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Wanting to make the most of the mid summer light evenings and the sudden heat wave we were experiencing (you never know when it will be dry again!) we set out from Perth and headed for Loch an Daimh - listening to the last few rallies of Novak Djokovic as he defeated Rafael Nadal along the way. What a glorious afternoon/evening and hardly a cloud in the sky! Were we being a little ambitious taking the 10 year old up a Munro in the evening when we had already bagged Beinn a'Chochuill and Beinn Eunaich the day before??? (Yes
and then definitely no
as it turned out.)
The drive took longer than we expected, a full 2 hours, so we set off at 6.30pm a little later than planned.
We met one guy and his dog coming down the hill and there was a camper parked by the dam but otherwise we had the whole place to ouselves.
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- The start of the track
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- The tiny cairn that marks the start of path 1
There were loads of orchids on the lower part of the hillside so some time was taken admiring and photographing them.
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- The obligatory orchid photo
The views quickly open out.
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- Panorama of the view behind us taken by my daughter
The path was clear most of the way and altho there were wet areas they were easily avoided.
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- A very wet spot
Around this point Jacob hit the wall - bad mood, can't do it, he had to turn back, why did we bring him, why did we even have him in our family etc etc.... we made him eat something and encouraged him to carry on, he'd be pleased in the end etc etc..... a familiar routine!
We seemed to be under the only grey cloud in the whole of central Scotland - in more ways than one!
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- The grey cloud hanging over us
Once the 917 point was clearly in sight Jacob didn't hang about and we were up on the summit ridge enjoying the flatter, stonier terrain.
The views were amazing, a little cloudier to the NE but the panorama of silouhetted hills to the west was spectacular.
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- The grey cloud posed for some photos and then disappeared
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- The summit cairn - smiles all round now!
We spent a good half an hour at the summit messing about, taking pics and eating a lot! We wished we had brought a tent up as it was so beautiful an evening and so peaceful and the scenery so fab that we didn't want to leave.
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- We tried to spell out HIKE but getting the E began to involve the use of appendages not suitable for general viewing!
The sun was starting to set as we forced ourselves down hill again.
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- The posse posing
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- Ben Lawers group
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- Loch an Daimh
We walked through a skutch of highland cows on the track back to the car..... they let us pass no bother but when we got back to the car discovered they had knocked a wing mirror off!!
We drove off around 10pm and didn't get home til nearly midnight but Jacob was heard to say "We should do more Munros in the evening, we'd get through them all quicker that way!" The perfect start to the school holidays!
