Day 2 – Saturday. I see wonderful things.
I woke after the others and wasn’t very quick at getting going, but somehow we all managed to set off at the same time. Today was the crux of my whole Challenge and if the weather had been bad the hills of today would have been very difficult. The problem is that the ridge we were following drops down steeply to Loch Nevis in the north and Loch Morar to the south, and if the weather was so bad that the crest of the ridge was untenable most opinions were that both shorelines would give very difficult terrain, although I did read one account of someone pushing a bike along the Loch Morar shore. But then, I’ve also heard of someone pushing a wheelbarrow from Land’s End to John o’ Groats.
A 950’ (250m) ascent took us to Sgurr Mor which I’d been looking forward to since planning my Challenge, and which had partly persuaded me to come this way despite the risks.
Although only about 2000’ (600m) high its position had promised excellent views to the west, and I wasn’t disappointed. The North Morar ridge continued back to the west with Lochs Morar and Nevis to left and right. Out to sea were the islands of Eigg and Rum, whilst a faint silhouette of the Outer Hebrides showed on the horizon. To the south was a jumble of craggy hills with the Sgurr na Ba Glaise group behind, Ardnamurchan to the south west and Muck just visible. To the north were the bigger hills of Knoydart of course. Excuse me for the extended description of the view, but as I said to David who was more or less new to Scotland – “Take a good look David, you probably won’t see a better view all the way across”. Little did I know…….
A little further on we passed some lochans which would make an excellent campsite if the weather could be trusted.
At midday we came to a small lochan at Sgur na Ba Ruaidhe where the others stopped for lunch. This is one of the places where a descent to the south from the ridge is possible and the others talked of taking that option. I was enjoying things too much to think of that and pushed on my own, stopping at 12.40 just before the pull up to Sgurr na h-Aide for lunch. There was a great view across to Sgurr na Ciche.
A stiff climb up a sharp ridge (with a gully to climb down half way up) then brought me to Sgurr na h-Aide – 859m (2820’). Again, great views, but not as good as Sgurr Mor, as Sgurr Mor was now in the way.
The ridge dropped down a bit, involving a slight scramble, and then rose up to Bidein a Chabair 867m (2840’).
Checking the time (2pm) on my mobile phone I was surprised to find that I had a signal so phoned home which felt a little odd, but it felt great to be sat on top of this steep rocky peak surrounded by dramatic scenery in all directions. Getting here had been the main worry of my whole trip and here I was. To the east the ridge descended to Glen Dessary and routes eastward, but being a glutton for punishment I hadn’t planned this option but intended to double back to the head of Loch Morar in order to have another day in the west.
After a while I decided I’d better press on and taking a few steps suddenly realised that things weren’t quite as simple as they’d seemed. The east side of the peak involved a serious scramble in order to get down. I suppose with hindsight I might have been able to go back and skirt round, but I had no doubts about my ability to get down okay and I enjoyed the descent. In places it needed a lot of concentration as there were quite big drops on either hand, and I suppose it was for this reason that I don’t know what happened, but when I got to the bottom and started walking I found my right thigh was hurting so much that I had to sit down and rest for half an hour.
The rest didn’t seem to make my leg any better, but it did give me time to decide what to do. Looking back on it I don’t suppose I thought I’d hurt my leg much or I’d have made my way along the ridge and descended to Glen Dessary where there were other Challengers and an easy route out, but I don’t think it even occurred to me to do this. My plan had been to carry on to Meal na Sroine then drop down to the head of Gleann an Lochain Eanaiche and follow this glen down to Loch Morar, but the ridge ahead looked very rough and from where I was sitting it looked like it would be possible to take a shortcut and weave a way down through the crags from here into the glen, and this is what I did. It wasn’t that hard to do, but it was an awfully slow, painful process. About two thirds of the way down I could see Alan, Andrew and David walking up the bottom of the glen; they’d obviously made slow progress too.
I was very pleased to reach the path in the bottom of the glen, and hobbled down it past Lochain Eanaiche to the head of Loch Morar.
Here I had a long rest before climbing over the annoyingly difficult headland (Sron na Choin). From up on the headland I could look down to Oban bothy and noticed that somebody was staying there.
I later learned this was fellow Challenger Jeremy Burrows who I’d met at Montrose the previous year. Whilst the idea of company did appeal it would have meant an extra half mile of walking which I couldn’t face. Instead I dropped down to the river, crossed it (smart move), and put the tent up by some old ruins just as a rain shower approached (7:30pm). Five and a half hours to do four and a half miles (7km). Slow going.
A Mountain House Chicken Korma for two helped restore morale, but I was worried about how well my leg would be tomorrow and hoped that a long rest would put it right. My Good Weather Alternative – the Munros to the south of Glen Pean – would be out of the question, as would be my planned route – the Corbetts to the north of the glen. Although I knew that my Foul Weather Alternative route through to Glen Pean would be rough, surely I’d manage this okay. It wouldn’t be that long a day, and I could even shorten it by finishing at Glen Pean bothy. I’d have a lie-in in the morning to give my leg a longer rest.
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