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Since achieving the landmark of less than 100 Munros to compleation on Mayer and Driesh I seem to have hit a bit of a hill walking “wall” in recent weeks. The “big” hills have been replaced with a couple of walks on some “little” hills
The first walk on the “little” hills was Goat Fell a few weeks back. If was the day of the office trip to Arran, so while MrsR took a bus trip round the island, gate crashed a wedding and visited the Lochcranza distillery I was off with a small group of colleagues to enjoy the expansive views from Goat Fell
The start of the day didn’t bode well. Boarding the ferry at Ardrossan and it seemed to me that someone had vaporised Arran
No sign of it at all. Seems though it was hiding behind a nice thick veil of clag
And so the scene was set as we all arrived at Brodick. Low cloud, rain and clag pretty much for the entirety of the walk. On a clear day I’m reliably informed you can see for miles. When I was there I could see for..........feet
One of my fellow companions, Stuart, had been with me on my recent Nevis night hike and like me might be described as “a man of a certain age”
Our walking companions were both young, energetic young women – and with our reputation
But seriously, it was a good little group to be out enjoying the rain with
As we headed out from Brodick Stuart and I were somewhat shocked though with the suggestion from the girls that we would be up and down the Fell in no more than 3 hours. 3 HOURS
We were hoping for a relaxed able up and down in about 4
- Damn, didn't think about bringing the car with me!
- Nice path at the start of the walk
Well, the girls led the way and us “men of a certain age“ did our damndest to keep up
I’m a slow plodder myself, so it wasn’t long until I was in need of an oxygen cylinder before my body was in a state of physical collapse (ok I exaggerate a bit, but boy did the girls set off at a fair old pace
A shock to my system that’s for sure).
- The" view" back to Brodick
Despite the paucity of views on the day I used my camera as an excuse at regular intervals to catch my breath
The water coming down off the hills was certainly a sight to see and its noise was our soundtrack for much of the trip.
- Water coming down off the hills
- Another view back to Brodick
- Nice, rain drenched path
- The rocks and the water
- Oi, wait up! My companions disappearing into the mist
Overall, despite the weather, this is good easy walking until perhaps the final section to the summit. The path is excellent and I tend to find the rocks scattered around on walks like this provide a good bit of interest, even when the weather isn’t that great
One negative for me – and this certainly isn’t a reflection on the hill, but I have never been on a walk and met such a large number of miserable s*ds who would do anything to avoid eye contact and acknowledge fellow walkers
In the end Stuart made it his personal campaign to force other walkers to acknowledge us
Thankfully, as the day went on things definitely improved, as later walkers seemed to be in much better spirits
Just short of the final steep push one of the girls (apologies to anyone thinking me sexist by the use of such a term, but compared to me any female in her 20s is still a girl in my book
) decided she wasn’t for walking any further in the clag and rain. So they both decided to head back down early. This left Stuart and myself to make a claim for age and experience over youthful exuberance and black Lycra shorts as we headed off toward the summit
(well, Stuart told me there were black Lycra shorts about, but to tell the truth I was just focussed on breathing and staying alive given the girls had set quite a pace for us to that point
)
Hitting the final steep climb to the top and the rain seemed to intensify a bit. Unusually I felt the cold get to me this time, which slowed me down a bit. Stopping to take a photo of the rocks near the top (I know, I’m a strange chap
) and Stuart disappeared into the mist. That was the last we saw each other until I eventually ht the summit myself.
- The plod up the final section to the summit begins
- All by myself....in the clag
- Another "rocks and path" view
- Almost at the summit
- The summit cairn
- Close up view of the cairn
And oh, the views
Use of the imagination was called for at this point, as we couldn’t see a thing
It wasn’t so great on the top, so we were soon headed back down.
- All what we couldn't see :(
- See? We couldn't see it!
- Summit trig pillar
The trip down was pretty uneventful and the weather seemed to improve as we headed back.
- Improving view to Brodick #1
- Brodick view #2
- Water coming down off the hills repeated
All was well until almost at the bottom, where Stuart decided to ‘almost’ fall. Luckily he stopped himself short of a full tumble, but still managed a bit of a twist to his knee
while letting rip with a few sweary words just as a couple came walking round the corner
The good news was that there’s a cafe at the bottom of the walk, so we could stop there for a quick coffee. I then took advantage of a bit of space in my rucksack, visiting the brewery shop next door and doing my bit for the local economy
The day was then finished off meeting up with MrsR and the rest of the group on the island for a meal in a local hotel before heading back to the ferry and the trip back to the mainland