by lorrainegwright » Tue Apr 10, 2018 11:44 pm
Munros included on this walk: Ben Wyvis
Date walked: 10/08/2015
Time taken: 8 hours
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Myself and my son walked this 3 years ago.
We arrived at the car park around 11am and set out, the first part seems easy enough. A meandering trail through light forest then following along a small burn, we were harassed by midges the whole way through this part! So stand by to be eaten alive.
All the way up, we were meeting walkers coming down!! The mind boggled as to what time they got up to be up and down so early! A few told us that the top was mist-covered so we didn't hold out much hope of getting a decent view.
Once we hit the steps we found out just how hard this was going to be! Even my poor Staffy struggled with them, and I have short legs, so the deeper steps were a bit of a struggle, however, we got half way up and decided on a rest. It was really starting to get warm too and I was delighted to see the cloud cover starting to clear away from the top. The rest of the journey was just as much a struggle but I was proud of my lad, even though he was quite young he still kept going.
We got to the top of the steps and there is a lovely cairn there, it's a lovely place to stop and recover a bit. My son found a little nook a few metres away from the back of the cairn that has a Buddha statue embedded in it. It's a lovely wee spot and the views just from there are beautiful! However, this is not the top. To get to the actual top you have to carry on towards the north of the cairn. Once you get to the trig point and if you get a clear day you will get beautiful views in all directions. We had a wonderful walk up, it was tiring but my goodness I'd recommend it as a good first Munro.
The walk down was actually more tiring, going down those steps is hard-going. It would be worth investing in walking poles to aid support on the way down, myself and my lad had to stop a few times (mostly for the sake of my wobbly legs)! All in all it took us 8 hours to go up and down, but that was with a lot of stops.
For a first Munro, there's not much in the way of navigation required, but still you should have all the necessary equipment for hillwalking including a map and compass. We were lucky and got a beautiful day, that's not always guaranteed but the views are really worth the effort.
