Fort William, late June. Back to the more usual grim wetness unfortunately, but good timing for a rest day or two after a loop covering the Mamores, Ben Alder, Ben Nevis and some of the peaks along the Laggan road. Total peaks done is now 147 i think....more than halfway then!

Started in the Mamores, cycling into Glen Nevis on my shiny new non-bent bike wheel. Hoping for an easy start after the extended break of Paul's wedding, but wind got up rapidly on the ridge...decided to drop down a bit to camp and wrestled the tent up in pouring rain. Not the best night so far,,,,water and chocolate biscuits for dinner and breakfast and a bent tent pole by the morning due to excessive flattening in the night. Weather picked up again though!

On to Loch Ossian YH to meet up with Paul Swire for a few days. The hostel is about a mile from Corrour Station in the middle of Rannoch Moor (totally remote and with no public road access, but interestingly the sleeper service means there is in fact a direct train from London). Lovely spot despite a few midges. paul turned up on the morning train and after sorting through a vast heap of food we set off for a two day loop eastwards over Ben Alder and the ridge to its north (spending a night at Culra bothy) before returning to the hostel. Fine weather much appreciated on the high plateau of Ben Alder. Then northwards and out to Tulloch over Ben na Lap and the ridges to its north.

We hoped to stay at the hostel at Tulloch Station (rain closing in again) but unfortunately it was full. The kind people did however let us camp in their garden before moving into the hostel the following night. Following morning and Paul decided to head back a day early - combination of non-functioning legs, the most horrendous midges imaginable plus a head net with too large mesh to keep them out, and tempting proximity of tent to platform (50m sprint). So back to solo wandering about, unfortunately now in the rain with a consistently wet forecast ahead. The longer term forecast looked even worse however so, after a day walk to the north of the Laggan road, time to press on over the Grey Corries and the Ben to get back to Fort William.

Fortunately by now the fitness has built up enough to give a fair bit of flexibility - by dint of a short day followed by an extremely long day was able to avaoid the unappealing prospect of extremely wet high camps. The original intention was to camp high in the Grey Corries but by the time I reached the Lairig Leachach bothy at 2pm this was looking distinctintly unappealing, so instead sat and chatted with a variety of other soaked walkers who dropped by and just went for a 6am start from the bothy. This allowed me to cover the whole of the Grey Corries, the Aonachs, down to the ski area restaurant (partly because unsure of the best way directly down steep ground off Aonach Mor in the mist, but also in need of a break from soaking wet, misty invisible summit after summit, with - strangely enough - no other people. Did wonder on the way down if the restaurant would in fact be open, as who would be foolish enough to pay to go up a cable car to look at a non-existent view, but there were sufficient folk keeping up the great british holiday tradition....steak pie and potatoes plus a chance to dry out went down nicely), then back up over Carn Mor Dearg and Ben Nevis. Total 10,000' up, 11,500' down. Legs a bit stiff the following day (yesterday) but remarkably ok considering. Definitely time for a rest day though!

Activity today likely to be limited to a semi rest day, cycling down to Glencoe to pick up the food parcel posted to me by Gill. However, I've thought that before on days cycling against strong winds...

To be continued in Oban. Maybe.

G

x

Fort William, early June. Generally seemed a bit grim in the past but its actually quite pleasant sitting out in the sunshine in the park...amazing the effect of a bit of sunshine.

Anyway, all munros northwest of the Great Glen (114 of them I make it...) climbed, so trip is pretty much going according to plan. Although did head here a couple of days prematurely and miss out a cycle loop to the peaks around the Laggan road. The back of wheel of the bike (which had been slightly bent since Torridon / Kinlochewe, about 200 bike miles ago!) gave way on the way to Spean Bridge from Loch Arkaig, so changed course and headed very slowly (the wheel was just about straight enough to force past the frame) for the nearest bike shop instead. Wheel pronounced dead on arrival and being replaced. This weekend is the first significant time out of the trip - headed down on the sleeper tonight for Paul Morris's wedding at the weekend. So limited in what could be done in the meantime - after much studying of maps decided that any mountains I could do in 1.5 days would increase the overall effort as would still need to go back to finish off those areas later, so instead am having an unprecedented five consecutive rest days - anyone would think this is a holiday! Won't be bad for the knees though - although the thighs now seem to be able to recover very fast after big days with 7,000-8,000' of ascent, knees giving the occasional twinge. A rest cure could therefore be useful!

Obviously have missed out a lot of stuff again - will try to add more in at the weekend if I can. Lots of backpacking and mixed success with food parcels - the one in Strathfarrar was utterly untouched, the one in Affric had been vaporised. Only a slightly rusty gas cannister and a couple of tins confirmed that I was looking in the right place. Food generally good though - if anything the problem has been eating enough to avoid ending up with lots at the end of a section (i.e. extra weight carried for no reason!). More wild weather as well - the snow returned briefly, and at the end of May was again wading through knee fresh snow on Ben Fada.