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Grahams: Ben Buie, Creach Beinn.
Sub 2k Marilyns: Carn Ban.
Date: 13 + 14/04/2018.
Distance: 7km + 12.5km.
Ascent: 300m + 1390m.
Time: 7 hours + 1 hour, 40 minutes.
Weather: Calm and claggy on Friday, warmer and sunnier on Saturday with the cloud down on the summits.
Also 7.5 miles of cycling on Friday.
Finally the Craignure meet, which I've been looking forward to for about 8 months. The weather didn't look overly promising, but I was glad to be heading to the west coast and some islands - I've had too little of this recently.
I decided to bring my bike along, and took the train up from Sunderland, which filled most of my day. It should have been relaxing, but the first part wasn't as my train into Edinburgh became later and later, leaving me with about 2 minutes to dash with my bike between the two farthest corners of Waverly Station. Thankfully I made my next train with seconds to spare, and there was no more drama after that other than the great scenery on the West Highland Line.
Approaching Arrochar on the train The weather at Oban wasn't brilliant, but I didn't mind - I was on a ferry to the islands again for the first time in over a year
.
Leaving Oban South end of Lismore from the ferry The weather was still better than on the east coast, so after checking into the bunkhouse, I set off on my bike to the nearby Marilyn of Carn Ban. It took less than 20 minutes to reach the point where I left the road, and less than 30 seconds to realise that the track I was on wasn't really cycleable.
At the foot of Carn Ban Still, it made for an easy walk. I could spot a couple of figures in the distance - unsurprisingly it was Hils and Mark (MKG)
. After a quick chat, I carried on until it was time to leave the track and cross rougher ground to the summit. The cloud lifted temptingly in a couple of places, but it wasn't for clearing away.
Cruach Ardura and Loch Spelve Cruach Ardura and Loch Spelve Shame really, as it became obvious from what I could see that this would be a brilliant viewpoint in better conditions. At least the ground wasn't too bad underfoot (although I might have only thought this due to the amount of peat hags I have walked through in the last few months
).
Across Loch Spelve from Carn Ban I dropped back down a route which brought me to the track quicker at the ruins of Killean, then met my outward route to the bike. A couple of geese were circling me as I approached my bike. Not an especially glamorous start to the meet, but nice to get out on the hill after a day sat on the train.
Then it was dinner and the pub (conveniently right next door), where it was great to meet up with familiar faces again.
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Despite being tempted by a boat trip to the Treshnish Isles with Hils, Billy and Robin on Saturday, I decided to save that for a future visit and go up some hills, since the weather was supposed to be half-decent. Ben More and A' Chioch or Ben Buie and Creach Beinn were my top choices, but given that the cloud wasn't necessarily going to lift too far, I opted for the lower duo. Having been up these hills before on a promising but slightly disappointing day, I hoped to get another crack at seeing something from them.
Quite a few of us opted for these hills from Lochbuie, so we ended up with two carloads and two groups going round in opposite directions. David (Rounsfell) drove me, Mark and Des (NeillyDunn) round the winding road, and we started walking at around 9:40. The cloud was down on the summits, but I hoped it would lift by the time we got up there.
Gleann a’ Chaiginn Mhoire from Lochbuie Heading up Ben Buie Did it lift? Did it hell! In fact the conditions were pretty much identical to my last visit. At least finding our way up the slithery gullies and loose rock to the summit was easier than coming down it had been before.
Having taken our eye off the ball, we needed to take a bearing to get off the summit. While I have mostly learned to trust a bearing even when it seems wrong, the one Mark took seemed really wrong. So Des and I got our compasses out too, and they both said something completely different! I knew there was some gabbro in these hills and suspected they were a bit magnetic, but was quite surprised to see how much!
So long as we all kept checking bearings (and Des gave us a co-ordinate from his GPS) we were OK; any complacency and we started drifting off to the western slopes. This happened a couple of times while crossing over to the northern top of Cnap nan Gobhar.
David, Mark and Des on the way down Ben Buie Eventually we found the right side of the hill, and after a short section of scrabbly rock, we hit some pretty good ground leading us into Coire nan Each and out of the cloud. Some lovely gabbro slabs around here and a nice wild feel to the ground.
Loch Airde Ghlais After a break in the glen, Des put his ridiculously luminous hat on and announced that he was going to follow the glen back to the car, and leave the remaining 3 of us to the second summit. We could spot him bobbing along for about the next 45 minutes
.
It is steep going up the side of a gully onto Creach Beinn, and before long, we were back in the cloud. A second steep section brought us nicely to the trig point - no views again
.
Ascending Creach Beinn (MKG’s photo) Mark, me and David on the summit of Creach Beinn (MKG’s photo) We broke out of the cloud sooner on the way down, and things really started to brighten up. I lost the other two as I meandered eastwards looking for the best view.
On Creach Beinn The ridge back down to Lochbuie was lovely - easily the best bit of the day. The sun was now out and there were numerous rocky slabs to stroll across. This pretty much made up for the lack of views earlier, even if it was slightly too hazy to see down to the Paps of Jura.
Loch Spelve Across Loch Uisg to Maol Ban Looking back to Creach Beinn Loch Buie from Creach Beinn Looking back to Creach Beinn Loch Airde Ghlais Loch Uisg and the Laggan Peninsula Ben Buie I stumbled over Mark and David again close to the bottom of the hill, and we strolled the last section back to the car together.
Lochan below Creach Beinn (MKG’s photo) Loch Buie and the Ross of Mull Ben Buie from Gleann a’ Chaiginn Mhoire It had briefly occurred to us that we hadn't passed the other group heading in the opposite direction. This didn't entirely surprise me as the ground was so rough and intricate that we could easily have taken different enough routes to completely pass each other by. Turned out that Ailsa and Mairi had walked out after the first summit anyway, and it took Greg and Ruth quite a time to descend off Ben Buie (I remember having similar problems myself). We had definitely picked the right way round to go in order to avoid awkward descents!
View from Craignure Bunkhouse Anyway - beer time! Although whisky was opened later on, we somehow managed to avoid finding the bottom of any bottles, which was a relief the next day
.