Images and Videos to follow
Last May, my older son Ben went to Scotland and did a trek between a series of Bothies and came out alive and enjoyed it. You might think I'm being over-dramatic, but a week later a Father and son combo did the same thing further south - the father was described as being an experienced walker and they didn't make it out alive. Two die at Stob Coire Sgreamhach
Despite this, Ben suggested that I should do it with him at some point. Being a Lecturer I'm limited as to when I can do it. The summer is out of the question - cricket and Midges in Scotland during the summer can be unbearable, so the options were half term breaks - October, Easter and May. Easter would be too cold and there might still be snow, May is Cricket season and that left October, so October it was. So since last June I've been buying the kit and doing some research.
Around August time Ben had a loose plan as to where we'd be going, based on the density of the Bothies in the area (See screen grab below). The starting point Achnashellach campsite which is near the base of Creag a Chaorainn, which for me having never done anything like this looked ominous in images I'd seen viewed from the River Carron and on Google Earth.
Ben had decided to walk from the main road that runs alongside the river we'd walk across the river and over Creag a Chaorainn into the wilderness with the first stop being the Bearnais
Bothy. From there we'd go via the ****** Loch
Ben had quickly looked at the map and plotted a route, I didn't question it other than the stage where we crossed over the top of Creag a Chaorainn, the contour lines were tight. He pointed out that there was a path via that route that went straight into the wilderness and in some ways it seemed logical. In my mind I imagined dry scrubby mountain-side with rocks and rubble, just hard work potentially as it was obviously steep.
I looked at the rest of the journey and then went onto Youtube to see if anyone was making videos of the route or the area and they were, as it was a part of the Cape Wraith route. The videos differed in quality and information, and for the most part were shot during nice weather during the summer or late spring. The overall vibe was 'Achievable'. One bloke spoke at some length in one of the videos of the journey from the Bearnais Bothy to Craig being a 6hr slog that was tough. He was Scottish and an experienced walker and I made a mental note of his assessment and as far as I was concerned he was probably doing it the easy way
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkYQhGo2Gng&t=334s this video here from 4'.22" to 9'32" is basically the first part of the route we took, albeit in far worse weather - pouring with rain and winy at about 8c. At 9'32" is where we gave up and turned back - more about that later.
The journey uneventful - long that's for sure. I'd never seen the Pennines before so that was interesting to see and then as we got into Scotland reading the road signs seeing where the roads were going made no sense to me. Needless to say Ben was using Google maps or something so we could be going anywhere and from my knowledge of Scotland most of the time we seemed to be heading North East rather than North West, but at the same time I understood that if we tried to go as the Crow would, there'd be filthy great Lochs and mountains in the way.
We stopped in Perth for fish and chips on what looked like a typical council estate and that was pretty rough, but it was food so did the Job. The next stop was Just outside of Inverness heading into the North West to fill up with petrol. From then on the terrain around us changed, the roads got narrower, house and street lights disappeared along with other vehicles as we drove further into the wilderness.
The further we went the worse the weather got too - windy and some rain as well. The adjacent landscape changed, less trees and increasingly bleak looking moorland. Around midnight we passed the sign for Craig and started to see if we could see any building with lights on as the bloke who owned the gaff we were looking for had said he'd leave the light on. We went too far and had to turn back - I'd looked on Google maps previously and was able to recognise some buildings and we found the entrance to Annachshellac campsite and drove into the lane and parked up. We turned the car off and got out into Jet black darkness with the wind howling through the trees like a scene out of Twin peaks. It was dark.
We looked around there were no lights, there were a couple of small buildings and we'd passed one coming down the road, but that was through a gate in what looked like a private compound. Ben was unsure whether we were in the right place and was more interested in free-styling it and just looking for a field and somewhere to pitch the tent. Whereas the bloke had said the building was going to be open and that there facilities - electric and kettles and the like. I was on a mission to access that rather than pitch tents in the black in the pouring rain and wind. I checked the gate that looked as though it might lead the building with the light on and it was open, so we walked through with our torches and sure enough the building with the lights on, was the campsite building.
We went inside and Ben spotted a note from the bloke. I read it and it was a welcoming letter (Transcribe) and in it he said that it was OK for us to stay there over-night. Ben still had other ideas saying "You can stay in here, I'm going to look to see if I can find the camping field and camp there, so I get a good nights sleep away from your snoring". Do I snore? I thought, no ones ever said that I'm a serial snorer previously. After we brought the car into the compound we walked over to what looked like a clearing where against pitch black blackness of the trees you could see what looked like sky or mountains. The torches lit the way and we came out into an opening which was a field with trees to one side and a stone wall along the back. Ben's torch picked up deer moving beyond the wall, their eyes reflecting in the light of the torches.
The grass was saturated, mossy and spongy, we could here a river nearby and it was pretty obvious this was the flood plain for the river. I said there was no way on the planet I was setting up a tent in these conditions when there's a stone building with a heater, toilet and a settee sitting there free of charge almost. Ben was still muttering that he'd prefer the tent option, but said he'd join me in the building reluctantly.
Ben woke up stupidly early, he does so for his job and he loves it, buys into the idea that sleeping is a waste of time and unproductive. Whereas I work my nuts off teaching for virtually pennies and love a lay in. So once he was up despite it being cold he was inferring initially that I should get up as well. This was at dawn, so there was hardly any light and it was chilly, so there was no way I was getting up for at least another half hour or so. So he was crashing, banging and mumbling about 'we need to crack on and make use of the limited light the day offered at this time of year'. I just snuggled down as I could hear him making coffee and breakfast and thought if he gets some tea on that might offer some incentive, but he drinks coffee! He sounded annoyed that he was doing everything, but he had sorted all of the food, so it didn't make sense that I got involved and started to search through the bags trying to locate the stuff when he must have known where it was. I soon realised he'd made coffee and wasn't going to make me any tea. I'd brought the breakfast, so now felt compelled to get up and make a start on the breakfast. I asked whether he'd put the milk on and he scoffed at the idea of milk on porridge and was going for water... "The Scottish way" apparently.
Over the next hour or so I had Lipton powder tea which has the milk mixed in and 'Scottish style Porridge' although I doubt if many Scots have currants, cinnamon, pumpkin and sunflower seeds with demerara sugar? However long this was going to take I had it in mind that before I set a foot outside I was definitely going to use the bog as it would almost certainly be the only one I'd see over the next three days. So as I was stalling and taking my time to let nature take its course, Ben was packing his stuff away and getting his crap together. I was looking outside at the rain thinking - 'Yeah I'm in no rush'.
There was some activity outside and I asked what was happening and Ben said that there was a car with a bloke sitting inside it and had been for some time. I thought it might be the bloke that owned the campsite so got Ben to go outside to the car to get some stuff and show him we were up and about. Once he saw Ben he got out and went over to Ben and started to talk to him so I joined them and spoke to him and he confirmed that was indeed who he was and asked if we'd found everything in order. We said thanks and asked about the journey down from Essex. I asked what he wanted in terms of a fee for the night and he said 'Just leave what you feel is enough... we're new to this game and we're just happy to see people like yourselves camping and travelling into the hills we're not interested in motorhomes and caravans, so its great to have you here and I hope you enjoy yourself'. I said cheers and thanks for the quick response to my emails and messages.
We went back in and Ben said
'Did you see his eyes'?
"No, why"?
"He looked weird - he had eyes like those Border Collies with the blue eyes".
"Nah I didn't see".
"Yeah he looked like a psycho".
"Nah I didn't see - but if he did that's in-line with this place... it looks like something out of a film like Texas Chainsaw Massacre". The reference was lost on Ben.
Shortly after we'd had our ablutions and I started to get ready with more purpose. Ben was still going on about the loss of time, saying we should have been out of here over an hour ago at first light. I was now looking at what I should wear asking him for advice. I found myself throwing stuff in my bag in what was probably not the right order. The Rucksack surprisingly filled up quickly and I questioned the need for coal. Without the coal the bag felt heavy! I'd brought some rubble bags and we divvied the coal up and we probably had around 4 Kilos in each bag. Around about 09.00hrs we stepped outside and lifted the bags onto our backs. I thought 'Oh shit, this is heavy... have I bitten off more than I can chew here'? I then delayed us even more, insisting that we took some pictures and then we headed out, heading south heading for the Annachshellac river.
In the previous weeks as we'd planned the trip I'd seen that the river might be an issue looking at Google maps and earth. I could see that it was one of those gravel rivers made up of multiple river-lets at different times of the year - that maybe in really rainy periods or snow melt the whole river may have been filled, but the rest of the year, there were narrow looking channels and wide areas only just submerged strewn with rocks and stone (See below).
****Picture****
Looking on the OS map as the crow flies the first stage is 5 Km, but it was obvious that in reality having to negotiate the terrain it would be more and the Mountain itself is 3000' high.
Despite this I said I was up for it dependent on the weather at the time
Now, some weeks later with my toenail starting to grow back and the broken toe feeling better. I've been watching the weather up and around the Craig area and it's got cold. We've had an unseasonably cold November with the temp going down to -12. But conversely as I write the temp in Essex today is reported as being 18c, but my own thermometer which is in weak sunshine shows 20c. Reflecting on the trip and listening to Ben's account of his trip in May, it does seem what with the Midges and how unbearable they sound, there's possibly only a matter of days where you can go up into those mountains and it's actually OK? When we got on the train at Achnashellach the ticket collector/guard lady said... "You should have been here about a week or so ago, we had beautiful clear days - blue sunny skies and warm". Probably a couple of weeks before my half term break. Easter sounds like it may also be promising, but I'd imagine more likely to be cold? There may also be a fair bit of snow around at that time?
I think given how old I am, I have to take into account the fact that walking over really rough terrain like this is going to have consequences and maybe we should avoid the cross-country routes or at least look to minimise them. The walk out was on the Forestry commission/water company gravel tracks with a sore hip and was exponentially easier. In fact, as mentioned the blokes we met and were talking to, cycled in and out of the wilderness using bikes, then did the main event on foot, for them it was conquering the Munroe's. I kind of like that idea - get there using an easier method and then do the exploring? Or get there using the gravel tracks and then walk out to the Bothies? Day 1 for us, getting to Bernais was so physically demanding.
Google review of campsite
My son and I went walkabout in the adjacent mountain over 3 days moving from one Bothy to another at the end of October and this was our starting point. I contacted
This video here, pretty much shows some of the walk from Achnaschellach to the Bearnais Bothy from 4'.42" to 13'02" but in far nicer conditions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkYQhGo2Gng
