by Gordie12 » Mon Jun 04, 2018 5:37 pm
Date walked: 04/06/2018
Time taken: 6 hours
Distance: 24.9 km
Ascent: 812m
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Drove through the gloom and arrived at Auchallater in bright sunshine.
Left the car park around 7:20am, warm and no breeze to speak of.
Hundreds of young trees planted (and protected) along the river bank heading towards Loch Callater.
Arrived at the loch in 55 minutes then the climb starts and it doesn't muck about.
I was doing this hill fairly regularly three or four years ago and was getting close to 2hrs to the top of CAT - not today, 2hrs 20 mins and I was pleased with that in the heat.
Between the two Munros there is a sheltered grassy area and in here there were insects everywhere. None of the biting variety but really annoying - not sure I've ever seen so many insects before.
The walk to the second hill should be a stroll but with the arms going like windmills to keep the insects off and still tired from the 1st climb this was more difficult than it should have been.
At the cairn I decided I would settle for the two hills so just back tracked.
Unusually for me I was really lucky, all the surrounding hills were covered in low cloud except for the two I was on.
A bit of a breeze picked up on the way back and what a difference that made - no bother from the insects.
Even with cutting down from the planned 6 Munros to 2 is still covered 15.5 miles so a good 6hrs out in the hills.