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My girlfriend Leia and I hatched together some sort of plan a couple of weeks ago to head up to Kintail for the weekend. Plans A & B were the Brothers & Sisters, Plan C was Sgurr nan Conbhairean, Sail Chaorainn & Carn Ghluasaid and Plan D was to do something around the Cairngorms in case Leia had to work. Thankfully Plan D wasn't required and being unable to get a squad together for the weekend, Plans A & B went out the window so we settled on the one remaining.
Despite asking about wild camping locations in the area, I decided very late on Thursday night to book a camping spot as it was Leia's first time doing "proper" camping. We arrived at the Faichemard campsite in the early evening and set up the tent, the midgies were really out in force and despite the fags, candles, bbq, smidge, avon so soft etc, they really took a shine to me
In the morning we arrived in the big layby at Lundie about half nine and were away about 0945/1000, we plodded off up the hill towards the mast, the SGSR keeping us company and looking spectacular as it always seems to, and did all day. When we hit the mast we went right and the start of what turned out to be quite a long ascent. The start of the path is very boggy in places but as we got higher it seemed to dry out a bit and the start of the zig zags to the summit is as decent path, finally we made it to the summit.
Me on Summit No1 by
GaryE1872, on Flickr
Leia on Summit No 1 by
GaryE1872, on Flickr
After a pause here for a couple of scooby snacks and a ciggie we set off for the 2nd summit, where disaster struck, while negotiating our way round the various boggy sections, Leia ended up going knee deep into one. I did try not to laugh as I knew full well karma would bite me on the backside later. The walk over (despite the bog) is quite gentle with ups and downs, until you get to the final pull, it's a bit of a steep bugger, we pushed on and really no time at all we were at our 2nd summit of the day.
Leia on Summit No 2 by
GaryE1872, on Flickr
Me on Summit No 2 by
GaryE1872, on Flickr
The Ben by
GaryE1872, on Flickr
We had a quick break here as looking over, our 3rd target of the day didn't look too bad to walk over to, however, as we were walking over it seemed to be quite steep which would prove to be a challenge for our weary legs on the way back, we made not bad time heading over, once at the summit we plonked our backsides down for an extended break.
Leia on Summit No 3 by
GaryE1872, on Flickr
Me on Summit No 3 by
GaryE1872, on Flickr
Looking back at where we had just come the collective phrase can be abbreviated into 3 letters, the 1st letter is F, the 2nd S. Nothing for it, get off our backsides and just go for it. Eventually we were up at the bypass path and made our way over to the ridge, which was a pleasure to walk over, slight problem though, it didn't seem to be getting much lower. Suddenly the path disappeared and we realised that it was going to be a steep descent, we slowly made our way down through all the bog till we eventually hit the bottom, crossed the stream and steamed down towards the path back to the mast. We somehow managed to miss the path that runs north to south but we weren't really bothered, we were just wanting back to the car, both feeling a bit gubbed. We arrived back at the car about 9 and a half hours after setting off, not before karma set in and I ended up, up to my ankles in bog.