Together with a friend I planned 1982 a west to east traverse in scotland, and because we hadn`t much time I decided to do it at scotlands narrowest place: from Ullapool to Doch Firth. But my friend got ill and our lives went different ways. Now we met again and fulfilled our promise- doing the scottish traverse.
He started in Berlin, myself in Stuttgart and the first excitement was :do we meet in Gatwick so that we get our flight to Inverness. But all worked well; no missing luggage or delayed airplane. So we happlily arrived in Inverness and after having our first "fish n chips" at the bus station we went on to Ullapool. At the local outdoor store I bought a gas canister and because it was late afternoon we stepped up the hills and pitched our tent.

Because my friend Johannes hates dehydrated outdoor food it was not an easy task to compose meals that don't puts him off by looking as "astronauts feed". As a surprise for him (and me) I took along an original italian espresso can. What an awesome coffee smell in the tent in the morning.
Our first walking day led us along Loch Achall and into Glen Achall.

At the farmhouse we crossed the river and walked up the mountain. On the top we lost our way in the fog and we got problems with our map. The OS landranger maps are usually perfect-but there was a lot of wood where it was not supposed to be.?-then we understood. Our map was printed in the eighties. Landscapes don't change, but spruce trees grow quite fast. So we crossed down to the A 835 road, walked a bit along the road (terrible) and then entered the Inverlael Forest. We didn't walk fast because we had to tell us so much. So it got evening an we put our tent directly on the forest road, because besides the road were trees or stumps; impossible to erect a tent.


The second day we followed the Gleann na Sguab. But the clouds came down and orientation became more and more worse, respective the path ended and we were looking for a route that would lead us to the top.



But its easy. As long as the terrain is still going up you didn't reach the mountaintop. The hillside was dotted with rocks and stones in all sizes-but we reached Meall nan Ceapraichenan.

Our guide book said "follow the wide ridge to the east". Fog,clouds, i mean you couldnT see nothing. But anyway we started and the only difficult thing was not to get into the steep slope south of Cnap Coire. Of course it was bound to happen. We managed to get into this steep slope and it was pretty dangerous because the ground was extremely wet and slippery.

Evryone had to struggle to find a stand and in some moments I couldnt see my friend, he was in my back. Suddenly I heard something rumbling down. My heart stood still!-He had thrown his backpack downwards; he thought it would be easier to climb without heavy load on the back.PUhh!!
Then along Loch Truath,Loch Prille. Then mounting on a kind of col between the two valleys. There was no way at all! It needed so much time to find a way through this swampy terrain with all this countless watercourses. But the we could see into Glen Beag in the distance, but it was late already an we pitched our tent besides the river.


Next morning we descended to the Glen and reached Glenbeg bothy where we had a splendid second breakfast.

Now the way down in Glen Beag and Glen Mor was easy and comfortable (a little bit too easy,no more excitings). On the evening we found a beautiful campsite.

Now it was only a long march to reach the coast.


It was a great pleasure to do this walk together with my friend.
the cape wrath trail in february is in planning stage!
Manfred Jandt


PS.: my nickname "Achnashheen" derives from my first scotland holiday. Together with a girl in 1980 who is now my wife. In our tent near Achnasheen we confessed our love...