I rose at quarter past five this morning with the sound of Chris snoring in my ear, though I had been awake since the first rays of daylight had brightened the room at around four o'clock. I was instantly regretting staying awake so late last night and yapping until almost midnight with Chris and Fiona. We were faced with an almost two hour drive from Kintail to Mullardoch and the start point of today's walk at the Dam. Chris had promised us a bacon and egg roll for breakfast, and we crept around the lodge making as little noise as possible whilst cooking/showering/packing so as not to waken the other guests. I went around to the reception desk to pay the bill, only to find that they didn't open until seven o'clock. I left a note on the room key explaining our early departure, and a contact number, with a promise to call them later and pay by credit card, what else could I do?
We packed the car and headed off on the drive back along the A87 to Drumnadrochit before heading off on the A831 towards Cannich. Unfortunately I had made a slight miscalculation on my directions and accidently turned off on the A833 towards Beauly which threw our destination time at the Dam a little off schedule. I soon realised that I should have driven all the way to Cannich and then turned off for Mullardoch, so turned around and corrected the route. Unfortunately when we arrived at Cannich I then made my second navigation error of the day and turned up the wrong road again and followed the River Glass instead of the River Cannich!
I tried calling Angus the boatman to inform him that we were now going to be rather late in arriving at the Dam, at least half an hour at this rate. I was panicking as he was not answering his phone and I had visions of him just leaving us and then being faced with too long a day to manage (the ferry up the loch cuts out at least 5 miles of walking on a treacherous path on the north shore at the end of a long day). Thankfully just as we turned up towards the Dam Angus came out in his jeep to meet us and explained that he was always going to give us half an hour as we were by no means the first booking to get lost since he started doing this.
We ditched the car by the Dam and got our gear ready for a long slog ahead, just as the first spits of rain started landing around us.
Angus had the boat in the water and all that remained was for him to pipe us aboard and set sail...we were offered life jackets but after our experiences on the Saddle yesterday we laughed in the face of danger.
The boat sped off and we skimmed across the calm waters of the loch to our destination. The usual drop off point for the northern four Munro's is at the outlet for Allt Coire a'Mhaim into the loch, but Angus insisted on dropping us a little further along as it would help us avoid the worst of the peat hags further up the slopes, meaning we would take a more direct route (steeper) onto the Meall a' Chaisg ridge.
Angus duly dropped us off and sailed off into the sunset (poetic licence there) or at least back to the Dam and a pint in Cannich, whilst we set our sights on reaching the ridge above us that would lead to our first target of the day, An Socach. The rain that had started when we set off from the Dam had by now stopped, although the threat of more remained in the gloomy skies above us.
Beinn Fhionnlaidh rose above us to the south and across the glistening waters of the loch (Chris had already discussed coming back to Angus as he still has this remote top to bag) and would be in our sights for most of the day, acting as a focal point for our navigation back to the loch later in the day (much later).
As we started to plod up through the thicket of grass beneath our feet towards the ridge the rain started again, more in a drizzle than anything substantial, enough to make me don my hardshell for the next wee while. The ridge evens out at 500m then starts to rise steeply above the myriad of peat hags strewn across the plateau, most of which we had been able to avoid though we had still to pick our way through enough to make the going slower than hoped for. There was a general slowness about our pace today, understandable after our exertions yesterday in Kintail, but we still seemed to be making good enough time up the slopes in comparison to some of the reviews I read during the planning stage.
The slope seemed to go on forever, rising to grassy plateaux that revealed how far along the ridge the summit was without ever seeming to get any closer. We had been walking for almost two and a half hours when we reached the highest point on the ridge and then traversed along to the trig point that signified the summit of An Socach 1069m.
I think it was at this point that Chris realised what a long day we had ahead of us...whereas Fiona and myself had read all the reviews of the walk and knew this was no walk in the park. There was also no going back once the boat had dropped you off in the loch, you could only go forward and get it done. This was no walk for the faint hearted or the unmotivated! An Riabhachan was our next target and we could see it clearly on the ridge in front of us, a steep drop down and rise back up to an even higher summit than this that lay over two kilometres away as the crow flies.
There lay a lot of hard walking between here and there so we decided to plod on with things. We followed the ridge till it dropped off the steep east face of An Socach and crossed the Bealach a'Bholla before starting a very steep and rocky ascent east across a couple of steeper sections of rocks and some higher grassy sections as the ridge narrows to eventually arrive on the summit plateau of An Riabhachan 1120m.
This stage, although short in distance in comparison to other parts of the walk, was hard going and time consuming. It had taken us almost two hours between the two summits and the grumblings of discontent were growing stead now that I had planned too heavy a schedule. Just over four hours in and we were half way there, you always have to look on the positives. The path continues now on the wide grassy plateau and passes two large cairns before twisting downwards and narrowing again as the path continues on it's rocky traverse across some downward sections before reaching the Bealach Toll an Lochain at 820m.
The rise back up the grassy slopes to Sgurr na Lapaich is considerable from this lowly vantage point (330m) and it was rather disconcerting to see a fell runner coming down the slopes towards us and exclaim how far away the summit was at this point...Bastard! I could also see that the weather we had been fretting about since early morning was now almost reaching us from the west. I continued quickly up the steep slopes, leaving the others behind, and located the summit cairn just as the mist swirled in around me and obscured all from view. The summit cairn of Sgurr na Lapaich 1150m is contained within a wind shelter and had three quartz rocks on top of a trig point.
I was able to relax for a while at the top and finish off my day old sandwich and enjoy the peace and quiet and stillness of knowing that you are so far from civilisation, especially that you may be the only people on those hills all day. When Chris and Fiona turned up I had almost all but forgotten they were with me, a symptom of forever being out on my own, but was glad to see that they were still with me and had not abandoned me and tried to walk off via the dreaded north shore path as they had threatened earlier.
We dropped off the summit immediately we started to descend the path to the east, through a boulder field and then through some rocky patches, as we headed towards the lowly Bealach na Cloiche Duibhe (pass of the black rock) and then our final (we wished) ascent of the day to Carn nan Gobhar 992m up a grassy then slightly rocky slope. I arrived at the small cairned summit and took the usual pictures before moving across to the larger cairned summit on the far side of the plateau so that I could see a better view of the Dam below.
By my reckoning we were only an hour and a half away from the car now, which would take us back to the Dam within ten hours. I waited for the other two to arrive at my location then set off down the slopes once more with them in my wake...I honestly don't even realise that I'm walking so fast when I'm in company, indeed I had to work really hard to slow down my pace in case they thought I was being anti-social. I stopped half way across the wide and undulating plateau for a pee break and noticed that I had what appeared to be a hole in the top of my walking boot. Upon further examination that is exactly what it was! It must have happened on the ascent of the Saddle yesterday when we were scrambling across some jagged rocks, it had penetrated the outer layer of fabric without going right through the boot but has probably rendered the boot useless in terms of waterproofing for future use. The really annoying thing is I have been looking at new boots for a while, but a lightweight pair for the summer months rather than a substantial pair to see me through to the end of my Munro odyssey. Even worse was to follow when I got home and started looking at new boots online, as all the ones I would have considered were no longer on special offers so I would have to pay almost full price for a new pair that I wanted, and I would need them before my next excursion in three weeks time! On a plus side, they would only be my third pair of walking boots purchased to see me through to the end and my other two pairs had now managed 236 Munro's between them.
The ascent continued down grassy steep slippery slopes to the path below winding round from the north shore back to the Dam. It was not a pleasant experience and was made worse by knowing that Chris was struggling and not in the best of humours. Once back on the even path at the bottom it was still not plain sailing back to the Dam and the north shore path is every bit as bad as I had been led to believe.
We eventually made it back to the car just before seven o'clock and elected to get changed quickly and just head straight for home, no stop for food or drink on the way, so that we had an outside chance of making it home before it got properly dark. I arrived home, tired but elated, just after ten thirty and went straight to bed after a quick shower as I had an early start back at work in the morning...no rest for the wicked!
By the way I did eventually call the Kintail lodge back and pay the outstanding bill on the way home, only to be told that they would have done it automatically within the next two days anyway and were not concerned because I have stayed there before and knew I wouldn't run out on them.
Well, that was an epic walk! Pity about the mis-navigation but then, of course, that's men drivers for you ;) We stayed near Cannich last year and took a drive up to the dam so knew exactly where you set off from.
ReplyDeleteHope you manage to get some cheaper boots, there's bound to be good offers somewhere!
Well done on 4 more to your target :)
SusieThePensioner
Some slog this one and would probably do some polite grumbling also.... ;)
ReplyDeleteYou can use your old boots as a plant pot in your potting shed
I would but for the terrible smell coming from them...it would kill any plants stone dead!!
ReplyDelete