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Me & JamesWeather dry with light winds with excellent visibilityActual walking time 6hrs 15mins with just under 1hr of stopsI read a report on these hills by Graeme Dewar recently with the title nemesis nailed and i cant think of a better title for this walk today as i have planned this route so many times and always cancelled due to poor weather so was really chuffed to get this done today and glad i did as it was a cracker.
Followed the walkhighlands route starting from the layby and crossing under the railway to follow the path through the woods, i actually found this pretty hard going to start with as it was really warm in the trees but its not long until you are out in the clear and heading for the dam.
Really enjoyed the walk round the reservoir to start the climb up to ben cruachan and found it didnt offer to much difficulties.
We reached the top of Ben Cruachan in around 2hrs 45mins which was covered in cloud but it was slowly burning away and we were getting glimpes of the cracking views i had heard so much about.We sat at the top for around 20 mins and decided to head down to start the great ridge walk to Stob Diamh we couldnt have been 5 mins off the top when the cloud disapeared from the summit and we seen the rest of the route for the day,the weather stayed the same for the rest of the day with the odd biting wind on the ridge.
The views back to Ben Cruachan from here are something else and the walk to Drochaid Ghlas was brilliant,probably the best part of the day.
Found the Climb to Stob Diamh fairly straightforward and was surprised to pass so many walkers doing the route in reverse as im not sure going this way would be as good a walk.
I had really fancied trying to add in the corbett Beinn a' Bhuiridh as it looked so close but on the approach there seemed to be a lot of loose scree on the steep slopes so we decided against it and seen as james was now choking for a pint after going on about it for most of the way down and i had to be forced into heading down:lol:
A really enjoyable day and well worth another visit
PS
A really good day was ruined with a 20min slow crawl through callander, i swear i saw the same person pressing the button at the lights twice before i got passed them, i doubt the chippy must have been to dear
i think its time for a new bypass