Day 16: 23 April 2011
Tomdoun to Strathan
(19.5 miles 8 and a half hours walking)
Today was my Wedding Anniversary.
Today I walked 19.5 miles and failed, despite repeated attempts, to get enough signal to tell my husband I was thinking about him and how glad I was I had married him. He has always remembered that I asked him to “tread softly upon my dreams” and has let me have my adventures. It goes both ways. He managed to get a message through to me though, from the B & Q car park in Harlow, Essex !
The first few hours were pretty hard-going. The path was very good but I had only slept for 4 hours (completely self-inflicted I know) and was feeling a bit tired in the morning. I woke at 6 a.m., de-camped in the rain, ate porridge, and was walking by 7.15 a.m. The weather for most of the day was cool, hazy, occasionally sunny and sometimes windy. It felt quite benevolent really.
The first 4 hours consisted of a long march through the wood to the south of Glen Garry. I walked at a good pace back along the road from Tomdoun Hotel, and then continued tramping through the wood, getting damp in my waterproofs due to external and internal humidity. I wanted to get this part of the walk over with. The navigation was not difficult and the track clear and easy to walk on.
It didn’t last!
Once out of the woodland I found a small stream, filled up my kettle, and rewarded myself with a very welcome cup of coffee. For the first time on the entire trip, I used a compeed to cover a ‘Hot Spot’ on my right foot. The countryside ahead was open and majestic, and I felt my spirits lift. I knew I had covered about half of the day’s route, and the second half was going to be the better one. I much prefer bare mountains to walking through woodland, which felt like walking with a blindfold after the open mountain scenery I was accustomed to.
The path heads due west and, rather than following a contour line, ascends to a Bealach between Gairich Beag and Sgurr an Fhuarainn. I have no idea why the path does this, but followed the climbing route despite the apparent detour as the path was clear and I am not a great fan of bog!! From the Bealach the path turns abruptly south and descends into a beautiful valley, with the wide River Kingie running through it.
This view is looking West towards Sgurr an Fhuarainn
The route across the River Kingie was slightly unclear, and I donned my crocs to cross it as I thought the river was too deep and flowing too fast for the rubble sacks technique to work.
This valley was another hidden, secret place, full of awe and wonder. I heard another strange whistling sound here and spent about 5 minutes looking for the source of the distress, convinced it was an emergency whistle. I was on the point of pulling off my rucksack and taking some sort of action (I’m still not sure what I would have done) when I saw some very active birds and realised it must be them! I hope there aren’t two corpses in that valley I could have saved.
The path south to the western end of Loch Arkaig passes two fabulous old houses labelled ‘Kinbreak’ on my map, and then heads south and ascends a path following Allt a’ Chinn Bhric.
From Kinbreak the ascent was O.K. but boggy, and there some annoying FWD (Four Wheel Drive) tracks to mislead and divert me. I ended up climbing much too high up the west side of the valley, and would advise any walkers to stay closer to the stream when taking this route. Unfortunately there seem to be at least 2 alternative routes through this valley, and neither path is easy to follow. Once at Feith a Bhrolaich I took a bearing and headed SW towards Strathan. The woodland provided an easy marker.
Strathan itself did not seem a particularly friendly place to camp, so I forced myself, with my last reserves of energy, to continue along the track west and finally pitched camp just after I crossed the river Pean, on the west side of Allt a Chaorainn. From here I could see the way I would take tomorrow, on my last day. Time seemed to be slipping away from me and I had no real desire for the adventure to end, as I knew it would...
I had collected some water from a very small stream near Strathan, as the River Pean looked too big to drink from. I pitched my last camp, brewed up a pasta/cup-a-soup mix, read my book for a while, and dozed. Then I had a wash in the stream, ate some pasta (my last bag meal) and went to chat to my neighbours. There was a young couple camping about 100m south from me, and 2 Belgians about 100m north from me. The Belgians were doing the CWT according to Brook and Hinchcliffe; in other words the definitive route. They were carrying (and this beggar’s belief to me) 21 days worth of food with them. Each! Their packs weighed 24 and 26 kg respectively. They had a water purifier and were using that religiously. I had boiled my water but must admit that on occasion I had drank directly form the streams, and had not suffered any stomach upsets (but that could be down to luck). But I think, at that time of the year and in that part of the world, most fresh water is fairly unpolluted and safe to drink.
The evening was really cold and I soon got back into my tent and was asleep by 8 p.m. Once again there was no mobile reception and I tried all day to tell Andrew I had not forgotten our wedding Anniversary!
The view from inside the coffin
The last night of my adventure
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