Friday
On Friday, Evelyn stopped on her way to Ullapool at Silverbridge for a nice short walk along the Black Water River to Little Garve Bridge. It was a mild and sunny autumn day and the colours on the trees were beautiful.
Annika, Rob and Babs headed up Beinn Enaiglair. They started from Lochdrum having planned to walk to Meall Doire Faid via the stalkers path. It was extremely boggy so on arriving at the bealach they decided to stay on higher ground and climbed the Corbett instead (so much for Babs’ Graham ambitions – even though she keeps denying them). They returned on the same route and had a fine day with fantastic views of the surrounding Fannaichs.
Quote Blair: ‘So, Friday night consisted of a fist fight in the youth hostel over who was doing what. A fish was battered! Badoom – tish!!’
Saturday
Ben More Coigach was suggested, and seven people thought it was a good idea. Chris, Dan, Sheena, Steve, Mirella, Craig and Blair. The ascent was a bit of a slog so the Postie’s Path was decided as the return route. Once on Ben More Coigach the views were amazing, you could easily pick out Quinag to the north, Ben More Assynt and Conival to the east and An Teallach to the south. Onwards to the Postie’s Path then. Those Posties must’ve been hardy back in the day. Rock, bog, mild exposure and driving rain. Blair’s Garmin recorded 7 miles, oh the fun!
Brent, Dianne and Luna the dog, set out for Cul Mor in remarkably warm weather. Approaching the ridge they could hear much screaming and shouting, but when they reached the top, there was no one there. On their way down they went over a wee lump on their return route and all of a sudden met 6 people with 7 or 8 dogs. Apparently the shouting and screaming (which still carried on, all the way down) was directed at the dogs but they didn’t seem to pay much attention. Meanwhile, Luna behaved perfectly, despite all the chaos around her. They just made it back to the car in time before the weather changed and very quickly showers turned into heavy rain. It had been a great day with great views.
Fiona, Justin and Bob set off to climb Beinn Laith Mhor a Ghiubhais Li which means “Big Grey Hill of the coloured Pine”. They parked the car at the Torrain Duibh bridge and followed the track for 3km up through a sparsely wooded area before striking up the North West shoulder of the hill. This was boggy at first, then a few peat hags to negotiate before reaching the bouldery summit, but the hills were looking superb in the clear morning light. After a bite to eat they decided to take in another cairn a couple of hundred meters along the ridge before heading back the way they came. There were a few spots of rain and weather starting to close in but luckily they got back to the car before the rain got too heavy. All the wildlife came in twos – red grouse, Ptarmigan, Mountain hare and ravens!
Cul Beag was Rob’s and Annika’s destination on Saturday as they hadn’t climbed it before and the initial forecast was good. They went up and back from the east side and again, it was boggy underfoot – but that seemed to be the common theme this weekend. With the clear weather the views were again stunning and just like (almost) everybody else (apart from the Postie’s Path group) they made it back to the car before the weather changed.
Babs and Jule headed further afield. With Jule having set a date for her final Munro for next autumn she was in Munro bagging mood and Babs had expressed her desire to join her on a road trip to Ben Klibreck. They had an early start and fueled up on coffee in Lairg before they started the (surprise!) boggy ascent up Ben Klibreck. The views to the north to Ben Loyal and Ben Hope were incredible! Babs said she had climbed all of these hills before and was just here for the views anyway and also didn’t want to be back too late. With this she kindly told Jule to run ahead and get her Munro tick ASAP and catch her on the way down. Jule didn’t need to hear that twice and obeyed happily, jumping across a nasty field of peat hags and on to the summit where she was met with a nice Brocken Spectre. Meanwhile Babs carried on onto the ridge that is usually bypassed when you only have the main summit in mind. She had a scenic lunch on a top called Creag an Lochain and when she made her way back down Jule caught her just where they had separated. They made the last 2km of the descent together and of course were back at the car before it started raining.
Evelyn ventured to Achnahaird Beach but unfortunately the tide was in, so there was no beach. After a short walk she headed back up the road to Stac Pollaidh where she walked the circular path. Even though it was a bit overcast, it’s hard to beat the views in Assynt and it was another good day out.
Robert, who hasn’t long finished his Munros, had the longest way and came all the way from London to spend a weekend with the MMC. It was fab to see you again! He had heard so much of Shenevall Bothy and never had been there as he had tackled the Fisherfield Munros from Kinlochewe, so he took the opportunity to visit Shenevall without feeling the pressure of climbing any Munros. In the hut he found some poetic words written on the wall by a well known fellow loon fae Buckie – what a coincidence!
The highlight of Saturday evening was of course, the fancy dress party! This year’s theme was ‘a costume you can make with a bedsheet’ and we had all weird and wonderful things.
The photo shows from left to right Rob in his underpants costume, Bob as Lawrence from Arabia, Fiona as Aladdin, Brent and Dianne as Mummies, Blair as the Duke of Wellington, Mirella as Artemis – the Goddess of the hunt, Dan as a bloke in a bedsheet, Robert as the King of Bhutan, Craig as a knight and in the bottom row: Annika as a snowman, Jule as a Poultry-geist and Sheena as the Snow Queen.
Cassy, Steve’s dog, deserves an extra photo as she was a very good girl in her spider costume, despite having been super tired after her adventurous day.
The evening was good fun and some drinks and snacks were shared before everyone went to bed.
Sunday
Not much is known about everybody’s Sunday activities but a few people reported to your newsletter editor (very well done!)
Craig, Mirella and Blair went for a climbing session at The Ledge in Inverness. Blair unfortunately left after 5 climbs when his blisters became too painful to climb! – Damn Postie’s Path!
Bob and Fiona had a later start and took Dan and Sheena up to Rhue Lighthouse so they could walk back to Ullapool. Fiona and Bob walked the short distance to the lighthouse before heading back to Ullapool in the car to pay a visit to Crispin and Charlotte who were great stalwarts of the club back in the 1980s and 1990s and live on the same street as the Hostel. Fiona (Cuninghame) was very pleased to meet the hotel warden Fiona (Cunningham), by the way. A fact that absolutely had to be mentioned!
Brent, Dianne, Babs and Luna stopped at Blackbridge on their way home and walked up the Glen to Loch Vaich. It was a bit wet but not as bad as forecasted.
Jule was determined to climb the last Munro left for her in this area, which happened to be Am Faochagach. It’s a fabulous idea to tackle this notoriously boggy hill, including an even more infamous river crossing on a wet day in November. However, once your feet are wet (which was the case about 5 min into the walk), they can’t get any wetter. The approach all the way to the river was a bogfest but fortunately the river itself was only mid thigh deep and not waist deep, as other reports had predicted. So on went the trusty crocs and through the river she waded – it was bloody cold and there might have been some screaming and shouting. The cloud came down and there was no visibility. But hey ho… There is always another round of Munros to hope for better weather. Despite questioning her sanity, especially when the wind picked up, Jule met another couple with two dogs… which proved that it was perfectly normal to be up there in poor weather.
It had turned out that again, Jule and Babs had made it back to their separate cars at more or less the same time so they decided to meet in Inverness for a well deserved coffee at Tiso.
A great weekend with many adventures has been had and as always, Justin had done an amazing job getting everything organised.