Burn baby, burn

 

An epic walk today. 17 miles, 9 hours, 43,700 steps. Every single one of which we are now feeling!

We started out by parking at Morvich, where we started yesterday’s walk, but this time we had arranged for a cab to collect us and deliver us half an hour down the road at Cluanie.

The earlier drizzle faded away and we set off in sunshine, climbing gently on a firm track up Caorann Mor. The scenery just got better and better, with the valley opening up, revealing yet more snowy peaks on either side and off in the distance.

Our elation at the sheer beauty and grandeur of our surroundings was soon tempered somewhat by our unceremonious entry into bog land, fed by innumerable burns. We slogged through it for several miles. It was exhausting and not fun, but the views made up for it. At some point we both realised that we had almost as much bog inside our boots as there was outside, and took a little less care placing our feet. Still, there’s bog, and then there’s very deep bog, so we still had to be pretty circumspect.

You can tell how wet it was by the frogspawn in the middle of our path!

We were aiming for the head of Glen Affric, hoping for a view down it, but due to a surfeit of the wet stuff, we weren’t able to cross the river where we intended, and had to add a mile by detouring down to a footbridge near a very remote youth hostel.

We had a break there for lunch, soaking up the sun and the extraordinary scenery. No view down Glen Affric, however, and we were destined to continue our path up Glen Fionn. Luckily from here the track was more obvious and firmer under foot.

It felt very much like a walk of three parts; the first through the valley which got ever wider, the second, after lunch, was on rocky, hilly terrain, with the path steadily climbing past the Camban bothy and up to the watershed. The mountains closed around us and we had a cloudy spell, which emphasised the feel of impregnable walls of rock.

At some point along here we bumped into the first person since leaving the taxi. An older guy from Amsterdam. He was doing a big old loop from Fort William, wild camping and having a great time.

From there we descended quite steeply into the third part of the walk, which was the final trek down through Glen Lichd. This was quite different again in character, with the river winding gently through and sheep grazing the green flood plain. A peaceful end to our epic journey.

What a day. One to remember, certainly, and one which reminded us of just how much we love Scotland.

Em x