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It was the first weekend of June and weather turned sour. We were hoping for some sunshine down south to bag Ben More and Stob Binnein, but the best weather was forecast for the east, so we grabbed OS maps for the Grampians, to find something interesting enough to be worth repeating in so-so conditions.
Only a couple of weeks earlier, we visited Ben Alder from Dalwhinnie and back then Kevin mentioned repeating The Fara traverse (which we had done in 2012 in less than perfect weather). I was happy to follow him up another steep slope, as long as we had at least a chance to see some views, so I said, why not.
This is not going to be a very long report with much detail about the things we saw and experienced en route, simply because we didn't see/do anything remarkable, apart from one close encounter of furry kind. Having said that, Miss Fara is a lovely mountain and the ridge is asking for full winter traverse (on Panther's to-do list now!). We took our time and strolled along at slower pace, enjoying the walk despite cloud and drizzle. Our route follows the WH instruction, traversing the long ridge of the Corbett from north-east to south-west.
We left home in a hurry and Kevin forgot his GPS, so the route below is drawn rather than recorded:
We parked at the very same spot as last time, by the entrance to the water works, geared up and set off, this time on foot, keeping fingers and toes crossed for weather to improve, as at the moment it was looking dubious to say the least...
Kevin marching along Loch Ericht:
We passed the first lodge, which looks like a miniature fairy tale castle:
I was glad we were only doing a 20km walk today, rather than trying to reach Ben Alder! The dark cloud lingered around...
...and we knew we might get wet if the wind doesn't push the clag away. But we were prepared for the wet option
I was worried that the extensive tree feeling might have destroyed the firebreak which leads straight to the summit, but thankfully, it is still intact and can easily be climbed, no fences or fallen trees blocking the route:
Not much to say about the initial climb, it's basically 500m of uninspiring slog on grass and low heather, a few boggy stretches and some peat hag hopping, but nothing too off-putting for a hillwalker who has been experiencing Scottish wilderness for over a decade
As they say, if you are out climbing a hill and it's not boggy, you are not in Scotland
The clag still lingered but it was patchy so I hoped that it might, just might lift when we reach the summit...
Kevin on the upper slopes:
View east, top end of Loch Ericht, Dalwhinie and the bulky massif of Meal Chuaich behind:
View due south across the loch:
We located the well-known feature on this slope, a substantial stone dyke...
...and followed it up to the summit cairn. Note I'm wearing waterproofs in this photo - we did most of the climb in annoying drizzle:
The summit cairn is huge and I always wondered why so much effort was put into building such a substantial structure just for the sake of marking the highest spot on a long ridge?
The ridge from here goes in south-western direction, over many tops, lumps and bumps, most of which invisible at the moment:
Kevin and Lucy on the summit. She climbed her 99th Corbett, the next one will be her celebratory first ton!
We sat down by the cairn and waited for maybe 15 minutes for the cloud to lift but it was reluctant to move away...
...so we run out of patience and decided to start the traverse. If we didn't see anything, so be it...
There are four separate tops on the SW ridge of The Fara, but with little drop between them, it doesn't take much effort to traverse them all. If only Mother Nature gave us some slack! The drizzle stopped but the cloud was stubbornly sticking to our hill. Obviously, Miss Fara was in capricious mood today!
So was Kevin
On the way from the 2nd to the 3rd top (they are not named, making things confusing!) we walked out of the cloud for a short time:
...and Kevin spotted a good point for views down to Loch Ericht. We couldn't count on anything more today, and SOME views are better than none!
Loch Ericht, view west:
Loch Ericht, view east:
Panther in the mist:
A quick panorama, using a mobile phone camera:
The ridge continues past top no 3 (901m)...
...to the last one, the only one with a name - Meall Cruaidh. Very little to see at the moment, apart from a summit cairn and a not-so-moody Kevin:
From the last top, it's easy descending on grassy slopes into a shallow corrie, Coire na Meine. As we descended below the cloud, some views emerged, but the weather still looked capricious and we didn't hold much hope for the rest of the walk...
Fiddling with his phone... He didn't bother taking the bulky bridge camera for a cloudy day like that.
Views along Loch Ericht:
We headed for the gap in the forest, visible in the middle of the picture below:
I remembered from our previous visit, that there was a wooden gate in the fence, but couldn't see it from the distance, but when we were closer, it became clear, why. The gate is no longer standing
Weather started to improve ever so slightly, one or two rays of sunshine through the cloud gave us some hope that the return walk won't be in heavy rain...
We descended to the track just above Ben Alder Lodge and decided to take a short snack break by the bridge at the edge of the forest, by the back entrance to the Lodge grounds. As we stood there rummaging through our rucksacks, I spotted movement with the corner of my eye. I turned towards the bridge and, to my astonishment, I saw a pine martin walking across. I recognized it immediately, the creamy-yellow bib on the throat was unmistakable. I gave Kevin an elbow, he turned around and gaped, gazing at the animal. The pine martin just kept walking at a lazy pace, reached the end of the bridge, gave us one short look ("Oh, no, people again!" kind of attitude) and disappeared in the bushes.
We returned to our snacks, finished them and started putting rucksacks back on, when the curious pine marten appeared again. It simply walked out of the bushes, waving its tail, and walked back across the bridge, hopped up the steeper slope into the forest on the left hand side and was gone. We were so shocked that we completely forgot about our cameras! The whole attitude of the animal was like people were just a nuisance for him/her
The wee bugger was showing off!!!
Funny, during our previous visit to The Fara we also met a pine marten, as it was crossing the road a bit further back along the road. Not likely to be the same one. Wikipedia says " they can live up to 11 years. 3-4 years is more typical, however" so probably a different individual, but it only proves my point that the forest on the slopes of The Fara must be a pine martin haven!
We were surprised to see one in daylight, but maybe they are attracted to human habitations the same way foxes are: humans = rubbish, rubbish = easy food. Officially, their diet consists of small mammals, carrion, birds, insects and fruits, so maybe they go close to people to scavenge on what we throw away.
After the bonus encounter we had a good subject to talk about while walking back along the track. Weather was improving (shame it took so long for the sun to come through) and we didn't hurry, enjoying the warmth of the afternoon. Some stubborn cloud still lingered over higher mountain tops...
We took the "bottom route" to avoid the main track for a short distance:
The cliffs of Geal Charn from across the loch:
The summit of "our" Corbett never cleared, but we still had a nice day walking the ridge and then returning along the loch. Would happily return to repeat this route in winter conditions!
On the way back:
The following weekend we took the opportunity that weather was good in the far north. We visited a certain crash site which had been on our radar for a few years. As a bonus, we climbed a nearby Munro
It was a fantastic day in the Assynt end of the world, one of those days we will always remember with big smiles. TR to come soon.
