We're picking up my brother from Glasgow on the way - he is looking suitably art studenty, and he's alos hungover(He's a Student), but thats half the fun in filling a car for a road trip full of people in different states of awakeness and heading for he hills. The weatrher still hasn't decided what it wasbnts to do so we/I have decided that Ben Lawer is simple enough to not be dangerous if the weather gets worse.
This walk appealed to me, as it takes in 2 Munros; Ben Lawer and Ben Ghlas. It's in Perth and Kinrosshire, so there's probably an easier way to get there than the road we took - but we took the scenic route along the banks of Loch Lomond.
Loch Lomond is about 20 miles ooutside Glasgow, which makes it a popular destination with both toursits and Locals. It has enough scenery that it gives a you a quick highland hit for not much driving. It is flanked on uit's east side by the most Southerly Munro; Ben Lomond(My First Munro:
My Brother doesn't travel well, and the slow winding roads coupled with his hangover(He's a student) means that we have to stop at Inveruglas:
I'm not complaining as the views are awesome and I get to show off my country to yet another foreign friend. The weatehr is really turning out nice. Theres great crisp veiws of the mountains allong with Ben Lomond, there's Ben Venue and another Ben
After a Bacon Roll.....
.....and an Irn Bru.....
We hit the road again to the Strains of Classic FM. I hate radio and I've forgotten my iTrip - but Classic FM is the least offensive. They have done well, as we are ralieghing round Loch Lomond to the atmospheric beats of the Gladiator Soundtrack:
It seems fitting as we drive round lochs, below mountaisna dn past waterfalls. You can imagine Kilted Highlanders running down the terrainweilding a sword - I wonder if I'll ever feel older than 8 when I'm in the Highlands. Before long, we reach Crianlarich. It pains me to turn right - as the real scenery is to the left, but we got a munro to bag.
We climd the little single track road through the barren landscape that skirts the Lawer range:
The Lawer range takes in 7 munros in full - but today we'll aim for 2.
We park at thye visitor centre and get kitted out i all the stuff we need:
Mountain Boots
First aid kit(Pessimistic)
Packed Lunch
Heavy jumper(Pessimistic)
Longer Trousers(Pessimistic)
Walking Poles
Whistle(Pessimistic)
Water
waterproofs(Pessimistic)
SParesocks
Moleskin
Pen
Camera
Phone
Sun Cream(Optimistic)
I always feel like the Frog Brothers in the Lost Boys when i go through the checklist.
It's great starting off when everything you're wearing has a function.
My Very green brother decides that he may hinder our pace and stays at the bottom with his Sketchbook.
We set off full of Beans.(Actually bananas - but you get the drift). The area at te bottom is a national trust for Scotland nature reseve for alpine flowrs, so it's reaosnably busy. The Busy-ness continues long the initial paths to the peaks as people targte various levels for the day. From the bottom you can't actually see Ben Lawer or Ben Ghlas, just reasoanbly interesting grassy humps. The mountaisn to the left (?,?) are the god views. There are two paths, one which skirts round the bottom of Ben Ghlas and the one which we take which goes over the various humps and small peaks before reaching the summit of Ben Ghlas and then joining the other path at the foot of Ben Lawer.
After walking for about an hour, we reach the frat false peak. It has a cairn on it so we take a photo in case this is Ben Ghlas as I have no idea how far from ben Lawer Ben Ghlas is. It seems a bit easy - but you can't ben too careful with photos of your acheivments.
On the peak, we stop for some lunch, a little meditiationa nd then use a mirror to morse code "how's the hangover" to my brother - either his hangover is bad - or he forgot his mirror and can't answer.
Recharged, we continue on up some more false peaks. The view is now getting better with every stop for breath, we can see all the way along Loch Tay...
...and out over the south. Ben Lomond is in there somewhere, but without a compass and a OS map, I couldn't tell you which one it is. I think they should have signposts.
It's now clear to us that the first cairn wasn't Ben Ghlas. We have another two peaks and saddles before we get to the summit. The saddles are a good releif after some pretty steep scrambles, and our stop for lunch seems like a distant memory. Every 20 steps or so, you turn to see the view:
I don't know what I'd do if the weather wasn't as good, as each rest includes a new energy filling view to spur you on.
Eventually we can see the cairn of Ben Ghlas, and we know our first achievement of the day is within reach. This spurs us on, as our pace quickens to acheive my second and Miss Argentina's first Munro.
We get to the top and theres a welcoming committee greeting and congratulating us. Scottish people's love of talking to complete strnagers is great. They ask if we have a digital camera with which to send them a photo by email. Their climbing party is 4 strong - an algerian, an english woman, an english kid and a scottish woman with a very broad accent. This is quite funny. I a;ways love subjecting my foreign friends to broad Scottish accents. My time travelling and living in Europe has really taken the edge off my accent, yet people still struggle to understand me, so I like to subject them to the real thing. According to Miss Diddley, my scottish accent now sounds like something out of our very bad soap opera "River City"
The views from Ben Ghlas are better still as you can(For the first time) see Ben Lawer. It's a really magnificent looking peak, and you feel like a real climer compared to the greensih humps we've been climbing so far:
Having left our welcoming party(And possible future email buddies) to return back to sea level, Marilyn(She's a munro bagger now) and I are heading down the north face of Ben Ghlas to a saddle which meets the alternative path, bfore a steep scramble over the rocks to the peak of Ben Lawer. We pause at the bottom for a quick snack and a chat with the sheep:
Ths climb is the first time in the walk where you start to question your energy and your abilities. Almost every large step up to the next rock in the path requires a rest afterwards. We can see people already sitting on the cairn, and we know that the views, euphoria and joy will soon be ours. Every now and then during this 30 minute climb, someone passes us on the way back down. They are full of beans and energy, and serve as a good comparison to our knackered selves:
Eventually we get to the summit and are ready to collapse, but the views of Scotland surrounding us make us run around for what turns out to be almost an hour of posing for photos and admiring the view.
WE DID IT!!!!!!!
Two munros in a day, and we head down the easy pathe from the bottom of Ben Lawer. We are really puggled - so tired that the conversation has collapsed to a minimum as concentrate on watching our feet as we walk down the path. It sounds daft, but it's much more difficult coming down a hill, you have to concentrate on not fallinga nd breaking your ankles, and this is the bit that really knackerers all the joints in your legs. The views also diminish as you retreat down the peak. The only advantage is that it's much quicker than going up.
Before long, we can see the visitor centre - it seems so far away.Theres far less cars, as it's now 5.30 and people are heading home for a well deserved post-munro dinner.
We get to the bottom and get another kick of pride as we regail my brother with tales of Munro Bagging. He too has a had a day of rambling around Ben Lawer and getting in touch with nature. He's been drawing the various bustle around the Visitor Centre as different climbers come and go.
After a sandwich - BIG drink of water, and a change of socks, we hit the road again to head north to Glencoe. We make a quick stop over in Tyndrum to refuel with petrol and munchies:
Glencoe is where the real moutains begin. It was always the light at the end of the tunnel in family trips to my grandparents after the novelty of Loch Lomond wore off. For extra effect - you drive along the rannoch moor which although 1100 feet high, provides the plateau which the mountains grow from.
The first on the left is Buachaille Etive Mor:
The sun is going down behing the mountains, making for some really lovely views. I was driving so these photos are on Marilyn's camera, I'll get them later.
We have decided the stay in the Red Squirrel camp site:
It's close enough to Ballachulish that we can get some food at the shop, but it's still nestled in the mountains so gives you the lovely vistas:
As we pull up at the booth to pay for our pitching, the midgies descend. Midgies are a scottish phenomenon. They are little mosquitoes which attack in packs - extremly annoying and extrmely diffilut to avoid. As I write this, i'm starting to itch just thinking about it. They have built in immunuity to most insect reppelants and I can't describe how frustrating they are. The secret weapon is Avon's "Skin so soft", which the campsite sell for the inflated price of £8:
After getting some dinner we set about cooking it. We want to start a fire to sit around, but the popularity of the campsite means that wood for fires is scarce - we have one wet crisp packet as tinder and a big charred log. I set off to the co-op to see if they sell some wood. They don't - so i have to settle on a large wooden pallette I found, a some fire lighters, and a copy of the Oban Times:
I get back and we have nothing to break up the pallette with, so after attempting to get a fire going with nothing but large pieces of wood and newspaper, eventually we make do with keeping it going with fire lighters and keeping it bright with sheets of newspaper - it does the job and gives us a great night of sitting in amongst the mountains drinking red wine before settling into a cosy tent ready to do the same the next day.
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