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For our first visit to Scotland in 2018 we chose the Mayday Bankholiday weekend and looking at the forecast we were hoping for a good 'un to continue our munro collecting campaign.
We chose the Glasgow airport Travelodge as our base and the first munro for 2018 was going to be Ben Vorlich our final Arrochar Alps munro.
Whilst the bulk of the U.K was going to be basking in record breaking sunshine and temperatures there was a small section of the British Isles that wasn't and that's where we were off to
, we've often joked that we could cure any drought affected area of the world by visiting it, we'd attract the rain and bring relief to many
We decided to do the Walkhighlands route as a fairly straight forward way to get back into the munro frame of mind, it warned of an unremittingly steep ascent from the road leading to the Loch Sloy dam so we prepared ourselves for a lot of huffing and puffing
Saturday dawned to low grey cloud but that didn't deter us, we just wanted to get out and have a bit of fun, we had our breakfast and then set off for Inveruglas, there was a bit of drizzle in the air but nothing that wasn't in the forecast. As we pulled into the carpark by the visitor centre there was a wee bit more than drizzle, we paid our £4 for parking, got ready and were on our way by 9:15am
We followed the road to the dam, the clouds were low on the hillsides,
further on we were careful not to miss the path leading up the mountainside, we were told it starts below the fourth pylon down from the dam and sure enough that's where it was, there's a little bridge over the drainage ditch and a cairn indicating the start.
The path is pitched to start with and easy to walk on, we soon gained height, the clouds were well down and it was raining but it was good to be out in the Scottish mountains again
The views were limited but at least we could see the dam.
The climb is steep and there's no real let up in it's steepness,
Impending clag
we soon entered the clag so it was a case of heads down and plod, nice and steady.
Claggy rest stop
Arriving at the trig point we paused momentarily then carried on to the summit or that's what I thought we were doing, we started to go downhill, that was ok, it's supposed to drop a fraction between the two summits, however, it carried on dropping for longer than I thought it should so we stopped for a quick look at the map and gps, according to the gps we were still on route but heading in the opposite direction to the summit, WTF, eh?,
back to the trig point to
relocate
another look at the map and the gps told us that we must have skirted below the trig point and gone around it approaching it from the opposite direction we were actually on the way down again
a quick bearing corrected the error and we were soon heading for the summit
it brought it home to us how easy it is to go wrong even when there are good paths to follow, wind, rain, cold and clag can deter the mind from being vigilant, I'll try not to make that mistake again.
Unfortunately we didn't get any views from our first munro of year
but we did manage to get a rare photo of us both on the summit thanks to a lady we met who'd made the same mistake as we did at the trig, we'd joined forces to get to the summit
We didn't hang around on the top it was cold, wet and windy, we set off for the trig and started to make our way down the way we'd come.
We emerged from the clag just above the track to the dam,
Just about back on the road
I got a couple of atmospheric photo's of the dam and the clouds swirling around the slopes of Ben Vane and A' Chrois,
it had stopped raining so we decided to find a boulder each to sit on to have lunch, it was pleasantly warm compared to the cold conditions on the summit so we soon started to dry out
Fed and watered we set off for the final stretch back to the car arriving back at the visitor centre at 2:30pm
Not a bad day out, our first munro since last July, how time flies
