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It's been nearly four years since we climbed a Munro, so we decided to do a one-day reccy to see how long it would take to drive up and back, with a reasonably hard walk in between. (Work commitments and very unpredictable weather make it like this
) Set off at 4 am and headed, half full of hope ( weather had changed again) for Benmore to do Ben More and Stob Binnein. It was a lovely morning over the borders as the sunrise proved.
- Sunrise over Cheviot.
We would have made Benmore Farm in really good time if it wasn't for all the roadworks, but still, we were ready for the off by 8.30. Unfortunatley, the summits were cloud covered, so we decided to go round into Benmore Glen and climb Stob Binnein first. We took the good path into Benmore Glen and headed towards the bealach at its head.
- Cloud covered Cruach Ardrain lower tops.
Our spirits were lifted by the sight of a Golden Eagle effortlessly soaring across the Glen, heading for Ben More.
- Best pic of Golden Eagle.
Not the best pic i know
. We got our first glimpse of Stob Binnein summit and we hoped that the cloud would continue to go up over
- Stob Binnein summit poking through.
Well, it didn't and as we don't know this route so well, we made the decision to head straight up from the Glen to the Bealach-eadar-dha Beinn. We figured there would be good pathways there, so easy to navigate regardless of clag
We hit the cloud base around 750m and plodded onto the summit, where we afforded no views whatsoever
- Stob Binnein summit cairn.
Trying to waste a bit of time, we stopped for a bit of lunch, before heading back to the bealach and ascending Ben More, all the while stuck in clag
- Ben More trig and summit cairn.
I know these are two of the Top 20, but I was still surprised at the amount of people we encountered throughout this walk. One fellow, Kenny from Dunfermline Walking Cl;ub joined us for most of this walk, top bloke he was too
After a short break on Ben More, we headed, i think, straight off the North side, down a decent, if very steep, path and headed back to the car. Such is our luck, that halfway down the cloud decided to sod off and leave all the tops nice and clear
and it became really warm. The views opened up around us, which was better than nothing I suppose
- Ben Challum ( I think) appears out of the cloud.
We were back at the car in just over an hour, pleased we'd done it, bit miffed at the weather, but you can't have it all ways I guess
- Creag Liaragan reflected in Loch Iubhair.
- Creag Liaragan reflected in Loch Iubhair again.
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