Stay at home

[Oldman]

Weak Cold Front clearing Highlands overnight leaving a bright sunny day with little significant cloud and a 10 mph northerly wind - excellent!! Time for another walk so daughter (Siobhan Flute to you) and I set off nice and early. We had a comfort break at Tyndrum's famous Green Welly and started our walk at 8.51AM. We researched the walk on Walkhighlands of course and the description together with the Walk Reports builds up a very good picture of the actual route. Being a careful kind of bloke (almost to the extent of being boring) I checked my GPS thing at the start of the walk. The Eastings were perfect but the North/South coordinates placed us 500m north of our actual position - in poor weather that could be a bit dangerous. I then checked it at the two summits and got exactly the same result - anyone else have this problem? I believe it could be down to atmospherics. Anyway, once we had tucked the car just off the road we set out on the nice easy track -

pretty obvious track

- The walking is easy and soon it's time to take to the hill as described by Walkhighlands

Just about time to get off of this track and find a path

The walking is now very good on dry grass and the views really open up as promised

towards the head of Loch Awe

easy going

Cruachan Range

This GPS still puts us 500m north of our actual position dad

Soon it was up th the beallach . Daughter arrived first and gave whoops of joy at the panorama which suddenly appeared. I quickly followed and did the same - try it at that point, there is a great echo!!

Dad look at that view!!!

Thank you Lord for giving us all this!

So then, after admiring and being entranced by the panorama for some time it was off to the summit

That's not the top yet, there's another couple of bumps to go

Finally we're there - absolutely amazing! The views defy any verbal description!

Give me five - what a place - brilliant!

Cruachan from the cairn - a target for this summer

We spent a good half hour at the top eating - sugar butties for me, corned beef for her, and drinking irn bru - what a treat! But then we had to think about our next target - Beinn Eunaich - and the route is pretty obvious.

Beinn Eunaich from top of Beinn a'Chochuill

As you get closer the route is even clearer and looking back you can see exactly where you've been.

Just been up there - aint I clever!

Looking ahead the climb looks quite steep but it's not really and towards the top quite rocky which it is but not as awkward as Schiehallion where the rocks are much bigger.

Rocky at the top

Yeah, it's rocky but quite easy

The cairn suddenly appears and there you are, the second top of the day - brilliant!

Secod top and just look at that sky - cirrus at about 25000ft you know.

The views from this top are equally splendid and we spent a long time admiring hem. Then it was off down on an easy descent along the grassy ridge. If you keep your eyes peeled you may see some interesting things like a Ptarmigan with it's family of chicks. They are too young to fly of course and mother was keeping a very close eye on them but I was able to get close enough for a couple of pics.

It was down to the peat haggs next and onto the final short steep, but not too steep, descent to the track. That final mile or so reminded me that I had feet because they heated up something terrible by the time we got to the car - what a treat taking the boots off. Luckily we had also left a reserve of water at the car because, although we had consumed five litres between us on the walk we were still thirsty and drank the reserve with delight - apart from the pint or two we poured over hot feet. What a brilliant walk, one of my best so far. Can't wait to get out again. Cheers Y'all.

[wurzel]

I checked my GPS thing at the start of the walk. The Eastings were perfect but the North/South coordinates placed us 500m north of our actual position - in poor weather that could be a bit dangerous. I then checked it at the two summits and got exactly the same result - anyone else have this problem?

Turn it off and switch it back on again away from tree canopy, and away from any steep areas of ground (in other words somewhere with unobstructed view of the sky). I've had mine do that and I think it's a problem with what's called initialisation when the unit acquires the satellites when it's switched on.

And nice photos.

[Oldman]

Thank you Wurzel, I'll bear that initialisation thing in mind - never was much good with these electrical battery technical things.

[Grandpa'sBoy]

Hey Grandpa (Oldman!)

It's your favourite Grandson here. I can't wait to get up some of those mountains in a few weeks time. You'd better keep in training so you can keep up with me!

And Daddy says 'no more sugar butties'!!!

Have you thought of a good mountain for me to climb with you?

RPD

PS. Wee sister says she'll stay at the bottom with Grandma. It looks like too much effort to climb to the top, especially as there are no shops up there to spend your money in.....

See you soon.

[siobhan_flute]

FANTASTIC walk, Oldman, and always a pleasure, thanks! (Much better than boring Ben Chonzie the other week )

I saw one of the Ptarmigan chicks flying so must correct you on that one before someone else does

Can't wait for Cruachan, just need another free day which is hard between our busy schedules. Oh, to be one of the guys who frequent this site who are also able to frequent the hills!

[magicdin]

high fives all round - you deserve it - looks a great day out

[bazer100]

thanks for sharing, some nice pictures and a great part of the world, well done

baz

[monty]

Nice report Oldman,
Excellent pictures on a sunny day. The walk up the rock boulders looks steep. Well done

I use memory map on my mobile phone and it only goes awry when the battery is getting low.

[Paul Webster]

Good report Oldman - cracking photo of Ben Cruachan - can understand why it's now next on your list!

Strange about the GPS - ours have never been so far out. I can see it's an e-trex - does it have a black picture of a globe on the front, or just plain yellow (the plain ones are newer and have a much better receiver)?

[Oldman]

Paul, regarding my GPS thing, it's about 3 years old now but I've only ever used it as an extra nav aid as I really don't trust either it or myself to use it properly. Until now it's always been OK when used along with my old fashioned nav skills but 500m discrepancy seemed a bit excessive - I thought that if it happened to anyone else in a difficult situation they could be in trouble. It is always best to alert folk to any problems (real or imagined) you might come across. I will bear the initialisation thing in mind and will probably now start learning to use the thing properly but I don't want to become too reliant on technology - we more mature folk don't really trust it. Thank you all and good walking.

[walk aboot]

Top notch photos of the ptarmigan chicks too . You might want to think about adding them to the wildlife section too, so more folk see them .

[kinley]

Nice report - great ptarmy shots

The chicks I saw on Ben Loyal last week were a few weeks younger but still able to fly short distances (and crash land )

For GPS - it does sound like an initialization problem. If turning on a GPS a distance from last use (say > 50km) then I always re-initialise the unit - i.e. restart from scratch through the GPS menu.