More from my holiday of 2005 in Scotland:
Wednesday 20th July 2005
This was a gruelling walk and a real test of my powers of endurance with a start to finish time of ten hours over some very demanding terrain, but also with prolonged sections of road walking. I was following Ralph Storer's route number seven from his "100 Best Routes on Scottish Mountains", which starts from a car park on the A85 five miles from Crianlarich, so first thing in the morning I was walking along a busy A road for five miles to the Coire Chaorach car park. This was often scary, especially on the narrower bends, so it was with considerable relief that I finally reached a service road just before the car park where I headed off up the track into a forest. I had forgotten to read Storer's book before doing this walk and hadn't even taken it with me that day, so as I made my way through the forest I was relying solely on my map. Instead of staying on the western side of the burn I tried to cross the river and promptly got my feet wet, but that was just the beginning. I then tried to follow a route through a clearing beside the river that was very muddy and rough under foot, and my reward for all this perseverance was to be confronted by a fence. With resignation I followed the fence steeply up the hillside, sometimes using the fence itself to help me over the boggy sections until eventually I reached the corner of the forest and I still had a fence in my way, but one quick climb and I was onto the hills. Now my problems really started.
Once onto the top of the wide ridge I started making my way around the corrie passing over Caisteal Corrach and heading towards Leacann Riabhach, but due to strong winds and a complex terrain my progress was frustratingly slow and very tiring. The hills ahead of me always looked a long way off and I never seemed to get any closer to them, but eventually I arrived on Stob Creagach and, after crossing Bealach na Frithe, I climbed up to Meall na Dige. By now I was well into the clouds and the bright, sunny morning was a distant memory as I headed across a wind-swept col towards Stob Coire an Lochain. I very quickly lost the main path and started to follow a track, in desperation, that took me round the side of the hill without gaining any height. When I realised my mistake I started to climb straight up the steep south-eastern side of the hill; I have an abiding memory of clinging to the side of the cliff-like slope while furious winds battered around me. Slowly I crawled up the grassy, cliff face and onto the top, Stob Coire an Lochain, where I was hit by the strongest winds I have ever encountered on a mountain top; it was so strong I couldn't even stand up. Crouching to the floor I made my way along the clear path across the top of the ridge a short distance to the summit cairn where I collapsed behind it.
After recovering from my exertions I made my way relatively easily along the path to the Munro, Stob Binnein, with the wind quickly dying down as I progressed. For most of my walk there had been little or no path to follow, but now I was blessed with a clear and easy path that finally meant this was becoming an enjoyable walk. After Stob Binnein I began the long descent to Bealach-eadar-dha Bheinn and then the equally long ascent to the top of Ben More, the highest hill in the area. Because of my slow progress during the day I didn't reach the top of Ben More until almost 5 pm from where I had a long, steep descent down grassy slopes back down to the road. Initially, a clear, zigzagging path took me down the hill but when the path petered out I had to find my own way until I came to a Land Rover track that leads to Benmore Farm and the three quarters of an hour road walking that took me all the way back to Crianlarich. This was a very exhausting and demanding day in very tough weather conditions, but I did manage to complete it. With the hindsight of a few more years experience of hillwalking I think I would have enjoyed this walk better if it had been done in the opposite direction. The good weather in the morning would have been experienced at the top of the Munros and, more importantly, the eastern side of the corrie would have been much more pleasurable as a long descent. Most people, however, access these mountains from the south, hence the good path over Stob Coire an Lochain.
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