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I was hoping that Ben Lui might be on the other side of the low pressure system this weekend, but no such luck. The col and both Bens were covered in cloud, but I nevertheless persevered with the walk. The ascent of Ben Lui was in viz of about 30m, a great shame as you could sense the drama on the north side of the mountain on reaching the top. There seemed to be a major drop off the little ridge between the two cairns, but I'll have to get the views another time. On my descent of Beinn a Chleibh, the cloud base lifted and gave me a fleeting glimpse of the other top, which was pretty impressive, but less so than I guess from the other side.
As I re-entered the forestry, I started quietly flailing at the Forestry Commission who seemed to spend an awful lot of taxpayers money on brand new bridges (£30k a pop) and logging roads, but precious little on ditching or repairing the hill paths that they have obscured and wrecked with their plantations. There were several points where the path up beside the Fhionn Choire burn is just a mass of bog, held in place by tree roots etc, with a token fence stob lobbed in to tempt you in to it all. No thanks. Its a complete mess. They were loudly cursed twice as I inevitably lost my footing and hit the deck. And its not as if its been particularly wet up here recently. I feel a letter to the local MP coming on!
Despite the weather and the FC, a thoroughly enjoyable walk.
- Ben Lui I think!