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This is going to be a weird report, as it was a weird moment in history
. It is not my intention to spoil anybody's day with long, boring lectures on international affairs
. But with the first anniversary of Smolensk disaster in two days time, I felt I should make that little trip down the memory lane. Ups, sounds sad already! Let's get down to business then.
It was Saturday, 10.04.2010. Bright, sunny morning with a good forecast for the whole day. We had our plans to travel far north to climb Ben Hope and Ben Klibreck. It's a 2 hour drive from Inverness so we had to get up early and I remember packing some stuff into my rucksack when Kevin turned on the TV in the other room to double-check the forecast. Then I heard him calling: Better come here to see this!!!
What I saw on the screen was a distant shot of some smoking debris. At first, I didn't understand what happened.
"A Polish plane crashed in Smolensk, that's in eastern Russia" my husband said "It happened less then an hour ago. All the channels are full of this. About 100 victims, no survivors."
"Was it a passenger plane?" I asked still a bit stunned.
"No, darling. You better sit down - it was the Air Force One. And the President was on board. Plus half the government and army leaders."
Do you remember where you were and what you were doing when 7.7. happened? Or when WTC towers fell? For me news about Smolensk was exactly that kind of experience. A disaster for Poland, could turn into a total chaos in the country...
"There's nothing we can do" I said after a few minutes, pushing the shock away "The news isn't precise, they don't even know how it happened, was it a bomb or maybe just an accident... We have to wait and see... And in the meantime let's climb what we planned!"
You may be surprised at my reaction, but what was the point in sitting in the front of TV, watching the blurred footage of burned debris? Moving as it was, we were thousands of miles away from it in our little Scottish world. Show must go on
Let's bag a Munro and bring smiles back to our faces
Because we were a bit late driving up, we had to live Ben Klibreck for another day (we climbed it eventually last month). When we arrived at the foot of Ben Hope, the sky was blue and the air was "full of spring" - an adequate feeling for the name of the hill
For ruin enthusiasts there is a well preserved broch, Dun Dornaigil, by the road up Strathmore.
- Approaching Ben Hope, ruins of Dun Dornaigil to the left.
From the car park just of the road we followed a boggy path up the slope - the beginning of the route is marked with an appropriate signpost:
- The way up starts here... That's in case you are lost...
The first part of the climb took us steeply up along the stream with some very lovely waterfalls. We stopped in a few places to take pictures. Also, the higher we climbed, the better the views!
- Waterfalls 1
- Waterfalls 2
- Waterfalls 3
- Views to Strathmore
After avoiding some crags and balancing on mud, we reached the ridge of the mountain. Here we crossed the stream and simply walked up the slope to the top. It's an easy route, with a prominent path almost all the way up. Once we left the wet bits behind it was a very pleasant walk.
- The top of the hill
- A nice day...
The summit area was still covered with a layer of snow. The trig point is located close to the eastern cliffs of the hill. We sat down on the rocks emerging from snow and looked around - it was a beautiful panorama...
- The April snow
- Ben Loyal
- The trig point
- The eastern side of Ben Hope
- Ben Klibreck in the distance
- Arkle and Foinaven to the west
We spent some time on the top and finally we descended back to Strathmore, sinking in more lovely views on the way down.
"So we ticked off Ben Hope" Kevin said at some point "Paradoxically, thinking back to what happened in Smolensk, there's no hope left for Poland."
"There is always hope" I answered, staring at the desolate wilderness in the far distance - "Somebody said once that hope always dies last. And my country will survive it. I believe it will wake up from the nightmare, strong and stable... Emerge to life, like Phoenix from the ashes."
Before we left the remote world of Ben Hope, we paid a short visit to Dun Dornaigil. Unfortunately, the interior of the broch is filled with earth and rubbish, so we could only admire it from the outside:
- Dun Dornaigil
Well, it was a weird time. Twelve months on, I was proved right - my country went through the hard days with dignity. It is widely known we Poles are tough and hardy creatures
Today when I look back I can only feel pride - I may be a mixture of genes but I have enough Polish blood in me to make me proud of who I am.
As for Ben Hope - it's one of the nicest Munros I've climbed so far. Highly recommended