So...myself and Gary headed North, yet again, but this time to visit Andy at the Glencoe Mountain Resort for a wee blether. Buachaille Etive Mor, was looking stunning in the sunshine and reminded me again why this mountain has got to be on my 'to do' list this year.
Later that afternoon, we headed to Kinlochleven to the Blackwater hostel for a catch up with Callum and soon after, Gary headed back home.
Sad for me, good for Callum, all the Hobbit houses were booked solid, so I borrowed a tent, pegs and a couple of Rizla paper thin foam sheets to lie on and pitched up.
A good thing then happened as a wonderful group of 4 in the end Hobbit invited me to share their BBQ which they had excelled at, including some wild garlic picked in the woods at the site.
A good few tinnies then rounded off a wonderful evening.
Getting BBQ ready. Beinn na Caillaich in background
Next morning, I headed to Fort William with the intention of doing the Ring of Steall, but as I was so early and it was a lovely warm day, I thought I would take things a bit easier and so parked up and set off for Ben Nevis instead hoping to miss the 'coach parties'.
Whilst booting up and having to spend 5 minutes searching for my car keys (which were on the parcel shelf all the time), I set off and the only other person at the car park was a chap called Martin who was hoping to 'bag' his first Munro, so we chummed up for the ascent.
If you read this mate...I really hope your legs and blisters have healed and I was glad of your company. You did really well getting up and down in the time we did it. It really is a long hard slog of a walk.
On bridge 2
Martin at the summit of Nevis (not Rio)
Me
We only stayed on summit for 10 minutes and had to get the jackets and wooly hats out as it had chilled a bit and headed back down through the remaining snow patches, then back to t-shirts at the 3,000ft level. There were by now quite a few people struggling up the mountain, many who were never going to make it by the looks of things, but we still gave encouragement as we passed. Then I donated my last bag of jelly babies to a woman who had her 2 young kids halfway up and they were suffering pretty badly, but we saw them arrive at the bottom as we were enjoying a beer at the bar by the car park.
The next days intention was to go for Ben Vorlich, but as the heavens had opened through the night which resulted in a rotten night in the tent, I chickened out and went home to have a wee afternoon nap instead.
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