This week it was my turn to drive and following on from last weeks tough shift I came up with a couple of hills that are superb but still require a bit of effort. The obvious drawback is the distance and time spent in the car.
I suggested breakfast at the recently re-opened McDonalds at Broxden and George & Parminder were drooling and dribbling at the thought. However as we were out on a Sunday opening hours are slightly different, basically they don't open until 7am.
I arranged to meet at our usual place at 6.30 and then we could saunter up motorway and be the first customers.
The journey up the A9 was uneventful as was the rest of the drive and we would be on our way at about 10am,
Naismith who is obviously a 'fell runner' can do the same route in 4hrs, must be 'real' super hero
I think you can guess what the conditions are going to be like, just look at the puddles on the road
Getting ready for the off
The way ahead, just across the road
Would be good for hide and seek
Low level view looking down the Loch
Parminder eventually appearing out the shrubbery, maybe he got lost in there?
The first on many water features
A wee bit higher and it looks pretty threatening
Looking back down to the undergrowth, there is a track on the left but it doesn't go very far
Our path uphill
Told you the track doesn't go very far, definitely not worth following it uphill
Gairich through the murk
So far so good weather wise, but that doesn't look very clever
George waiting patiently and getting his breath back
Parminder head down and thinking how good his new poles are, they have had a few outings now
Loch Quoich from higher up
Taking in the view
As you can see the path had changed into a small burn
It really is a stunning view
Gairich looking impressive too
George standing looking at the sky in disbelief, is it really blue?
Looking east towards the dam on Loch Quoich
Our first view of the bridge, way below
Loch Quoich and the bridge from higher up still
Looking across to Knoydart
Stunning
Summit coming into view, big lump to negotiate first
Bridge looks tiny now
Gairich again
2nd summit in the distance
Looking down on the estate of Alltbeithe in Glen Quoich
We ventured off the path as it started to go down and kind of in the wrong direction, but would soon turn right
Glen Quoich, note the tiny airstrip
The afore mentioned airstrip zoomed
The shadows off the clouds on the hillside are impressive
The final push to the summit
A video mainly looking out to the wild west
King of his massive castle
Glen Quoich again
Gairich looking small
West across to Knoydart
South Glen Shiel Ridge
The other end of the Ridge
Parminder posing on the summit, looking a bit dreich
Low cloud rushing through
Video on the summit of Gleouraich
Our second target engulfed by cloud
Just after we started descending the grotty weather that had been forecast appeared, the grottiness continued almost to our second summit. The wind also picked up and luckily it was a westerly and was behind us. That is one of the reasons there aren't many photo's between the two summits.
Looking back
Descending
Plenty more descending ahead
Cloud gone, almost
Loch Fearna in the foreground, descent route would be this side of it
Not a bad lunch spot, cracking view behind
Looking towards Glen Shiel
A cracking corrie on the ridge, never noticed it when I was on it
Looking SW from the summit area
Summit area and my two chums
Descending now, heading to the right of Loch Fearna
The descent was mush and more mush
Looking up to our descent route off the first summit
George leading the way through the mush
George did these two hills fairly recently (in the grand scheme of things), in the same direction and the plan was to try and pick up a hydro track for the lower part of the descent. Unfortunately when I did these two I did them anti clockwise and in snowy/icy conditions so paths were invisible.
George contemplating a paddle
The small dam
The other side of the dam
Our crossing point
Is that a super hero in the distance, we are now on the track back to the road
The track gets a tad steep, luckily in the right direction - down
George wasn't able to multi task, laughing and walking is difficult - that is the end result
The track down and ahead, nice view again
Two super hero's
This is "the official" start or finish point
Another cracking day out which was rounded off with a fish supper in Pitlochry. As usual Pitlochry was busy even at 6.30pm, the good news was the fish and chips were the best we have had in the last 3 weeks.
