Photos & Reports Index

Bridge of Orchy
& Glencoe
26/05/06 to 29/05/06

Photos Of This Trip

Day 1

I leave Bedford station and meet Andy at Luton. Got to St Pancras and lugged our bags down the Euston Road to meet Tim in the Britannia pub on the station. After a few drinks we weaved our way to the sleeper, found our seats and settled in for a variable nights sleep.

Day 2

Waking around Carlisle at 5.30 (after passing through Preston 2 hours earlier) we tried to doze before arriving at Glasgow central at 7.00. On the second attempt I got a trolley (I was not carrying my bags across Glasgow) and pushed through the centre - lucky we found a map to navigate across town. We settled in at Queen St and had some breakfast to catch 8.20 train, travelling thoruhg some v. remote stations (2 houses and a hotel) to Bridge of Orchy - also 2 houses and a hotel - with it raining all the way. We got off the train with it still raining and waited till it settled down by having a coffee - how hard it was not to have a beer! Met up with Sonia and Simon at the hotel and by 12 we though we should crack on up to the nearest tow Munros. It kept raining up to the coll, we got the shelter out and had lunch. 30 mins later we braced the weather and headed to the first Munro - Bein Dorain. My (John's) first Munro (one down, 281 to go) No time to stop it was pissing down, quick photo and down - we had thought to do the next Munro but we were soaked and time was getting on, and showers, beer and food were calling. Getting back we waited for Clive to return from his monster Munro bagging.

Day 3

Woke up and what could we hear on the roof? - More rain! So what to do - well the only thing was a full Scottish breakfast and have a think, Oban for a distillery tour, a low level walk around a loch or a Munro? In the end we did the last two - a walk up a valley to Loch Lyon and see how the weather was. We headed up the valley and within a couple of miles we came on a ford with the river in full spate so it was back half a mile over the bridge and up the other side of the river. All went well until we came across a tributary and the only way across was a wooden poll with a fence on top (see photo). Stopped for lunch because it wasn't raining, it then chucked it down - at that point Tim and Erica went up to the loch and then back and the rest of us headed up Bein Mhambon - John's second Munro. Only problem was trying to cross the stream in spate, seeing the top coma and go in the mist. Just aprocahing the top the mist came down and it started hailing and the mist howled. It was so bad we got the shelter out and sat it out for 20 mins. When the hail finally died down we packed up and went down, all of us soaked to the skin (not me in my Triple Point - Andy!). Dashed to the coll on the other side, at this point Mark and me decided to head down the coll we went down yesterday, with Andy, Clive, Simon and Sonia heading down to the place we had lunch. J & M got back to the hotel at 5pm, had a shower, shed our wet kit and had a hot chocolate (no beer - what are we turning into? (what indeed??? - Andy)) and started to write this log and to think maybe we should call mountain rescue, and with our stomachs rumbling we strated to head down to the parked cars and they headed through the door at 7.45pm. We now plan to head down to the next village - deep fried Mars bars anyone? (The food in the hotel was a bit on the expenive side)

Day 4

John' third and fourth Munros

Got up for a shower and "Tom Tit" at 7 to miss the queue, looked out of the window and saw blue sky and my heart leapt, but by the time I went outside to cook my porridge it had clouded over and started to rain, so after breakfast it was decided to take the light option and head up from Glencoe Ski Centre, up to Meall a Bhuriridh, following the ski lifts all the way via three cafes. All closewd except the first ski lift (but you can't claim a Munro if you went half way there with a lift!) At the top we settled in for lunch 5m below the peak out of the wind. On moving on the wind hit us and when heading down the col to the next munro the wind nearly blew us off. Heading back up we thought we should bag Clach Leathed (not a Munro but the committee might change their minds!) Just before the top we had a quick stop and the next thing we saw was Tim's rucksack bouncing down the mountainside! Tim ran after it, after 100m he found it, safe and sound except for a rather squashed banana!

We then headed back along the ridge to Creise 1100m from there we headed straight down to the Kings House hotel for a beer and a very good (and inexpensive) meal after asking some nice Belgians to let us use their table so we didn't have to eat our food on our laps. We sat on seats that made us look like we were the grand Council of Mordor! Then back to the hotel for more beer and whisky, with Erica saying that she should have walked with us today instead of going (book!) shopping in Fort William and not have walked yesterday when she got soaked !

Day 5

John's fifth and sixth Munros

The night before it was decided that we (John, Tim and Andy) should have an early start as we had to be back for our train at 7.00. So up we got with an aim to start walking by 9, only to find Clive nearly ready to go and Bill and Tom sitting in the car at 7.30 ready to bag more Glencoe Munroes. And then Erica and Mark knocking on the door at 8 saying they were heading to Mul and Iona - don't know if they will see Paul McCartney (Erica did see Charles Kennedy in Tescos in Fort William yesterday).

So after manic packing (lots of wet and smelly kit), a shower and a bit of breakfast we managed to get going by 9.05 and walked half way up the hill to the station before Andy remembered that he had no water and had left his bottle in Clive's car ! So after I had realised I has none either I ran back to the hostel and got one of Andy's Fanta bottles out of the bin in our room, and filled it up at the tap at the front of the hotel. So much for an early start !

Up to the col we walked up Friday afternoon and instead of turning right at the col we turned left and headed for Bein an Dothaidh. Great weather till we got within 50m of the top and the mist came down. Then it started to snow and as we headed down to do the next peak we had to contour round to get to the next col. After having some lunch we headed to the next Munro (Bein Achalador) which seemed to be after lots of false peaks and with us worrying about getting back in time. So back to the col and straight down to the route me and Mark took out on Sat. Heading down to the hostel we passed a woman waiting for mountain rescue (apparently without good reason). Back to the hostel by 5.00, only 30 mins later than we thought. Grabbed a shower and and a pint and waited for the train. We headed up to the station with 20 mins to spare. How heavy was my rucksack - I was more knackered getting to the station than doing any of the Munros! With the train only 10 mins late we sat back and watched the mountains pass (much better view when its not pissing down) and planned which one we would do next.

On arrival back in Glasgow we had some very good deep fried haggis and chips followed by a rather disapointing last visit to a Scottish pub (no proper beer) before getting on the sleeper back to London.

Day 6

We arrived back in London and got out trains home - some even went to work !

Report by John (with some bits added by Andy)

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