A pretty mixed forecast for this weekend - highish winds put me off a trip to one of my feared mountains, Bidean nam Bian and had me looking further north instead where the rain was supposedly less. It wasn't nearly good enough to head up to Sutherland or somewhere exotic like that, but there was an option to head up to Ceannacroc and walk in to Aonach Shassuinn and Carn a'Choire Ghairbh, with the addition of Tighe Mor na Sielge, the northern MT on Saileag that I thought (wrongly as it turned out) that Allison needed, plus a few Simms. Then we could head up the A887 and pick off Meall a'Chrathaich and some more Simms. Lots of track to make walking easier, a relaxed weekend for a change. Or so I thought.

I wakened early on Thursday morning with stomach cramps and had a pretty dodgy morning - I felt feverish, headache, muscle aches and pains too. Would I be able to get away? I returned to bed til early afternoon, the diarrhoea had stopped but the other symptoms were still around. I reckoned I'd probably be OK by the following day and decided to get away. Allison expressed some concern it might be Covid, when I picked her up - as I'd no respiratory symptoms I thought this less likely than food poisoning (Vegan Sushi from Lidl was getting the blame in my head) and we headed up the road.

I'd been interested in the route up from Ceannacroc for a while. There's parking at the opening to the lodge/hydro scheme and we set off into a small cloud of midges. I was quite keen to walk for a while, but Allison, having been working all day, was less so. She also added there might not be suitable spots up the glen and we settled for a spot only a couple of km in. It was inside a field populated by large, sheep sized or larger white boulders. I worried slightly they'd come alive during the night and I'd waken inside a stomach of stone.



Some rain overnight, but dry by the time we set off - thankfully un-petrified. Quite a pleasant walk up the River Doe, and yes, there were other, better places to camp along the glen.We walked into the start of Gleann Fada then turned uphill onto the Simm of Carn a'Choire Bhuidhe, which joins onto Aonach Shassuinn. Stopping for something to eat before the summit of the Simm I felt far from well, the effort of getting uphill making the nausea quite bad. Lunch did help a bit. We got to the summit of the Corbett, where there were two older gents enjoying the views in the stone shelter. For one, this was his hundredth Corbett, having finished his Munros in 1983. (I note, from the SMC website, that there were 8 people who completed that year and none went on to do Corbetts. Poor show that!). We continued on over An Elric to Carn a'Choire Ghairbh - although I reckoned it might have been easier to dip down from Bealach an Amais and go directly for Carn a'Choire Ghairbh (it was less distance and less ascent but steeper according to the route planner). Incidentally, there's a new track that comes from the valley we'd walked up that comes right to Bealach an Amais, making this a viable route for the Corbetts for anyone with a bike.

ECFB4F21-6F82-4553-A228-9C646CD49F02_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

F644EBA2-7A88-46CB-8CD0-FB76087C690B_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

Aonach Shassuinn
0D842338-1306-4766-9D34-1664F0327A50_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

01371C8D-FBB1-4C1B-9B80-104BF553DCE3_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

1CD8A1B7-8DF0-408E-9531-B4E1620EFB04_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

Carn a'Choire Ghairbh
B731FED8-0518-4BDD-898C-8655B9D0A849_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

New track up to Bealach an Amais
A4E99F70-9B9D-4E9B-A1E1-72321C835A6B_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

Going the way we did, we were able to dump the packs on Carn a'Coire Ghuirm and go out and back to Ghairbh unladen, which helped. The clouds had come in as we got to the top and looked quite threatening from the West. I wasn't sure where we'd end up tonight - but first we needed to get to the top of Tighe Mor na Seilge. It's easily reached from An Elric and is a bit underwhelming. Turns out, Allison has done this twice already, as she found when she got home, so that was a bit unnecessary for her. It did lead to the Simm of Beinn an Iomaire, which was one I'd wanted for a while. We might be able to camp on the back of it? well not really - although there were some flattish areas they were wet and exposed to the rising wind. I didn't fancy the route I'd drawn up to get to the other Simm, which involved contouring the inside of Coire Meadhoin and re-ascending - we'd have no-where to camp up there. Better just make for the valley floor, where it looked like there were suitable camp spots and decide if I wanted the Simm tomorrow. So we headed down the grassy slopes, picking up a rough path along the river and stopping where it looked suitable. I looked up at the Simm as I sat outside the tent having dinner - it would need almost 400m re-ascent to get to the top - I doubted that was justifiable for a Simm. I'm not wanting to do all the Simms, just get to 2000, which means some are expendable.

C5D35AE3-789E-4F50-97CA-ACB6697158C3_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

F0B0A7B2-90D3-484C-8B6D-541436071BC7_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

78BC0407-7039-423B-9983-4B36726F5A7F_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

EBD7AE73-7FA2-4B7D-A59F-13F34DC2F4B7_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

Weather coming in
1E298522-C738-4617-93FB-C6FE078374BE_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

Sielge
5736D2B9-1046-42D2-BF78-9D11C4BBE2D9_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

64D232D6-249A-4341-9DEE-6EFF3ADD5151 by Al, on Flickr

It was raining in the morning, so I didn't fancy getting up early and climbing the Simm. We read another chapter of Wuthering Heights instead and by the end of that, the sun had come out. We walked back out to the car reflecting it had been a good alternative to the approach from Affric for the Corbetts. Then on to Bhlaraidh for a circuit of Meall a'Chrathaich and 5 Simms. I was sure we'd done this hill from the north before, along with Carn Mhic an Tosich. Nowhere to park at the beginning of the track, all "Private Roads" so I ended up going back west nearly a kilometre. If I'd read my report for last time, when I did do the hills from Bhlaraidh, not the north, I'd have noted that I parked on the verge just across from the opening, and saved us 2km in road walking. There's a lesson for me - read your own reports!



Anyway, when we did set off up the path, all we could hear was gunshots from a large gathering just by Cnocan Daraich - presumably clays. Endless double blasts percussing the air which chased us up the hill until the wind and the wind turbines eventually drowned out the sound of human hatred. I'm guessing most of those present would be getting ready for blasting several kinds of hell from little birds later in the week.

Our main concern now was where would we find a spot to camp for the night. Windfarms are not generally great places for finding camp spots - ground too disturbed for one thing. And windy, obviously. We passed a couple of vans going to two barely turning turbines to fix them and left the track making for Carn Tarsuinn. Typical Simm territory - tussocks, bog, holes etc. From the top we pondered what to do - the wind was very strong from the SW and we needed some shelter...eventually found an almost acceptable sheltered spot and decided to take it rather than search aimlessly later on. After putting up the tent, I went off to do two northern Simms over at Loch na Ruighe Duibhe while Allison rested her ankle. A quiet night, apart from the whoosh of the turbine blades turning, some rain overnight but a surprisingly sunny morning.

F59BFAA5-C57B-4C77-B394-836309726F9B_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

91499912-7B35-4905-A512-935D749F25B0_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

4B34072B-3D08-484E-80B3-6B360DFE6A10_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr


We packed up and headed over Meall nan Oighregan making for Chrathaich. Views north to the Affric hills. Down, back onto track and a long walk back round by a couple of dams - a baby adder sidled across the warm track in front of us. Back to the car about 1.30 - not really enough time to fit something else in on the way down the road, but at least I was feeling more like myself by now and Allison didn't appear to have contracted anything from me. A -ve Covid test when I got home suggested it probably hadn't been that anyway

E3F7C805-050F-410F-98CF-72776281946B_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

29EE1818-301E-4BF6-BACF-DEBE9B86096F_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

0ABE58C6-0173-4F2D-B196-2D079EEFFF2A_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

C0221890-49FC-4499-BF28-7260BD61C24F_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

78BE196D-B340-4747-B277-5F93FF535143_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

E6D3C28B-60B9-41CA-B517-6BD16A13F1C2_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

DD38D0C5-1A51-4E2F-B9B9-D9B3902F2D27_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

B7267C4B-1B8B-40C1-888C-7CC51F25100E_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

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