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We had talked about whether this was a suitable walk for a "first timer" like me (more than 10 years since I had put on some mountain boots), specially with a weather forecast that three says earlier had predicted snow. The day was just a bit gloomy in Dundee and that make us decide to go ahead instead of heading towards Loch Lee.
Few miles off Glen Cova Hotel we even had some snow, but as we went on the rain stopped and it was a fine cool day when we parked the car and started walking. To my surprise, and that comes from not reading the map properly, it is a quite steep slope from the very beginning, which did not mix well with both my lack of training and excess of tonnage. Nevertheless we kept on stopping just to take some pictures.
From the 500m line we went on, stepping on snow for the first time until we got to Loch Brandy, which looked impressive encircled by the snowed cliffs.
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- Loch Brandy
After a few minutes enjoying the silence (and the cold!) we started our ascent to Green Hill, where I had to stop (again!!) to get some nuts; I had forgotten to eat when we had our break! The view was magnificent, but the wind was getting stronger and it was not the place to stay.
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- Loch Brandy
From the top of Green Hill all you could see was snow and fog, And in such fashion we started our approach to Ben Tirran. We saw several hares (too big for rabbits I guess) but they were to fast for our cold fingers to reach the cameras. We followed the fence, glanzing at the GPS device from time to time until we arrived at the summit.
Thankfully, after reaching the summit someone up there (use the holy being of your choice) decided that we had earned a bit of sun, which gave us 5-10 minutes to enjoy an easy walk in the summit until we started our descent. The way down was painful in part because of the tiredness and also the care I had to put trying no to step in any wrong place (I have a love/hate history with my ankles).
Finally we left the snow and headed to the road, with all the necessary acrobatics.
Finally, to our amazement, while we were on the road (definitely the less enjoyable part of the walk, we saw how the snow was disappearing at the speed of light, and by the time we were back at the hotel all the snow around Loch Brandy was gone; it was also sunny and fairly hot!
What a lovely, yet strange, day!
