A short one for the road

[zatapathique]

Altitude profile

Usually I don't like these half-day, one-Munro, there-and-back-again walks, but if they can be done on the day I have to go back to Edinburgh in the afternoon anyway to catch the flight back to Basel next morning, they can be quite convenient.

Garva Bridge was easy enough to find, although I at first missed the bridge across the River Spey and ended up in a construction site at Spey Dam. Luckily it was Sunday, so I could just back up and move out again...

Garva Bridge, built by General Wade as part of the Corrieyairack route, gave the eyes something to hold on to in this otherwise rather empty landscape.

Garva Bridge

It very much looked like rain in the direction where the wind came from, so I hurried off, intent on bringing this one behind me as quickly as possible. A hurry is never good, and sure enough I missed the little path leading along the stream as I raced along the good track. I noticed the mistake soon enough, and from then on, it was simple and straightforward walking, although it took longer than expected to reach the quite dilapidated stile in the fence.

The stile

Crossing the Allt Coire nan Dearcag was easy enough, and I soon passed a stone shelter which is not marked on the map.

Unmarked stone shelter

From time to time, a little showery rain came down. At a blind summit higher up, I met a man who was coming down from the summit, the only other person I saw in the hills that day. We chatted a while, and before continuing on, he told me it was about 45 minutes to the summit. In the end it took me 25 before I sat down at the summit cairn to have some lunch, which was a bit spoiled by the heaviest shower of the whole walk. The views were nice, to the East the view was barely a gap between clouds and mountain.

Approaching the summit

Almost there

There, looking back

Rain, anyone?

Mind the gap

Wind turbines to the North

Panorama - can't do without one. Click to see large.

As it looked as if more showers were approaching (and it was quite cold), I soon left to walk back the same way that I had come up. While going down, I didn't remember that the path had been so boggy when I was going up. Especially towards the end, there was always "this one last patch of bog" before my feet splashed into the next one...

As soon as I had stowed away my boots in the trunk of the car and closed the car door behind me, the mother of all showers came pouring down. A narrow escape for the last walk of the 2019 Munro season.