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First time hiking the highlands, and also my first post here! ^.^
Sorry for my vivid/unrealistic colour rendition... I've been told it's a bit hard to look at, but it's as close to how I see things :p
Anyhow, on to the report. The weather was ripe, the line from Edinburgh to Glasgow via Falkirk High ruined by rain, and the sore left shoulder and right leg as annoying as ever. A quick survey of the OS Maps last-second yielded what looked to be a smooth daytrip and an even smoother overnight trip, and thus I was off on Friday morning to Loch Awe.
View of Loch Awe heading NE from the station
Start of the day once passing left from the A85 at the B8077 exit. It's worth noting that in reality there was far more haze and less contrast than the image shows, I just prefer it this way.
Holy cow though... Highland cattle are hella' fluffy ( ͡☆ ͜ʖ ͡☆)
So begins the slog up Beinn a' Bhuiridh. My experiences in the Borders and here have led me to realize one thing about hiking in Scotland: it's a free-for-all. There are no paths and seemingly enough no rules as to where you walk. My main experiences until now have been in Japan, Portugal and Switzerland, where routes are fairly well marked or have some defined course. I'd take some insight as to whether one can truly go wherever they wish on the hills though.
Looking back at the Orchy, flowing past Dalmally.
Approaching Monadh Driseig c:
Got there! You can see the trig point too o.o
On to Beinn a' Bhuiridh; those cliff faces look so pretty <3
Shameless panoramic goodness... they're just so much fun to do... sorry for the sheer number of them! Heck, most of the "normal" images are actually close-up panoramas to push more pixels!!
Goat?... Sheep?... Fluffy is what counts (ᇴ‿ฺᇴ)
Adorable frog next to the little boggy patch before final ascent to Ba'B.
Looking down into the giant hollow. Apparently there's a Dam down there with a reverse pump system hooked up to Loch Awe. That just means that water is pumped back up from the Loch when energy demand is lower, effectively storing energy in the form of a giant water battery.
Top of Beinn a' Bhuiridh. Sadly overexposed in parts (A-auto... exposures seemed fine but when panorama-ifying them Lightroom somehow turned the sun into a bright sheeny mess ಠ_ಠ)
Film-style timelapse of the sunset. I'd like to say sunset, but in reality it ended a bit too soon. It was getting dark though, and being in my sleepwear meant I was getting mighty cold mighty fast. The midges were also a little too tenacious for my liking.
I have to say, Beinn a' Bhuiridh had no shortage of good places to pitch a tent. It takes a bit of hunting with the stakes to actually get set up due to all the rocks, and I definitely recommend a groundsheet (they're mighty sharp...) but other than that, smooth sailing. 10/10 recommend the spot by the cairn on the south-ish side: high, dry, and a touch away from the boggy midge-infested pools that litter the summit.
The tent and tripod, which was left out to weather the night. This is about the part where I mention that the summit of Ba'B will get get positively misted in the night,
and will most definitely leave you with a good bit of condensation in your tent.
The light of dawn. Well, the light a few minutes before sunrise. Ben Cruachan & ridge in clear view, with a fantastic inversion that depresses into the bowl.
Another timelapse, this time showing the clouds-under-inversion flowing past the dip between Stob Garbh and Ba'B. It really makes you appreciate momentum and how fluidic clouds behave, especially when you look at the incoming sheet just bobbing up and down against the walls of Stob Garbh.
Totally not my favourite timelapse (￣▼￣*)
Even more timelapse! Had to replace the battery for this one. This time staring off toward the SE, just by the cairn I camped by.
The steep rocky descent of doom from Ba'B to the ridge to Stob Garbh. Not wet or waterlogged (thank your deity of choice) but rocky and steep as they come... the photo doesn't do it justice :_:
Cya sun...
Hello misty descent... less steep by this point, though!
My water-sense is tingling. There's bound to be a source of water around here somewhere... and there was! When the clouds are forced through that little dip they condense heavily, and the runoff goes into the ground and down the hill. Might explain just how damn boggy it was near the bottom. I found a small ditch about 9/10ths the way down where water was dripping off some red algae into a pool.
If it's good enough for the sheep/etc then it's good enough me, so I crouched for half an hour to fill up my 2L bottle just incase I ran out of water.
I drink a lot, sue me 
. I used chlorine and haven't died yet <3
Jesus christ I can't believe I walked down the side of that thing... :_____________________________:
Fairly full panorama of the Cruachan ridge and Ba'B, including Stob Diamh.
Lil' pool on way to Stob Garbh that made for a good photo of Ben Cruachan. If only the water were a little more still >.<
Looking up at Stob Garbh from the ridge. The crazed curvature here is due to camera & editing... it isn't actually this pronounced.
Looking back at my poor shoulder's hardships. I need to visit a therapist for it once my GP starts taking appointments again
Stob Diamh, Cruachan Ridge & Sron an Isean on the right. Can't wait to fog up my camera again on the way down! xD
Drochaid Glas (?) in the clouds.
I just can't get enough of staring across the endless sky dotted with all the tiny lil' hilly peaks ♡＾▽＾♡
The world has two oceans on top of eachother and this one is the best, in my opinion. Constantly permutates and flows like a stream to the heavens... quite literally.
Somewhat unsavoury descent to Sron an Isean. I have to admit, this was a bit less savoury than the one from Ba'B to the ridge up to Stob Garbh ;-:
Looking back: a quick panorama showing Sron an Isean & Stob Garbh/Diamh baked over by the clouds. The walls are clear to see, though! I still can't get over how beautiful Ba'B is from this vantage point, though...
Bit of a weird edit... just a little tree hanging off the side of a teeny (discoloured
) crag.
Looking back (again! XD) just on the final tidbit of the ridge from Sron an Isean. I met a nice older couple here going up, hope they enjoyed their day ^.^
Trippy edit. Say what you will, when an opportunity presents itself, you take it!
Of course it's winners choice as to where you get your water from at this point. I followed the stream up to Allt Coire Ghlais and found a crisp stream. Per the amount of sheep chocolate I saw in the hills, I made sure to use two Oasis tabs per liter. Still tasted great c:
The final "looking back," with where I started the previous afternoon, the climb up to Ba'B.
Assuming this guy could have cognitive thought, he's probably wondering why a dude is photographing him having a $!@%.
I highly recommend walking to Dalmally Station (if starting from Loch Awe and originally planning to finish there, as I was...) for some great views. The road is safe to use, and motorists won't run you down like they do in England. Cover your ears for the motorcyclists though. I swear there has to be some law in the U.K limiting the sound output from a vehicle...
The station. Honestly spectacular o,o
Anyhow, that's that for this report, if you can call it one. If anything it's more of a photo album! Hopefully the first of many. I'll definitely pick some hikes closer to more obvious water sources, though. Being 6'2 and 64 kg makes carrying big loads up hills a touch rough... although that might just be my injuries that are taking their sweet time to heal.
Quick word of note regarding COVID-19. It's not possible to social distance on the evening trains heading to Glasgow from Dalmally, and most people don't bother following the (legal requirement) advice of wearing masks. I wouldn't recommend going via public transport over the weekend to do this if you're overly concerned about that ;_;
