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We had planned to spend a few days in May in the Deargs but this had to be curtailed due to a family crisis and we ended up going up Ben Avon and Beinn a'Bhuird instead, and very lovely that was too.
This was the last week of the English school holidays and involved a Bank Holiday which meant I could have a week off work for the price of 4 days. We originally planned Seana Braigh first but as the weather was set to be worst on the Sunday with low cloud on the hills, we decided to leave the potentially tricky navigation for a possibly better day and mix the route up a bit.
So it was that we set off from Inverlael up towards Gleann Sguaib at about 11.30am on Sunday morning. It was just starting to rain as we set off and basically that was it for the rest of the day really.
- not long after we set off, not looking too bad at this point
- burdocks in the woods
- ripe rowans, quite early
- crossing the River Lael
- Looking up the glen as we come out of the forestry
We followed the River Lael all the way up. It would have been really beautiful if we had been able to see anything especially in the upper part of the glen with cliffs on our right. The burn disappears and reappears in places. It's a lovely path with beautifully constructed fords across the multiple burns in the corrie. One to come back to on a better day I think.
- Looking back the way we came
- Interesting waterfall, the river falling into the gorge
- Onwards and upwards
- Beetle on the path. Might be the best view we saw all day!
- Lovely waterfall
- Getting to the upper parts of the glen now
- one of many lochans
- Where's the burn gone?
- lovely green loch - no, not Lochain Uaine but Lochan Lathail
- There is a big rock near Lochan Lathail which looks like a popular picnic place and gave us some shelter from the wind and rain for a brew and to eat our lunch
- up towards the top of the coire, this waterfall looked like it was coming out of the sky
Eventually we reached a cairn at which point we headed a bit to the right to meet the Famine Wall. Following the wall until it bends was a nice bit of hands-on-rock and the wall itself gave some welcome shelter from the stiff breeze. From the bend we took a bearing on the summit although it was just a matter of going uphill to the top. We didn't hang around and followed a back bearing to the wall and back down again.
- Famine Wall, with the path going up the west side of it.
- Rudolph on Beinn Dearg summit
- and me
Or original route plan had been to camp somewhere between Seana Braigh and Eididh nan Clach Geala on the first night and walk to Am Faochagach and back on day two - but as we hadn't done Seana Braigh yet we decided to head on down to Loch Prille and camp there, ready to tackle Am Faochagach in the morning.
We had a bit of fun finding Lochan Uaine in the murk, and from there wandering around the bealach to come down the glen to Loch Tuath.
- oh, here's Lochan Uaine looking more like lochan nothing!
- ooh, coming down under the cloud base (still raining though) looking towards Loch Tuath
- Now this looked like it would be quite horrid, with a very steep descent down to a lumpy bog. But actually there were traces of path on the right which led us very effectively through these moraines while avoiding most of the bogs and water
We found a lovely little headland just where the burn flows into Loch Prille where we set up camp, eating our tea in the storm shelter before diving into the tent. It was still pretty wet and we were quite tired and a bit fed up to be honest but hoping for better the next day. There was lots of water in all the burns and falling out of the sky.
- The little tongue of land just to the right of the river mouth is where we camped.
- From the tent looking upstream to the waterfalls
One of the best bits of camping equipment in the rain is a small microfibre cloth (was 99p for 2 in Ponden Mill some years ago) which we use to dab all the water off our clothes and equipment when we go into the tent, thus saving a lot of nocturnal dampness. It really came into its own just soaking up the water and then you can squeeze it out in the tent porch and it is good to go again.
Actually we had a pretty good night sleep and the rain stopped at about 1am.
The next exciting instalment will be in the next TR when I get round to it - hopefully a better selection of photos, this was not a very good day for photography!