In excess of 30 MMC members and guests from the LDWA attended this meet, for which the weather was just about perfect – bright, dry and not too hot, with snow on the summits.
With only a couple of exceptions everyone followed one of two routes, either through to Morvich or the slightly shorter, but rougher walk to the Cluanie Inn.
John Henderson with seven LDWA members, plus Drummond and Ella, Babs, Graham Milton, Graham Bartlett, David Brown and Bill Lindsay walked through to Morvich. Just over 20 miles in 8 hours and 15 minutes.
The others, Simon, Lianne, Russell Mounce, Ray, Barbara, Maggie , Katrina, and Aileen took the route to the Cluanie Inn, some via the north side of Loch Affric, others on the south. Nearly everyone took lunch at the Youth Hostel. Lots of deer were seen, also a lot of frog spawn in the pools. The cloud lifted and everyone enjoyed the views. Good paths for most of the way but wet and boggy for about three miles over the watershed. This was not helped by a new forestry plantation with a couple of awkward stiles with a trip wire designed to catch the unwary – not a good advert for the National Trust or Trees for Life to block a right of way like this.
Ray Newell also managed to take in the Corbett of Am Bathach on his way to the pub.
Less success was enjoyed by Malcolm Campbell. He planned on staying on the bus to Morvich and doing a circuit of Ben Fhada. His plans started to go wrong when the (very large) bus took over an hour to get back down Glen Affric due to all the traffic. They went further adrift when the driver announced he also had to take a 45 minute break in Drumnadrochit. His eventual start time of 13:00 led to a quick assessment with Naismith’s rule and Ben Fhada was left for another day.
Everyone enjoyed the evening stop at the Cluanie Inn, though Ray Harman had been heard to say earlier in the day that there was “no point in being at the pub too early”. He wasn’t, but most others who disagreed with this sentiment managed a reasonable session.