Gairich

We woke in Barrisdale to grey skies and low cloud. It seemed like the fantastic weather of the previous three days had finally broken. On top of that, the moment had now come to pack our bags and leave Barrisdale, which was very sad - it really is a beautiful spot, and we had of course seen it at its very best. I was up at 6.30 and Howard was up before 7. We had a quick breakfast, packed, tidied and cleaned up and were off by half past eight. We handed the keys to the factor (or whatever he is) who was out tinkering with his Landrover. Was he perchance a descendant of one of those few staunch Knoydartmen who had somehow escaped eviction during the Clearances? Not on your Nellie - he was from Northumberland.

Then we were off along the track past the beach with our packs feeling distinctly lighter than when we had come stumbling along the track three days before. Then it had been almost dark, so we were now getting our first proper close-up view of the beach. I'm sure in the height of summer there's standing room only...

We were hoping to reach Kinloch Hourn by 11 o'clock, still stubbornly believing that the walk ought to be do-able in two and a half hours. There was a bit of time pressure today since we needed to stock up on some food before evening and we weren't sure when the few possible shopping opportunities between Kinloch Hourn and Roy Bridge, where we were booked into a hostel, might close up for the night.

Looking back to Ladhar Bheinn in cloud

Loch Hourn with Howard on the path

The ups and downs of the path didn't seem nearly so tiring tackled first thing in the morning. We met a few people on their way in, and took quite a few pictures of the scenery despite the lack of sunshine. A little beyond the halfway point we stopped for a rest as we were making good time.

Strangely, it still took us until quarter past 11 to reach Kinloch Hourn. Once again the loch seemed to have a certain elastic quality that meant that there was always a little bit more of it round every headland. Eventually though we reached the end and did some rearranging of food and luggage in the car. Then, just after the arrival of three German bikers who looked a little out of place in Kinloch Hourn, we bundled ourselves into the car and headed off up the steep winding road back to Loch Quoich.

As we drove along by Loch Quoich there was still a little bit of cloud on the top of Gairich but the weather did seem to be gradually improving. We were optimistic that we might get a "cloud-free Munro" as the MWIS puts it. We parked by the dam and had a quick bite of lunch, while the sun actually made a tentative appearance.

There is a padlocked gate at the road end of the dam, but since it would be a very tedious walk down to the bridge below and up again we simply clambered over it and walked across the top of the dam. This also gave us some nice views of Gairich across the loch, which by now was completely clear of cloud. There was also a gate at the far end, but it wasn't locked.

We were now on the stretch of the walk which is notoriously boggy, and under normal Scottish weather conditions we could see that it would indeed be a bit of a quagmire. However, as we expected it was actually fairly dry - "springy" in fact was the word that came to mind to describe some sections. Nevertheless I still managed to stumble into an ankle-deep bit of bog at one point, just so I could say I'd been there!

Gairich

I had studied the map before setting out and spotted a couple of likely looking streams near the forestry plantations in Glen Kingie where I thought I could fill up my water bottle, so I'd only brought about half a litre with me. As it turned out these streams were oily-looking and almost dry. As Howard remarked, they might have been a welcome sight to Frodo and Sam on the Plains of Gorgoroth in Mordor, and indeed they looked like they'd have been at home there, but I wasn't tempted by them. It wasn't a day for drinking a lot, but half a litre didn't really seem quite enough. I began to think about snow patches near the summit again...

By now we were getting nice views northwards to Gleouraich and Spidean Mialach, which were also clear of cloud now.

From the road, Gairich's east ridge had looked long and gentle, quite an easy walk in fact, but I found it quite a slog. I was trailing well behind Howard for quite a bit of the way. We stopped part way up to have a bit more lunch and after that I was doing better.

Finally we reached the steeper part of the climb. At this point the path began veering left, and I remembered warnings in older guidebooks about not following a path that veered left at this point. However this path seemed well-worn with fresh boot-marks and there was no other obvious path, so we kept on it and sure enough after a few long zigzags it got us up onto the crest of the ridge. Obviously time to throw out those old guidebooks...

This part of the climb was quite steep and narrow in places and there were a couple of scrambly sections to add some interest. However I was quite anxious to get the uphill part of the day over with!

As we neared the summit I took heart and summoned up a last spurt of energy to get to the top.

The summit is marked by a cairn and a separate windbreak, where we sat down to gobble down some more food. Howard had given me some of his water on the way up since he had brought too much, and I now drank most of this. I did not however feel the need to fill up from a snow patch today.

Over Loch Quoich to Sgurr a

Looking south-west to Fraoch Bheinn and beyond

A summit scene

There was still a lot of cloud around but also some impressive views. I even managed a two-shot panorama of the hills we'd climbed on Monday.

Then we were heading back down, with blue sky appearing and the sun now looking like it might break through once more.

Howard had been on the phone to Janet at the summit, often the only place where you get a good signal, and had asked her to check a weather forecast for us on the Internet. While we were still fairly high up he called again and got the news - showers for the following day then sunny spells on Saturday.

Meanwhile today was turning out quite nice in the end. It was a pleasant walk down the long ridge now mostly in sunshine. We were making pretty good time.

We staggered up the short ascent from Glen Kingie then back over the not-very-boggy moor. It was now quite hot in the sun and there were some great photo opportunities on the way.

Lochan an Fhigheadair

We crossed back over the dam which seemed to be harbouring swarms of midges by now. I filled my water from a stream emerging from a pipe by the roadside, which was of course a little risky but it looked OK. Then we were off down the road. It was still quite far to Invergarry, our first shopping possibility and we didn't get there till 6.30. The shop had closed at 5 o'clock. So it was on to Spean Bridge where we found a Spar open - for the record, I think it said it was open till 10pm seven days a week. We stocked up with bread and milk then bought ourselves a fish supper from the chippie next door.

Then we pushed on to Roy Bridge and Aite Cruinnichidh, the hostel where Howard had stayed once before, and where he thought he'd booked in this time. It turned out that he'd mistakenly booked at a completely different hostel and although the warden at Aite Cruinnichidh was very friendly and offered us beds we felt duty bound to stay where we'd booked - the Grey Corrie Lodge, which is actually part of the Roy Bridge Hotel. We had a very cramped room with a bunkbed, but the company in the kitchen/dining room was friendly and we sat there to have cake and tea and discuss what to do the following day. We'd been planning to attempt the four Munros of the Grey Corries in one day but we now decided this was too daunting and settled on a plan to snap up six Munros in the next two days. We would start with the three south of Loch Laggan the following day then round off our trip with three in the Monadh Liath on Saturday.