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Nearly forty years ago, I invited a group of skiing friends up to the Lake District and dragged them round a number of walks. This was repeated twice a year for a considerable time. I found however, that the "whinge factor" was greatly reduced when a lunchtime pub was included on the walk
The group eventually christened itself The Reluctant Ramblers" and owing to a business connection of mine we acquired a "logo" drawn by a well known cartoonist.
The Reluctant RamblerAt the end of May this year two of the surviving members Boo and Bill came up to Scotland for ten days walking. The weather in the last few weeks has been pretty dire, but we managed to make the most of it and kept mainly dry. The question "where are we having lunch?" - a meal I have long given up - was however persistent, and today when the weather was set to improve in the late afternoon, we headed for the newly refurbished Kingshouse hotel, with Beinn a' Chrulaiste planned for later
Kingshouse hotel - I thought the refurbishment had been done very tastefully and we had nice panninis in the bar.The tromp across the exceedingly wet bog is best forgotten, but once on the SE ridge both the weather and the going improved and we made good progress.
Creise and Meall a BhuiridhCloser view from a bit higherSouth East across Rannoch Moor to Achaladair and DothaidhDown Glen EtiveThe weather slowly improvingWe climbed the steep part of the ridge quite quickly, but there are a lot of false tops before the cairn is finally reached Views from the summitSummit pic - cloud over the Mamores behindDown the Blackwater reservoirStill pretty gloomy in Glen CoeStob na Cruaiche with Schiehallion on the horizonTwo views North - patches of cloud still floating roundTo the West the Buchaille dominatesSouth East again to Achaladair etc.The original plan was to traverse the two subsidiary tops of Meall Bhalach, but that meant returning over the awful bog
so we headed down towards Altnafeadh planning to return along the WHW - dull but dry.
On the descent: Glen Coe looking a bit brighter: Bidean and Stob Coire nan Lochan out of the cloudLooking through the Lairig Gartain between the BuchaillesLooking down to Stob a'Chrulaiste; We hoped to head down to the L from here, but the steep slopes are convex at the top, it was difficult to see the best line and we decided against it and followed the standard routeBut there is a route down the ridge immediately W of the big gully ( detail from a stock photo)We stopped for a rest - face to face with the Buchaille Creise and Meall a Bhuiridh againAnd straight through the LairigClouds to the N finally clear Eilde Mor on the R - Na Gruagaichean and Binnein Mor on the L - Binnein Beag through the gapReluctant ramblers - "last of the summer wine" perhaps Another view We pushed on down the rather muddy track to reach the WHW: near the bottomThe 4.4km walk back along the Way took nearly an hour: view from the hotel in the evening sun