TGO Challenge 2018: DAY 6

At the time you never really appreciate how being miserable is good for you. As I might have mentioned earlier, I hated with a vengeance every waking moment spent at Loch Ossian Youth Hostel. Here it is, below, looking every inch a wonderful place to stay, whereas it's actually a wonderful place to leave.

HELL IN PARADISE: LOCH OSSIAN SCOTTISH YOUTH HOSTEL

With every step taken walking away from this place and into today's walk my spirits lifted. It was a glorious day. The sky went forever upwards into the deepest blue and the horizon was filled with snow-capped mountains. I was strolling along with the best friends you can possibly hope for and on the way to collect another who had doubtless had a peaceful, restorative sleep at the first iteration of Corrour Shooting Lodge, now a ruin, letting the views over the vastness of Rannoch Moor seep into his soul. All in all it felt bloody good to be alive. The contrast with the previous night was total.

Here's today's maps. You'll see that we we head south east to collect Robin at the the ruin of the first lodge, continue over Scotland's East-West watershed and then head directly at the invisible boundary that is Northing Sixty. Our route does not allow us to cross this line, and so rather than walk on the track to the junction with the path that takes us nicely eastwards we have to scramble over rough ground and cross the Allt Gormag to regain the path once safely heading away from the electrified grid line.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

CLICK TO ENLARGE

I'll let the pictures do the talking for a little while, and I'll catch up with you again later.

LYNSEY AND ME, THE MAMORES, BEN NEVIS AND LOCH OSSIAN

ESTATE NOTICE EXPLAINING THE HYDRO-WORKS & THEIR FUTURE REINSTATEMENT

PETER'S ROCK

VIEW BACK TO BEN NEVIS - FAR LEFT

VIEW FROM THE ROAD TO THE ISLES OVER RANNOCH MOOR AND BLACKWATER RESERVOIR

THE OLD CALEDONIAN SLEEPER, DWARFED BY THE LANDSCAPE

THE ROAD TO THE ISLES

And now we come to the turning point, at Northing Sixty. But first, here's the classic view of Schiehallion, captured rather well by Phil.

SCHIEHALLION & LOCHAN SRON SMEUR

I should mention here that Mad'n'Bad was, as is his wont, streaking ahead of us here and had to be shouted at to stop exactly where he was, as he was perilously close to teetering over the extremely high voltage Northing Sixty. It put me in mind of Hilaire Belloc's 'Jim'.

MAD'N'BAD SCREECHED TO A HALT

AND SAFELY GUIDED BACK ON TO THE STRAIGHT & NARROW

There was a boy whose name was Jim 
His friends were very good to him 
They gave him tea and cakes and jam 
And slices of delicious ham
And chocolate with pink inside 
And little tricycles to ride 
They read him stories through and through 
And even took him to the zoo 
But there it was the awful fate 
Befell him, which I now relate 
You know (at least you ought to know 
For I have often told you so)
That children never are allowed 
To leave their nurses in a crowd 
Now this was Jim's especial foible 
He ran away when he was able
And on this inauspicious day 
He slipped his hand and ran away 
He hadn't gone a yard when BANG 
With open jaws a lion sprang
And hungrily began to eat 
The boy, beginning at his feet 
Now just imagine how it feels 
When first your toes and then your heels 
And then by varying degrees 
Your shins and ankles, calves and knees 
Are slowly eaten bit by bit 
No wonder Jim detested it 
No wonder that he shouted "Ai" 
The honest keeper heard his cry 
Though very fat, he almost ran 
To help the little gentleman 
"Ponto," he ordered as he came 
For Ponto was the lion's name 
"Ponto," he said with angry frown 
"Down sir, let go, put it down!" 
The lion made a sudden stop 
He let the dainty morsel drop 
And slunk reluctant to his cage 
Snarling with disappointed rage 
But when he bent him over, Jim 
The honest keeper's eyes grew dim 
The lion having reached his head 
The miserable boy was dead 
When nurse informed his parents they 
Were more concerned than I can say 
His mother as she dried her eyes 
Said "It gives me no surprise 
He would not do as he was told." 
His father who was self-controlled 
Bade all the children round attend 
To James's miserable end. 
And always keep ahold of nurse 
For fear of finding something worse.

Strolling along the slightly boggy path (and this is in dry weather, remember) to Lochan Sron Smeur - what a wonderfully evocative name - Phil & I tried to persuade the exceedingly fortunate to be alive Andy to nip up Sron Smeur with everyone's cameras to snap Schiehallion from the best vantage point in Scotland, but the Bounder wasn't having any of it. Mates, eh?

We had lunch leaning against the doors of the boathouse, sheltering from the quite sharp breeze.

LOCHAN SRON SMEUR

Our route had us following the south shore of the lochan, but this looked unappetising and so we diverted along the northern shore instead, which was a lot easier. You'll see from the annotated map that should the weather be kind and the river levels low, there's probably a better route indicated in red.

You'll also have noticed that our route for the next five miles is wonderfully trackless until we reach the dam at the south end of Loch Ericht (one of only a handful of reservoirs in Scotland dammed at each end). The rough stuff is fine but must be taken at a moderate pace to conserve energy. Those who hammer their way through it invariably finish in a lather of sweat and biting cleggs. Lord E and I love a bit of off-piste travel and we take our time to enjoy the lack of man-made stuff as we plot our way through. We crossed the Allt Coire a' Ghiubhais by means of a new bridge I'd found on Bing Aerial View that hasn't yet found its way onto the OS maps.

Frequent rest stops were taken and we elected to take in Meall an Uillt Riabhaich because it was a glorious sunny day and we could. Wonderfully, Mad'n'Bad also took in Meall Liath na Doire Mhoir as he was, as usual, miles ahead and so scaled the wrong hill.  How we giggled.

HILLTOP LASSITUDE

BEN ALDER & LOCH ERICHT, LYNSEY & ME

With all this fabulous lassitude, beautiful weather and lovely company, time was gently slipping away and so it was with some reluctance that we ambled down the hill to the internal corner of the forestry to scale the deer fence and work our way through the boggy fire-breaks to climb the next deer fence to arrive at the dam.

Here we joined a Rover Road to stroll up to camp opposite the ruin at Ruighe Ghlas, where Craig from the USA had already arrived and pitched camp. Unfortunately Vicky hadn't made it this far on the Challenge, and she was missed.  We drank her health.

Craig had excelled himself, bringing wonderful provisions to the party, all the way from the USA! As we lay around in the evening sunshine Paul arrived. He had walked a truly massive day to be here and we were all full of admiration. A true Cheese & Winer, of the Finest Tradition.

TGO CHALLENGE 2018 CHEESE & WINE PARTY HAPPINESS

And lastly, of course, in the Spirit of Old Mortality,, something beautiful to listen to.