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It had been 2 days since my last Munro...but 26C and a cloudless sky had called for some well earned rest sunbathing at the stunning beaches in Durness. After sunbathing for a couple of hours and watching other sun worshippers trying to go for a swim, I decided to show them what a real woman is made of…
Walking into the north Atlantic felt as if I just walked into a pool of freshly defrosted ice cubes. Within 10 seconds I started to lose feeling in my feet and I was convinced 20 seconds later that I must have developed frostbite in my left big toe. Some not so nice swear words crossed my lips and for the time being I decided that it was enough…
But being annoyed with myself about half an hour later I decided to try it again…maybe the water had warmed up since…????
Not such luck…I waded in to my knees, after having said good bye to my toes (how long does it take to treat frostbite?)
By the time I was half into the water I felt like screaming and my breath went rapidly…maybe I would die of a heart attack – which would save the ambulance time amputating my toes…?
After which felt like hours I was in and ready for a swim. Well I was glad no one was watching as it went like…breaststroke…scream….leg kick, swear word, breaststroke…scream…I managed about two minutes hoping that this madness would do me good in some kind of way. Afterwards I had clearly enough and escaped the water…enough bravery for this summer that’s for sure.
The day after while being on another beach while watching Puffins, I watched another older couple going through the same procedure and I think the scream , swim, kick was something people just did while swimming in water which clearly should have an ice sheet on top!
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- Beach in Durness (one of many)
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- Puffin
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- Brave people in the water
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- Loooovely
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- Inchnadampf
The day after it had cooled down enough to make me consider a hill walk again and I opted for Conival and Ben More Assynt.
Equipped with the walk description, map, compass and GPS I was convinced nothing could go wrong…but the cold water must have done something to my ability to read. I walked along the path and headed left and the wee cairn…walking and walking I looked up the mountains on the right hand site, which were covered in a thick layer of clouds, wondering which way I would have to head up to. But the clear path continued quite nicely along the hillside. After a while I stopped as clearly there wasn’t a hill big enough for being a Munro and didn’t the map description talked about a muddy path? The path I was on was stone dry!
Stopping I took a GPS reading, looked at the map and realized I took a wrong turn…????
Blaming the walk description (I turned left when I was told to turn left!) I read it again and realized that I completely missed the turn right before turn left…Ah!
Ok but I could not be bothered walking back and looking up the hill to my right and the map I decided to give that way a chance.
Turning to my right I saw a wide gully ad decided to walk up it. Walking down the hill was easy but thick heather and some boggy patches made me bless the dry week we had…otherwise it would have been rather wet and boggy. At the bottom I crossed the burn and started walking up the hill. Following no path but hundreds of deer hoof prints I entered the low level clouds.
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- Heading up to no man's land
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- Navigating in the clouds
It must have been one of the eeriest experiences I ever had. Around me were rocks and patches of grass and the strong winds moved the clouds down the hill. The visibility was between 20-30m and after I reached the top of the hill I had lost all orientation. With the help of the GPS I navigated the hillside but not being able to see where I was going was strange, dreamlike.
Suddenly through the mist I saw some deer looking at me but apart from that I did not see a single soul.
For what felt like ages I walked through the clouds and I was getting rather cold. Stupidly I had worn shorts thinking it would be warmer, but I was glad that I had taken my windbreaker. When I reached a large boulder field I was bored, cold and not knowing how long the day would go on for I decided to build a cairn.
Not something I have ever done before but in some strange way it felt the right thing to do. Gathering large rocks I started piling them up and soon I got warm …even though it is hard work! But I enjoyed the workout and soon was done and took some photos, making a mental note to return at some point in a few years to see if it is still there.
So if anyone will ever see my cairn, or cairns in places which make no real sense…it maybe was just someone like me who was bored and cold
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- Area before the cairn
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- My cairn
Afterwards I continued along Creag Bheag Fuaran nan Each and soon reached the loch I aimed for. Walking around the loch I still had no clue where I was and using my GPS for direction aimed straight up Conival. When I started climbing I soon saw a path and realized that I managed to find the original path up Conival. Being very happy I climbed up and met the first walker of the day who was on his return. Having a wee chat I set off and soon reached Conival. The clouds at that time had started to break and I saw glimpses of the countryside below me.
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- First glimpses
Not stopping I walk on to Ben More and suddenly the clouds parted and the stunning countryside showed itself to me…stopping hundreds of times to take photos and small video footage I carried on being happy with the change of weather.
The walk up Ben More was really pleasant and I enjoyed the scrambling along the ridge…a great walk so far indeed.
When I reached the top of Ben More the clouds were back on and I also nearly missed the top because of it. Again thanks to the GPS I realized that the last bit drops down quite a bit followed by the last climb to reach the top…in thick cloud a mistake which is easy made!
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- Ben More Assynt
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- me
Having some food, hoping for the clouds to disappear I was not lucky and decided after 15min to head back down. About 20 min later the clouds cleared again this time for good, leaving incredible views down the valley. I had a look at the map trying to find an alternative route down, but decided due to the scree that it would be best to return the normal way down.
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- Beinn an Fhurain
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- Looking back
Looking back I wished I would have returned the way I came as the climb downhill is really steep and quite sore on the knees. But equally really pretty, as I enjoyed the walk back along the burn.
When I reached the car 8.15h after I set off I was happy and cracked open a bottle of lovely warmed up beer which had been boiling nicely in my black car (incredible what you get used to drink while camping) and was on my merry way find a campsite for the night.
