16 April - Ullapool to Shenavall Bothy

Day 9:      16 April 2011

Ullapool to Shenavall Bothy

(10.2 miles      6 and a half hours walking)

I left Ullapool at 08.15 feeling well-fed and rested. I had already decided NOT to walk the 6 mile stretch along the main road to Inverlael, so I tried hitch-hiking with initial optimism. My previous experience of hitching in the Highlands had led me to believe that I would get picked up by my first car, so I was quite dismayed to have to wait about 15 minutes, and to walk about 1 mile out of town (!!!) before I got picked up.

However I was at Inverlael putting my gaiters on at 09.00, and was very glad I had decided not to walk the long, dull and dangerous stretch along the A 835 along the edge of Loch Broom. This is not a very pretty road and has many tourist buses and lorries driving along it at speed. Unless you are a real CWT purist, I heartily recommend you find an alternative to walking to get from Ullapool to Inverlael.

The first part of the walk was quite tricky and badly sign-posted. I headed approximately west from Inverlael towards Carn nan Caorach but had to navigate a steep section of hillside where fallen trees and boggy ground made the path almost impossible to follow. There was a definite “get off my land” feeling and clear signs of new fences and a recent change of land usage.

As I got higher up the route became clearer but it was very boggy and hard-going all day.

Naismith is very clever and all that but his rule doesn’t account for constantly having to watch your footing. You just can’t hurry anywhere, especially with a heavy pack, and the knowledge that your phone won’t work if you do fall and hurt yourself.

According to Naismith this walk involved a height gain of 887 m and a height loss of 795 m; it should therefore have taken me 4 hrs and 46 minutes to walk the 10.2 mile distance. It actually took me 6 hours and 30 minutes (with a half hour stop for lunch and several other stops to chat to other walkers – see later!) to get from Inverlael to Shenavall Bothy. My average speed across the ground was less than 2 mph.

This photograph shows the paths route across the ground. Despite the relative lack of recent rain, it was not easy to keep my feet dry!

The countryside felt very primitive between Inverlael and Corrie Hallie; it had a “Valley that time forgot” feel about it and I wouldn’t have been surprised to see a dinosaur or two.

There was no phone reception at all.

The weather was overcast and windy today, but I got some lovely views. The clarity of the air was really fabulous.

The path was fine until I started to descend to Corrie Hallie, when the path became steep, boggy and indistinct. Eventually I lost the path and found myself zig-zagging downhill to the back of Dundonnell House.

I had hoped that there might be a café at The Art Gallery at Corrie Hallie (marked with a large blue start on my map!) where I could get a tea or coffee. Even chocolate. But there was nothing. There weren’t even any people. Again. Very disappointing.

After Corrie Hallie I started to climb back up from the A382 towards some really epic mountains (e.g. An Teallach 1060 m). As I ascended along an excellent track following Allt Gleann Chaorachain, I met two other walkers doing the Cape Wrath Trail. I was very excited as these two Belgians were the first people I had met doing the CWT since I started. Their names are Dave and Soo and they have been in touch with me since I finished the walk and have asked to see my final trip report. So I had to put their photo in. We had a brief chat about gear etc as you do when you meet other walkers. They were going the ‘right’ way from south to north and seemed very jolly.

Ben and Soo told me that I would meet may other walkers in the mountains that day as the Mountain Marathon from Ullapool was in the area. Between 1 p.m. and 5 pm. I met about 40 walkers, in groups of 1, 2 or 3, all looking very hot but lightly burdened compared to me. I asked one of the competitors (who didn’t seem to be trying to win) to take a photo of me just before the descent to Shenavall Bothy. In the background you can glimpse Loch ne Sealga and Beinn Dearg Mor (one of the “Five Sisters”). The age of the competitors ranged from about 20 to about 70 years old. I was very impressed to see two veteran ladies who appeared to be in their 70’s walking in the mountains that day.

I had a funny conversation with one of the mountain marathon competitors today.

Me: (trying to be funny) “I’ve been getting the feeling I’m going in the wrong direction all day” (after passing about 40 people heading NE as I head SW)

Competitor: “Yes, I don’t suppose you’re getting that wilderness experience you were looking for”

Me: “Yes there are rather a lot of people around” (thinking to myself: “Wilderness, Schmilderness. There’s only so much wilderness a girl can take”)

When I got to Shenavall Bothy at 3.30 p.m. I spent some time talking to one of the race marshals and his dog, who were stationed there for the afternoon. He finally left at about 4.45 p.m. and I checked out the bothy. It was much smaller than Knockdamph Bothy and had a completely different feel to it. There were several much smaller rooms on the ground floor, and clear signs that at least three other people were there. Apart from the usual smelly socks, sleeping bags, food and cooking gear, there was a bottle of port and a bottle of brandy there. There was also a large pile of dry firewood already in the porch, and I got my hopes up that there might be good company and a convivial night ahead.

It turned out that there were six of us there altogether. There were 3 other women who were doing some major peak-bagging (“The 5 sisters”?) and training for a big challenge. One of them was doing a new challenge she had created for herself called “ukbig3challenge”.

There were also two men who arrived quite late and cooked up the most amazing feast:

Main: pasta, fresh broccoli, pesto, herbs.

Dessert: warm bread, baked camembert (shared)

Drinks: wine, port, brandy (not passed around unfortunately)

The cooking of baked camembert required a good fire. I lit this quite early myself but managed, as usual, to make more smoke than heat, and to choose the wrong kind of wood to try to burn. The only wood available was old seasoned alder from by the stream, and bits of gorse – neither of which wanted to light for me. One of the women looked at my efforts with the fire and rather kindly said “there doesn’t seem to be enough oxygen in this room”. Then one of the men came in and looked at my effort with pity. He put most of the wood on top and created an inferno within minutes. One of the girls had brought some coal (!!!) with her and we burnt that too. I wish I had taken a photo.

Then there was a long conversation about mountains I had never heard of, races I had never entered, scree slopes I had never slid down, and munros I had never bagged. I felt rather left out of the conversation and lonelier than if I had been by my solitary self. I went to bed before the others (at about 11 p.m.) and was kept awake quite late by revelry. The two men got quite tipsy and slept in the main room by the fire, making it rather awkward to get up and cook my own food in the morning.

I still have my reservations about bothies…..