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Journal: |
I got up at 7am and had a coffee back in the main part of the
hostel along with my trail mix breakfast before leaving around
8:30am without sighting the hostel managers. A few hundred
metres from the hostel at a track junction, I encountered a family
camping and compared notes with the father for a few minutes.
He was interested to know my route to the Falls of Glomach, since it
was largely cross-country and he was planning to go there today as
well, but wasn't sure of the best way.
I continued on, climbing over another pass between towering
mountains before descending to Loch Bhealaich in Glen Gaorsaic.
The scale of everything was fantastic and I again felt dwarfed and
insignificant. My route left the path at the Loch and followed
the Loch shore cross-country northwards along its western edge.
Sometimes I could walk along the stony shore, but mostly had to
negotiate the peat and peat channels where it was boggy and
difficult. The going was very slow, but I finally reached the
end of the Loch and took my first break sitting on a small gravel
beach. There was barely a ripple on the water and just the
occasional bird call to disturb the scene. As I left, I could
just see the tiny figures of the family I had passed arriving at the
other end of the Loch.
I had to continue cross-country following the river that drained
the Loch and again encountered many peat bogs which had to be
navigated through. I felt like an early explorer. My
route passed another loch and then a small ruin before picking up a
barely discernible path continuing in the same direction. It
was an old path and the bridges that had crossed two creeks were
gone, meaning more detours and bogs. The rest of the time it
was close to the babbling river and I kept an eye out for otters
reputedly in these parts, although I didn't see any. The rate
of descent gradually increased and there were more rapids on the
river until I reached the head of the spectacular Falls of Glomach
where the river plunges 200m in all and 90m in one sheer drop.
I dropped my pack at the top and carefully descended a steep trail
to a look-out point where I had a clear view of the Falls.
Then it was back up to the top for a break before following a new
track along the side of a mountain and down to the base of the
falls. The path was narrow, with a very steep drop to the
right and many rocky bits necessitating the use of my hands to
climb. I took extra care and moved slowly in the scary bits.
Eventually I reached the bottom and emerged into relative
civilization - a gravel road and a couple of isolated cottages.
I still had a long way to go and it was already early afternoon.
I followed the road, which soon degenerated into a cart track,
upwards along Glen Elchaig. The climb seemed to go on forever
with, as usual, mountains towering on both sides. I finally
crossed a pass and descended into a wild and remote valley with Loch
Cruoshie to the right. I was able to keep my feet dry crossing
River Long by using some just submerged rocks and avoided the waste
deep ford referred to in the guidebook. There followed another
slow cross-country climb to the shoulder of Ben Dronaig where I
picked up another track and eventually reached the beautiful, remote
and mirror calm Loch Calavie. Although it was now after 7pm, a
warm sun came out and I stopped at a small stream to get a drink and
fill my water bottles for camping.
Although I had almost made up my mind to camp, I could see the
Bothy Dronaig (bothies are Scottish mountain huts with no
facilities, available to use overnight) in the distance and I
decided to try staying there instead. I arrived at 8:30pm and found
the place deserted. I collected some water from a nearby
stream and had a wash before eating and updating my diary.
There was a large pile of cans of sardines in the bothy, so I had
one of those to supplement my trail mix. My camera began
playing up at the end of the day and the SD Card seems to have had
some kind of failure, meaning that I am unable to access the
pictures I took today, which would have been fabulous. The
camera has an internal smaller memory which means that I can still
take photos, though not too many per day, and I'll have to wait
until I get home to try and get the pictures off the SD card.
It's very quiet here and I have this vast glen in the Highlands all
to myself on a beautiful sunny calm evening. It's light until
after 11pm in these latitudes at present.
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