walkhighlands

Driesh and Mayar - walking with my boyfriend

Route: Mayar and Driesh, Glen Clova

Munros: Driesh, Mayar

Date walked: 10/02/2019

Time taken: 5.5 hours

Distance: 14.5km

Tentatively, on Thursday in my lunch break I messaged my partner asking if he would like to ‘go for a wee walk’ on Sunday before we booked in to our (very fancy) itison castle stay for Sunday evening. I even included some mild bribery type tactics: ‘I’ll have breakfast waiting for you when you wake up’, ‘coffee on the bedside table’ etc, etc and so on and so on. To his credit he said yes, and that was that. (He’s a chef who works until midnight regularly so getting up at the crack of dawn to tramp up hills on his day off is generally his idea of hell).

NB:
My idea of a ‘wee walk’ = 6 hours, perhaps a couple of munro’s.
His idea of a ‘wee walk’ = approx. 3 hours wandering through a gently undulating glen or on the bank of a river.

Sunday morning arrived and I dutifully awoke before him and cooked up a large plate of bacon, eggs, avocado and mushrooms on toast. I made a coffee and set it on the bedside table, then left the door to the bedroom open so that the smell of bacon could infiltrate his sleeping senses (who wouldn’t be happy if they woke up like that?!).
bfast.jpg

We were on the road heading out of Edinburgh at 9am, half an hour later than I had originally intended. There was also a mild adrenalin spike in my blood stream when I realised the drive to the Glen Doll car park would take 2.5 hours not the 2 hours I had thought. Oops! Half an hour out of town I realised that Waylon didn’t have snow gloves, just some fingerless woollen gloves (homeless chic style). We consulted Google and decided that adding 10 minutes onto our drive would be worth saving his fingers and changed route to an outdoor store in Dundee… which was closed on arrival! Not opening until 11am! So we headed to Tesco and got a pair of cheap woollen glove (full fingers).

Our slow start meant that we didn’t arrive at the car park until just after 12. Not ideal for winter walking but we had our head-torches in our packs, so off we set!
start of walk.jpg

tree light.jpg

The road was beautifully icy from the get go. It looked like someone had dripped the wax from a giant candle along the tyre depressions – easy to avoid thankfully.

Walking up to, and through Corrie Fee was easy going, a nice way to warm up cold muscles for the ascent to come. There is a conveniently placed patch of trees (spruce probably, I can’t remember) that act almost like a curtain that you walk through before being presented to the vast, picturesque corrie. It’s pretty bloody spectacular!
waylon corrie.jpg

Half way up the far wall of the corrie we decided it was crampon (and snack) time. They made SUCH a difference. We have cheap ones from Amazon (spruik spruik) that slip over our summer boots and they worked an absolute CHARM. I wouldn’t rely on them for anything steep or scrambling like, but for the ‘easier’ hill walks, they sure make life easier.

Once we got to the summit of Mayar the wind picked up and we sipped on hot chocolate that felt like it was giving us a hug from the inside out. The views was endless. It was such a clear day, we couldn’t believe our luck!
summit 1 w.jpg

Next up was the eastward slog to bag the summit of Driesh. It was a rough start to a pretty straightforward trudge across ice. The thin woollen gloves were not helping against wind chill, so we had a quick swap and Waylon squeezed his hands into my snow gloves to avoid permanent nerve damage.
froze .jpg

pano hills.jpg

We enjoyed a well-deserved break at the cairn of Driesh, enjoying the views before we turned to head home.
summit 2 k.jpg

Some clouds had snuck across the horizon behind our backs as we had walked eastwards, and they were now putting on a spectacular show with the setting sun. We whipped out the walking poles (for some extra knee support) for the way down the Shank of Drumfollow (what a great name!) and had to continuously stop to look back at the sunset developing behind us.
sunset.jpg

Once we got to the fords it was time to don the head torches and follow the path back to the car park. It was a bit of a downer to end the day walking through the recently cleared patch of Glendoll forest, with stumps everywhere like sombre tree gravestones #weneedmoretreesplease. But, all in all, it was a fantastic day on the hills!

Some pics from the camera:
driesh and mayar WH edits-2.jpg

driesh and mayar WH edits.jpg

driesh and mayar WH edits-3.jpg

driesh and mayar WH edits-4.jpg

driesh and mayar WH edits-5.jpg

driesh and mayar WH edits-6.jpg

driesh and mayar WH edits-7.jpg

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Comments: 3


kateslattery


Activity: Mountaineer
Pub: Carriers Quarters (Leith)
Mountain: Still unsure...
Place: Glencoe
Gear: My camera
Member: -
Corbett rounds: 1

Munros: 163
Corbetts: 13
Fionas: 2
Donalds: 5
Wainwrights: 20
Hewitts: 13
Sub 2000: 7
Islands: 7
Long Distance routes: West Highland Way    Cape Wrath Trail    Rob Roy Way   



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Statistics

2019

Trips: 1
Distance: 14.5 km
Munros: 2


Joined: Feb 27, 2017
Last visited: Jul 05, 2023
Total posts: 3 | Search posts