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In preparation for my Ben Nevis walk on the 1
st Sept, I am keen to maintain my hill fitness levels and cross off some more munros from my to do list. My target for 2012 is 10 Munros and this weekend I can score off 4 from the list.
Despite all the rain we have had over the past few days, I was feeling optimistic for the weekend, so took my new tent along for the ride!
On Friday night I headed up to Killin. Due to the arrival time being after midnight I just headed to the Ben Lawers car park for the night. The drive up and spending the night in my mini brought back fond memories of my 2008 road trip to Lisbon J which got me started thinking of my next road trip….but that will have to wait for another blog!
Saturday 30
th June
A dry and bright start to the day! After parking at the Lawers hotel car park I headed up via the village to my starting point.
In true Tania style I forgot my walking pole at home, left the camera
peat mud moorland
this is a small sample of what it was like for 1hr (there and back!)...thank goodness for GORTEX clothingin the car and misjudged the first cut off. As a result I ended up missing my first munro (Meall Greigh, I may head up later this summer to do this?), so rather than completing 3 on the day, I only managed 2 (as the Meatloaf song says 2 out of 3 aint bad!) Meall Garbh & An Stuc!
Highlights were almost being blown off the hill with the gale force winds and giving my heart a good workout with the adrenaline scrambling up the An Stuc rock face while wearing my backpack!!! Certainly not an experience for the faint hearted J
Along the way I met a few fellow walkers, a couple of the guys used to live in Kirkcaldy which is another reminder of how small the world is. On the way down I had to use my backside for parts of the scramble down, which meant my GCC steps for the day were way under estimated since none of them were registered….still managed to break my PB
by 2,295 steps at a very respectable 37,277 steps.
Headed back to the car and following a quick wash I
had dinner in the hotel, it is amazing how much of an appetite you get once you have been walking for more than 8 hrs!
As there was more rain during the day, I decided to give the tent idea a miss and spent a second night bonding with my car.
Sunday 1
st July
Woke up to blue skies and the sun breaking over the mountains! I remembered to take the camera today, however once I got started walking it quickly started to dull down and the wind picked up again, so not as many photo opportunities.
Today’s hills (Meall Corranaich & Meall a’Choire Leith) required a walk via boggy moorland on the way there and back, so I was like a pig in mud by the end of the day…I have to admit at the start of the day I was being rather sensible in how I was crossing the peat mud by the end I was just wadding through it….since I was desperate to get out of my damp shoes (no matter how water proof your boots are the amount of water I walked through there was no
chance in hell they would stay dry!!!).
Today was another reminder for me of how much I love GORTEX clothing…apart from the boots getting damp the rest of me stayed dry despite me walking knee deep in water and for there being a couple of heavy down pours (it would not be the same experience if it stayed dry for the whole day!).
The second challenge faced today was the lack of defined paths up the first hill, so I ended up scrambling up the side of the first hill. Then I spotted a couple of walkers who were on a path to my left and I headed over towards them. That made the whole ascent a lot more manageable for my aching calves (I so missed my walking pole today)!
Glad to say there was a defined path all the way up and nearly all the way to the next hill. Unfortunately the descent off the second hill proved more challenging than I originally expected since visibility was extremely poor when I reached the top and the rain did not help L But when you are feeling down there is
always a silver lining and the birds cry’s guided me to the right track and then the rain stopped and the clouds lifted…nothing like nature giving you a helping hand and of course the snickers bar helped too!!!
After wadding through the peat mud moorland I was pleased to reach the car and get out of my boots, my poor feet looked like they had turned into prunes!
This weekends experience certainly made my Peru trek a few weeks ago feel like a walk in the park. Nothing like the Scottish weather to make any hill walking an experience to be relished!
Finally it never ceases to amaze me how great it feels to physically exhaust your body in order to clear & quiet down your mind! And my mind certainly needs constantly reminded that it needs to slow down and just chill out and enjoy being in the moment! This weekend certainly delivered on all counts J
After this weekends effort, my to do list is now 6 Munros for 2012 and a mere 280 to go to complete them all….so plenty to keep me occupied!
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