant Ben Lomond


Narnain and The Cobbler and through to the Luss hills


Ben Lomond across Narnain and A'Chrois


Narnain and The Cobbler, just for the hell of it


Cloud spinning past The Cobbler


Narnain and the only other folks I saw all evening


The Brack and Ben Donich and the road home


The north face of The Cobbler


Night closing in on Ben Donich

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[ancancha]

Some nice photos of the sun going down Graeme D
I've never had much luck with the weather on Ime and Narnain either, but still great mountains.
Glad you are back in action

[Gordie12]

5 miles for the two of them - why did I not include Luibhean when I was down that way???

Some great photos, must try this late in the day walking thing rather than being first out of the car park all the time.

Good to see you are feeling better but running out of daylight with your 3pm finishes must be a bit of a bugger. Still, 12 weeks holiday should help to console you

[kevsbald]

Glad to hear you're on the mend.

[PeteR]

Glad you survived the walk Graeme. I was laid up with something the doctors couldn't bottom out at the start of the year and it took me weeks to get it out my system. Any walks totally floored me, so at least your antibiotics seem to have done the trick for you.

Some atmospheric shots on your walk too, with the cloud coming and going. Arrochar was where I cut my teeth, so always like to see a report on any of the hills there.