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Flying solo for a change

Flying solo for a change


Postby Fife Flyer » Sat Sep 11, 2021 6:42 pm

Munros included on this walk: Geal Chàrn (Monadhliath)

Date walked: 10/09/2021

Time taken: 3.5 hours

Distance: 13.6 km

Ascent: 673m

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With George and Parminder being unavailable I decided to head out all by myself, so where to go - the usual problem.
I opted for Geal Charn as I didn't think George and Parminder would fancy being dragged/forced to wander up it again. As it is almost 20 years since my last visit and I don't remember anything about it, so I did my usual research and one thing I did notice was that there haven't been any reports for Geal Charn for a couple of years. As we know things do change over a couple of years, fences appear, bridges disappear paths become eroded etc.
The only reason I am making this post live is because there are no recent reports for Geal Charn on it's own.
I arrived at the parking area about 9am and noticed there were 2 cars parked already. I would meet both parties after covering about 4km and as usual I had a wee chat with them all.
I have just realised Geal Charn was my 50th Munro this year and definitely one of the easiest.

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Garva Bridge from the parking area

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The River Spey

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Looking the other way

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Parking area

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Looking back at the bridge and parking area

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The burn that the path will follow uphill, not much water in it - taken from the metal bridge that is used to cross it

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The view the other way

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The way ahead

The path is fairly good and easy to follow until the boulders are reached on or near the summit plateau area

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Way ahead

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Low cloud on the cards yet again

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Looking back

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Plenty of berries on the trees

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A fairly well trodden path

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The view up the glen - not on the walk agenda though

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Another photo further up

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What remains of the style, the fence is also showing signs of wear with so many walkers straddling it

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Geal Charn hiding in the the cloud

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Looking back

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The burn continues in a different direction and the path meets one of it's tributaries that has to be crossed

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Looking back, also shows how obvious the path is

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Looking back - just before the cloud closes in and get's rid of the view

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Still going up, the ascent is fairly gradual and because it was very humid - energy sapping

As soon as I was on the open moorland I was constantly pestered by keds, they were either landing on my neck or my bare arms. I am not sure they bite but they are very annoying and I am not a fan of anything crawling over me and I did cull one or two.

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Looking back, bit of a view of the moorland

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If you look really carefully you may spot the cairn on the summit

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There it is

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And again

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Still getting the hang of this selfie lark

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Descending now and I was convinced that the cloud was lifting

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The way down and ahead

I opted to have my lunch after the majority of the descending was done, picked a nice comfy rock and it wasn't long before I heard a buzzing nearby - I looked behind me and there was a rather large swarm of midges, so I grabbed my final brioche & quickly continued my descent munching on the go.

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Water feature - with not a lot of water

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This is the river crossing spot - could be a bit more difficult after days of rain

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Local flora, I had to get on my hands and knees to get this photo as the petals are pointing down the way

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This blurb is near the bridge

Here are a few bonus photo's, I made a few stops on the way back to Laggan as the views were quite impressive, certainly better than the grey stuff when you are in clouds.

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Man made canal type feature that links the reservoir to Loch Crunachdan

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Looking the other way, I stopped on the bridge on the way home to take the photo's

I have to say the drive along the single track road from Laggan to Garva Bridge is on one the better single track roads, visibility is pretty good for the majority of the time.

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A defunct bridge - looks quite cute though

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The western end of the reservoir, water levels like most lochs are pretty low

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The reservoir, not even a slight ripple on the surface

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Looking west

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North

This turned out to be much better than I expected, just a shame the little flying things tried to spoil the day.
Unfortunately we won't have many more weeks to tackle Munro's especially as the majority all involve a 3 hour drive each way, Hopefully I will compleat my 2nd round next year alongside Parminder who will be compleating his first.
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Fife Flyer
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Re: Flying solo for a change

Postby Gordie12 » Sat Sep 11, 2021 9:50 pm

That was a surprise FF - I've never been attacked by keds anywhere other than the hills much further west.

I think you posted this report as you had a photo of a car park with no campervans in it :wink:
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Gordie12
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