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 | The plan for today was to take the early morning bus from Edinburgh to the Drumochter Pass, climb the four Munros to the south-west, and get back to Edinburgh on the afternoon bus. The good news was that there was beautiful weather forecast for the Drumochter area certainly that morning and not bad in the afternoon. The bad news, from a dour Citylink bus driver, was that you can only get on and off at 'official stops' - the nearest one to Drumochter Pass being Dalwhinnie road end. Plan B was to walk, or hopefully hitch a lift, the 7˝km back to the day's starting point. As the bus came out of Perth we were still in East coast haar, and I was waiting with impatience to see sunshine and blue skies. |
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 | The blue skies finally appeared well before I got off the bus, and a friendly hippyish guy in a beat-up Ferrari 2-seater on his way from Orkney to Cornwall to see the solar eclipse gave me a very short lift so I only started 25 minutes late. |
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 | By the time I reached the top of Sgairneach Mhor I had caught up with my schedule. The weather was sunny, hazy, clouding over a bit by then. I could see a very hazy Schiehallion to the south, Ben Alder with patches of snow (!) to the west and the other Drumochter Hills to the north-west. I set off on the next stage, to Beinn Udlamain. |
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 | Beinn Udlamain from Sgairneach Mhor |
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 | There was no need for sun cream by the time I reached the summit of Beinn Udlamain and it was pretty windy, but the mountains were still clear. There were views of Loch Ericht on the way up the ridge but not from the summit, which was flat and stony. Ben Alder was still showing off the snow. As I reached the top of A'Mharconaich I realised that I hadn't seen a soul on the hills all day. And Munro-bagging was supposed to be a booming sport! It was quite hazy and dull by then but the tops were still clear - a great day. With one more to go I was still hoping to catch the 1533 bus. From the top of Geal-charn there was a nice, if hazy, view down Loch Ericht and over to Loch Pattack, also a glimpse of Loch Laggan. It was half past 2 and I hurried on, despite my wee legs feeling rather weary by that stage! |
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 | However, it struck me as I came down off Geal-charn at breakneck speed (without breaking my neck) and reached the path to Balsporran, that having been so anxious to get there for so long, I was over-anxious to leave again - why kill myself to catch the early bus? I spotted a lovely waterfall and pool, and decided to sit there and bathe my feet and enjoy the late afternoon sunshine - yes, it was out again! A lovely end to the day. |
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 | The falls and the pool |
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 | The view back to A |
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 | Having plenty of time, I walked back to Dalwhinnie road end, by which point my feet hurt, and the rock I found to sit on wasn't too comfortable. There was half an hour till the bus came. It would be nice to have a tent pitched here and be climbing the other two tomorrow, I thought - but the forecast was for rain the next day. The others would have to wait for another day… |
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 | The old bridge at Dalwhinnie road end |
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