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Another Borders raid on my way home from my monthly trip down south. I had been checking the forecast for Moniaive daily and it was gradually improving as the day got nearer. I was expecting plenty of standing water, as both Friday and Saturday had Yellow warnings of rain and I think from the photo's you will see plenty of evidence.
I was fairly confident the track from the parking area would be cycle friendly even for someone of my limited ability.
In Moniaive there is one of the brown 'touristy' info road signs for Striding Edge, after that the road is single track - just over 5 miles and as you get nearer to the limited parking area the road gets considerably worse. Plenty of potholes full of water and grass down the middle of the road. As you get nearer don't make the mistake I did, I turned left into the front drive of Blairoch as the track straight ahead had a gate across the road. I reversed back once I realised I had taken a wrong turn. The metal gate needs to be wedged open and there is an old tyre to assist, once through the gate it isn't far to the grassy parking area, for about 4 vehicles. You won't be surprised that I was only the vehicle, so I wasn't expecting to see another human being and that is exactly what happened.
Info on a board at the parking area
Parking area, I had turned the car round in case it got busy
The gate, the tyre and the other track that you don't want to drive down
Right we are off, cycling initially until the track starts going up
This is probably a trickle normally
This is the result of a yellow warning of rain
Still pushing the bike
Bike park, not really sure why I locked it
Large turning area for the timber vehicles
The walking now begins, 500m as the crow flies, 79m of ascent. Keep to the left of the fence
Grass was a tad damp
Here we are, arch and trig
Arty shot, trig through the arch - alot of thought went into that!!
Video taken on the summit of Colt Hill
Wind farm in the distance
Last photo as the rain is heading my way
Descending
Just to make sure you go the right way
Sign has been in situ a few years
Taking the bike turned out to be a good idea even though I ended up pushing the bike up 300m of ascent. The ascent took 1 hour, whereas the descent 21 minutes with hardly any pedalling. I didn't bother searching for the other arches as the weather wasn't exactly ideal.
Next for me and quite a few others is another visit to Mull, Ben More for the third time and probably not the last.