Deepest Devon

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It's a long, long drive to Devon.
I'm down at Fossfell installing a Hobbit Cascade and a Wee Hobbit.  That's all done now, but due to a bit of bad luck, one door never arrived from Ireland so I'm kicking my heels down here until Thursday when Gary arrives with the door.
Therefore, I decided to explore and found myself at Hartland Quay which has some wonderful rock formations and great beaches.
I also took the chance to get re-aquainted with Cornish Pasties...the real ones...

Geal Charn & Creag Pitridh

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So, on Friday, we had ordered all the gas boiler parts for the Hobbit Cascade, so there was little we could do over the weekend, so on that basis, I decided to accompany the Glenrothes Hillwalking club where a selection of Munros was on offer.
A small group of 6 decided to do 3 Munros whilst myself and the less daft minority would tackle just the 2.

The weather was very pleasant as we set off and had our first wee break at Lochan na Hearba. If you've never been here before, see the pic below.  It's like a sandy beach in the midst of the mountains.

Costa del Alba

Suitably refreshed, we followed the path gaining height, but all the time very aware of the worsening weather approaching from the South West, and just as we reached the plateau which takes you the last 10 minutes to the summit, we were hit by horizontal sleet and the wind picked up to about 35 knots.

This is most certainly not a difficult hill to climb, but the conditions of today made it a heck of an effort just to stay upright.

At the top, we huddled in abject misery and got as much food and hot drinks down as possible, and donned waterproofs over our already sodden clothes. Yep...it hit us that quickly.

We descended again to the path that leads between Charn & Pitridh, and after a wee chat, the group split into 2, the sensible ones re-tracing the path back to the warmth of the bus, leaving the rest of us to tackle Pitridh.

This was actually another easyish walk, but once again, come the summit, it was a case of leaning heavily into the wind to stay upright.  Suffice to say, we didn't hang around and headed off to lose altitude as rapidly as possible.

The walkout from here was through very boggy ground and I think that most of us had sodden boots and socks before long, as nothing could keep out the deluge.

Then....just as we reached the 'walkout' path, the skies cleared and the sun blazed.

The rest of the group were all lazed out on the grass munching sarnies and looking very smug by the time we returned to the bus.  A  'wringing out of socks' ceremony then ensued.

Well, it's now Monday night, and we spent today doing plumbing work in the Wee Hobbit whilst the sparkies wired the Cascade unit.   I'm still hurting from Sundays frivolities, so early to bed.   ZZZZZZZZ!!!!

Ben Vorlich, Stuc a'Chroin, Ben Lawers & Beinn Ghlas

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Hey Ho...back to work today after a glorious long bank holiday weekend.  We have a Wee Hobbit and a Hobbit Cascade to be finished and heading off down to Devon.  Long drive for us.

Gary is due back home from New York today also, so can't wait to catch up on his tales from the Stag weekend.

Me...

After doing 3 of the Lawers range midweek, I returned home, bought a comfy scissor camp bed due to the failure of my inflating mattresses to retain air through the night, and headed back up to tackle Ben Lawers and Beinn Ghlas, 2 Munros that I had missed on my previous outing.
I set up the tent again at the foot of Meall nan Tarmachan, and went to fit the aforementioned 'comfy bed' only to discover the bed was 18 inches longer than the tent. (there's planning for you).
Anyways, with a bit of jiggery pokery, I managed to get most of the bed in and fitted a tarp extension to the front of the tent.
The 2 mountains were to be honest a bit of a slog and the wind at the summits had fairly whipped up and it was bitterly cold, but the views over to Schiehallion and Ben Nevis made it worthwhile and I could also see tomorrows walk, which was to be Ben Vorlich, then on to Stuc a'Chroin.

Looking to Ben Lawers from Beinn Ghlas

After getting down, I set up a disposable bbq as I had left the stove back at home, duh!!  Therefore, tea that evening was a sustaining, if not visually appealing mixture of beans tatties and sausages.

Sunday evening was spent in the excellent Ben Lawers Hotel, where there were fiddlers a-fiddling, drummers a-drummin', pipes piping, whistles, accordians and drums plus a multitude of other instruments, and a wee jam session ensued and was top notch.  This happens on the first Sunday of every month.  Well worth the visit for this alone.

Once again, awoke to ice inside the tent and a cold head due to having to kip with it sticking out the door.  Idiot that I am.

Upon sunrise, I set off to the Post Office at Lochearnhead to meet up with Cathy and Digger (the dog), and after a much needed coffee, we set out to the farm at the base of Ben Vorlich.

Ben Vorlich

I was still a tad stiff from my latest excursions, but with the help of Digger on the lead, I was pulled up the first 1,000 feet until my leg muscles eased off.
It was still blowing a bitterly cold wind in places, but we summited in good time.

Then....the real fun begins.   We looked across to Stuc a'Chroin, translated as 'peak of danger' and were just a bit worried as the path seemed to fade away halfway up the daunting rock face.  Still, in for a penny, in for a pound, and we descended Vorlich and soon started the ascent after letting Digger frolic in some of the remaining snow patches.
Luckily, there were a few walkers ahead of us which gave some indication of a route through and upwards, and after a quite an exciting scramble/climb, with Cathy doing her best to look neither upward nor down the route we had taken, we summited.  Hurrah!!

Stuc a'Chroin

From then on, it was a good walk-out by skirting the side of Vorlich and back to the loch.  A good day out.

Hot...Cold...Hot...Cold

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So....as Gary is away off to New York for hols, I thought I would use the chance to escape the workshop myself, so with the tent and a borrowed airbed, I set off into deepest Perthshire to 'bag' Schiehallion.

As you can see, she's a beauty of a mountain, but I had the devils job of finding the Braes of Foss carpark.  Hint...it's nowhere near the village of Foss.  Hmmm.   However, parked up and the sun was beaming down and as I expected, it was a lovely hill with a nice steady gradient up and lots of boulder-hopping to reach the summit.  Nevis was just visible through the heat haze, so had an extended lunch at the summit as there is nowhere else to go from this mountain other than down.

Met some really nice folk in the carpark, so blethered for an hour, then set of for Ben Lawer to find a tent pitch as that was to be the next days climb.

Upon arrival at the Lawer carpark, I noticed there was nowhere to pitch, and just then, a van pulled in and a guy with his Husky dog got out.

Turns out, his name was Colin and he was also looking for a place to camp, so we chummed up and found a perfect wee place a half mile up the glen, and set up the tents.

He was also up...from Devon, to have a go at the Ben Lawer route, but as we were cooking up tea, right in front of us was the mountain of Tarmachan which includes a cracking ridge walk with 4 Munro tops included, so we decided to team up and do that tomorrow.

Pitched with Tarmachan ridge above.

So, with full bellies and I must admit far too many beers, 2 bottles of wine and washed down with a snifter of port, we retired for the night.  Disaster....the mattress leaks and the temp dropped to minus 8 and I awoke at stupid o'clock with  ice in my hair and the tent frozen solid.  The only thing to do was get up and await sunrise to try and heat up.  The good thing is, it did, and very rapidly, so much so, that by 9, it was down to T-shirts as we set of to tackle the ridge and summit.  It's a peach of a walk.  As it was still early, after lunch, we descended down to the lochan via the steep rockface rather than take the north ridge and set off up Meall Corranaich for our 2nd Munro of the day.  This one turned out to be a slog compared to the previous summit.

We then came down and met the path leading to Ben Lawer car park and I decided that due to lack of sleep, I would head back to base, and Colin and Nimbus, (the husky), went on to tackle the Lawers range.  Well done mate.

Colin on descent from Tarmachan

Next day, with a slightly better sleep and temperature only down to 0 degrees that night, we decided to tackle a route of 3 Munros, being Meall Greigh, Meall Garbh and finishing of with the delicious An Stuc.

The walk-in was nice and easy with it only getting tougher going straight up to reach the summit of Meall Greigh.  This hill is a combination of 3 rounded humps and soft springy moss between them.

After a quick snack at the top, we headed along the ridge to Garbh and had lunch and admired the amazing view down to the loch with the majestic curve of Ben Lawer as the backdrop.

Ben Lawer and An Stuc

Summit Meall Garbh

Then the fun part as we descended into the gully and started the climb of An Stuc.  The first half is an easy, if steep winding path, then you hit the rock which was to be a mixture of solid and loose handholds, neither of which was really apparent until you put weight on them.  It was fun, and we had the advantage of following Nimbus up, who had a feel for finding the easiest routes.

We could have went on to do Ben Lawers from here, but instead decided to drop down to the loch and do out walk-out from there.

Summit An Stuc

An Stuc and Meall Garbh from the Lawer ridge.

Then it was back to the hotel where the cars were parked and a quick Guinness before heading to base camp.

After a wash up, we went into Killinn and treated ourselves to the best steak and chips I've had in many a year, then back to the tents and a few beers before retiring.  I woke again at 4 in the morning, frozen through and downright knackered, so broke camp, leaving Colin in his slumber (he had a hot water bottle), and headed home. In the house by 7.30, a long long hot bath and fell asleep on the sofa and missed 'The Wedding'.

Going AWOL

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It's holiday time...Hurrah!!

Well, that's the tent in the car, a multitude of various foods made up and a brace of bbq trays loaded.
The intention tomorrow is to head to Pitlochry, find a decent wild camp location and set off to climb Schiehallion.
Then, legs allowing, head west next day and go for Ben Laweres and Beinn Ghlas.
If upon completion of that I still haven't collapsed into submission, I may think of crossing over to Kinlochleven or down to Lochearnhead and see if Ben Vorlich is available for a date.

The Fairey Hill, Schiehallion

Ben Nevis

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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.

Elie Chain Walk (tide out this time)

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Hurrah, Elie chain walk.....done it at last.


I set off nice and early, and there was a typical Scottish haar hanging around, although the sun was threatening to show.  Instead of parking in Elie itself, I stopped at the golf course and walked from there, deciding to do the chain walk first and return via the top path.  There was a group of kids already above the cliffs and heading West, obviously going to start at the Shell Bay end first.

It was a mixture of enjoyment and a smidgin of disappointment.   The good part is it was a lovely wee walk and the notice board estimate of allowing 1 - 3 hours is way off mark.  I'd say 35 minutes to an hour.

There are some cracking rock formations to be seen and a few 'caves' which upon first glance look promising exploration sites, but are really just shallow hollows into the cliff face.    There are quite a few nesting seabirds on the cliffs just now, so it's a tad noisy which in no way detracts from the enjoyment.

As I mentioned, this cannot be classed as a taxing walk, but then I'm a bit more used to the mountains and found this rather tame.     

However.......the magic of it all came back as I met up with the group of kids who had set off on the upper path, all helmeted and under the supervision of their instructors.  They were all doing the walk with carabeiners clipped to the chains and getting through the sections with a bit of 'shaky legs and squeaky bums', and it brought back great memories of when I was that age and things like this were a great adventure and I felt like I had conquered fears and gained a fantastic sense of achievement upon completion.

Therefore, upon that alone, I'll stop being a cynical old git, and give the walk the thumbs up for enjoyment.

A word of warning though, this can most definitely be a dangerous route if you get caught by the tides.

As for tomorrow, Gary and myself are heading off to Kinlochleven tomorrow to visit a few sites, then I'll likely use the excuse of being there to hang around for a day and try to get a couple of the Ring of Steal Munros walked.  

I must, must, must stay out of the Bothan Bar the night before this time