After the previous day’s exertions, I struggle to get my legs working. But it is such a great day with wall to wall sunshine and the temperature hovering just around freezing point – we just have to get out. Today’s choice is for a mass assault on Beinn a’Mheadhoin.
So John, Sue, Mark, Caroline, Ruaridh make a leisurely start at around 10.30am from our self-catering accommodation by the south east shore of Loch Long in Dornie to walk up the road to Bundalloch. For those coming from further afield there is room to park cars at the road head.
Here a track continues on the other side of a substantial bridge by the river. It passes through some gates and on to some well poached ground. Soon however it is possible to break out on to open hill side and tackle the slopes ahead. Here the views back begin to open out.
The grass and bracken surface soon turns to heather and peat. A ridge begins to form and eventually tracks can be found to follow. In the meantime, the views just get better and better.
We traverse around the south side of a small knoll and some broken cliffs appear ahead.
A brief pause for a breather and up through one of the breaks. A further bump appears ahead. It has a cairn on it. The top? No. Point 368 on the 1:25000. The main summit still lies 800 metres to the north east. Three of us soak up some rays waiting for the others to catch up. There is hardly a breath of wind. The others do not appear. We carry on, lose some height and follow the contour lines just above Loch Dubhach. There is just a final short climb to the top. Two gentle hours and the views!
We stop to eat. The rest of the group are back on top of point 368. The air is so still that we are able to shout to each other. Catch more rays. It isn’t just the big hills that are worth doing.
We leave our eyrie and they leave theirs. We pass. Initially we return in a westerly direction. The ground here remains in the shade and is gripped by a hard frost that makes tackling the bogs easy.
We swing south to the head of the cliffs. A path traverses diagonally down the slopes. It is then a bit of a flog through deep heather until we are able to intersect some of the tracks we found on the way up. It is then a romp down the slopes back to the valley.
We stroll back along the road to the house marvelling at what a day it had been.
Four and a half hours in all with many stops.
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