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Okay, although I had originally planned this latest excursion as a solo event, when the company of a young lady,
[LC] was offered I accepted with no hesitation whatsoever!
So off I went to pick her up in Inverness at around 6:00am.
After a bit of a delay picking LC up, due to a very foggy Inverness, a little confusion over the pick up point not to mention that she had slept in
we were eventually on our way! Now, I am notoriously snap happy at the best of times, and this just happened to be a trait shared with my companion, so let's just say that between us we managed to both delay the start of the walk, prolong the time taken on it and the return journey all for the sake of snapping everything we saw along the way. Well worth it though, as LC was especially delighted at having the opportunity to take in such wonderful scenery, and we were neither of us in any great hurry anyway.
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- An Early Stop at Loch Lochy
After a brief stop at Glenfinnan, (for more vigourous snapping of course) and the obligatory climb up to the viewpoint for shots of the viaduct and monument, we soon reached the start point layby and proceeded along the gravel path at around 9:40 am.
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- LC weighs up another shot at Glenfinnan!
It's amazing how far you seem to have gone after a short time. Looking back along the path after we had crossed the railway line and gone what seemed fairly a short distance, we were surprised just how far back the layby appeared. Of course, we hadn't really gone that far, and there was much more of an ascent than either of us had anticipated by the time we reached what was probably the summit of the walk. The path, though very clear, was indeed pretty boggy in places but not a problem, and the views of the shoreline from the top were spectacular enough to keep LC's shutter clicking away even more than my own!! After quite a few rest stops and lots of photo taking pauses, we eventually began the descent to our destination where we had planned to take lunch at the bothy at Peanmeanach, before exploring the ruins and beach there.
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- Spectacular: DO look down!
As you descend farther down the valley to the beach, the difference in the landscape is quite extreme in retrospect. From the rough and barren heather moorland, you suddenly find yourself in a lush green, wooded area alive with damsels and dragonflies. Although I find them delightful, I'm afraid LC's dislike of creepy-crawlies,
(to hilarious effect especially with spiders) prompted many a frantic swat in their direction!
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- A damsel fly laying low!
Once down at sea level, there is a fairly boggy walk through a field of reeds on the approach to the bothy and beach beyond, but it poses little problems, providing a fair amount of care is taken with foot placement. By this latter stage of the walk/hike, it's fair to say that LC and myself were pretty knackered and in need of food, and the boggy walk to the bothy seemed to take as long again as the walk itself. Nodding a polite hello to some earlier arrivals, we ducked in to the bothy and sated our need for sustenance and enjoyed a much needed rest before heading down to the beach to explore - and to take photos of course
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- Haven: The Bothy
The beach at Peanmeanach, is not what you'd call a 'beautiful' beach, and it's not the kind of beach that you would sun bathe on. A rocky, pebbly affair, it somehow though has a very unique feel about it. There is a sandy part to it, a little farther out when the tide is out which both me and LC found irresistible for photographing. There are large rocks covered with barnacles which provide a very good grip whilst clambering over them, and we spent ages doing just that! Blessed with superb sunny but windy weather, we rather lost track of time, and after thorough exploration, decided to move back up the beach to the grassy outskirts of the bothy and ruins for more tea and coffee.
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- Peanmeanach Beach
So, after a quick look over the fairly uninteresting ruined remains of what were once fishermen's cottages, (and believe it or not, they didn't even invite so much as a quick snap from two click-daft walkers) we decided to head back. Given the weather, we weren't too surprised to see more walkers arrive as we left, and there were quite a few more heading down to the beach and bothy, as we found out on the hike back along the path.
Hard to believe that we actually took more pictures on the return to the car, since the views were essentially the same. But we were having such a lovely day out, we were just reveling in what had been a superb, if more strenuous than expected walk - so what the hell!! As I mentioned earlier, on the way back we met at least a dozen or so young lads heading for the bothy and curious as to whether there were any others there before them. We told them there were at least four people resident there already, but these boys were well enough equipped for camping, so I doubt there would be a problem with accommodation. We wished them well, and continued on. More than a couple of times, we seemed to lose the path briefly, but I put that down to weariness rather than faulting the path. That aside, the trek back was largely uneventful, but needless to say the cameras were clicking all the way!
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- Last Look Back
Just a final note: My thanks go to LC, for making my day out to Peanmeanach simply a superb experience, and although I am usually perfectly happy to go walking on my own, I'd be happy to have her company any time!
