A trot from Tarbet up to the head of Glen Croe
8th March 2009 Thinking back over the various trips where I spent just a day exploring Argyll during a weekend in Scotland, success with the weather has been patchy to say the least. A trek that started from Tarbet and saw me venturing into Glen Loin and a little beyond was on a day that had its share of dampness with showers coming in one on top of another to annoy me by the time I got to Arrochar. Another hike, this time from Ardlui to Butterbridge, was beset also by a dreich dampness. The weather on my most recent escapade presented a good deal of wetness, but there was a sunny interlude in the morning that more than made up for the coming dampness. Later, the rain became near constant, so much so that the constant soakings would make you consider whether you had paid enough heed to the forecast and better controlled your ambitions. Even with the right gear, those wettings still become something of a chore even if you have confidence in remaining warm and dry.
My walk started in Tarbert and a dump of rain was already in progress when I arrived. Having donned my waterproofs in a handy bus shelter, I set off along the road towards the nearby train station. Going under tracks there brought me onto a good Forestry Commission path that was to bring me to the shores of Loch Long and Arrochar. Water may have lain everywhere underfoot, but the weather dried up as I made my way onward. Bright sunshine was very much the order of the day while I rounded the head of Loch Long on useful paths that got me away from the A83. This was a chance for photographic activity and I didn't want to waste it. Summits such as Beinn Narnain and A'Chrois were momentarily clear and brightly lit while other summits like Ben Arthur (The Cobbler) were attracting low cloud from time to time. As if these sights weren't enticing enough, the air was full of birdsong and the calls of seabirds to yield an uplifting atmosphere.
On the other side of the loch, another crossing of the A83 took me onto a well-engineered path that must be the start of many an exploration of the area's hills. Quite why some cut off the corners on this section is somewhat beyond but they may not realise the effects of erosion, particularly with the amount of rain that the area gets and I have very good reason to know that. Soon enough, I reached the track that was to convey me to Ardgartan and leave those walkers who were headed for greater heights behind me. The upper slopes above me looked temptingly manageable but I had no designs on reaching summits and managed to scotch the idea even with my passing a path leading to those heights. Even if I did have ambitions to reach hilltops, the prospect of clag and rain might have gone some way to attenuate them.
That track turned into a path that had its share of ups and downs as I turned the corner to leave the coast to journey along Glen Croe. Clouds were becoming predominant in the sky by this time and dampness soon followed my reaching Ardgartan. The visitor centre and its public conveniences were closed, making me wonder if opportunities were being missed. Though this is one end of the Cowal Way, there were no leaflets was that long-distance trail available but, oddly, those for the Kintyre Way were. I wasn't bound for Lochgoilhead so I eschewed the Cowal Way to stick with the idea of hiking up Glen Croe to Rest and Be Thankful as I had planned.
Because of my needing to catch a bus back to civilisation again, I was concerned about the time needed to complete this part of my trek. However, my fears were groundless because I had plenty of time to wait before that bus came. The fact that rain continued to fall as I plied my way along a good forestry track was probably a help because it ensured that I kept going without any long stops; photography stops are not so plausible under grey skies anyway and you don't mix rain and cameras if it can be avoided. There was a steady ascent with Croe Water below and just to the north of me, so some short stops were made. Saying that, the gradients weren't too taxing either. Other paths leading off to higher slopes were passed with one leading to The Brack and another passing through the hills to Lochgoilhead that I had spotted on a map a little while back. There were track junctions too but they posed no navigational challenges and I could tell where I was from the hills that lay across the glen from me. Seeing the cleft between Ben Cobbler and Ben Luibheann was reassuring and the B828 was reached after negotiating a track made muddy by forest operations. The snow-covered summit of Beinn an Lochan was ahead of me and gazing to the south-west led my eyes to look upon Ben Donich. From there, it was a short hop, even for tired legs, to Rest and Be Thankful.
Many of my Scottish excursions have taken me past Rest and Be Thankful and coming upon the trough that is Glen Croe from the Inveraray side without warning results in the sort of attention that may explain why the place was a resting point for the cattle drovers who gave it its name. That surprise may have something to do with the more gradual nature of the ascent from Cairndow and the flatness around Bealach an Easain Dubh. Being the lofty vantage point that it is, Rest and Be Thankful earns itself the obligatory car park but little else in terms of facilities apart from visits by a mobile snack van, a fact that was brought home to me when I received a wetting while adding my coach. In view of the droving history, I find it unusual that no one ever tried starting up an inn near the vantage point. Though I did enjoy some dryness and saw some spouts of sun while I was there, I am inclined to think that there may be a return at some point in the future when conditions are drier; the wetness was a distinct contrast from what I encountered while rounding the head of Loch Long. I believe that seeing Glen Croe on a good day when sunshine makes the most of the landscape would be more than worth the effort, as would a deeper exploration of the hill country of Ardgoil.
A last blast of winter?
3rd March 2009 Whatever my views on the meteorological months of winter might be (if I had my way, I would bring everything forward by two weeks but I digress), it has to be said that we have been having one of the colder ones with milder spells like those that we got last month and the one before becoming more like exceptions in the memory. Dumps of snow are forecast for Scotland but getting snow in early March isn't so strange and it has happened a few times in recent years. In fact, last year saw us getting a white Easter at the end of the month.
Speaking of Scotland, I actually managed to spend a bit of time up there over the weekend. In fact, Sunday saw me out among the hills around Tarbet, Arrochar and Glen Croe; my walk took me from Tarbet to Rest and Be Thankful. While I was lucky to get some spring sunshine early in the day and got to hear birdsong filling the air, there were prolonged rain showers wandering the hills too. In the afternoon, they started to come in one after another, so much so that leaving for greater shelter seemed the most sensible option when I did so.
I'll tell more about that escapade later, but the transition from snow to mildness to soaking rain to snow again is a striking one, especially when you start getting to think about what unstable snow packs can do. Snow seems to have left the Cheshire hills that I can see from my house and the forecast shows no sign of it returning to them this time around. In many ways, it has been an amazing winter and one that I'll continue to remember, at least if those late springs and early summer days deliver the weather goods appropriate to showing off their wares.
Update 2009-03-05: A dusting of snow has been granted to us but it's inconsequential in the lowlands. Peering into the hills though reveals a greater covering.
Encircling a cloud shrouded Moelfre
28th February 2009 By the end of last week, I was gagging for blue skies and sun so, being the outdoors type that I am, it was maybe inevitable that I would find myself among hills at the weekend if there was a chance of any sun on offer. Suitably enough, Saturday was offering, and my mind turned to another excursion into Welsh hill country where I hadn't been for over a year and a half. I was to spend a few good hours in the vicinity of the Rhinogs with low cloud stopping any ambitions to ascend a hill in their tracks.
That's not to say that there wasn't sun too, but the clag attenuated things somewhat. On the train journey from Macclesfield, I saw plenty of sunlit hill country while we crossed Shropshire and I might have been tempted to stop off at Caersws at the same time as another bunch of walkers if the Rhinog plan hadn't crystallised strongly in my mind. From there to the west, great wads of cloud were about and often obscured the sun too. The skies were clearer after passing Machynlleth and I assumed that Cadair Idris was in part responsible for the lumps that pervaded overhead. Still more were ahead of me after reaching Dyffryn Ardudwy, following a journey that took in busy trains. An alternative culture event (manga or anime, anyone?) in Telford certainly drew folk in droves, but the school midterm break might have it hand in this too. Things were set to be far, far quieter on the return leg.
The first thing that I needed to do in Dyffryn was acquire a map, a need that is so unlike me. Having maps is a task that is always on the to-do list, so this mishap was unusual. Nevertheless, I soon fulfilled my needs in the Village Store and I was very grateful for the chance. Needing to get a new map was not even close to the end of the world, since I do have some ideas worked out in my mind anyway and the one that I already had did predate the advent of the Open Access areas that allow such peace of mind in exploring more remote parts. Saying all of that, I would have felt very "naked" without one and it's certainly not something that I'd leave to chance again.
My cartographic needs duly fulfilled, I set off on my wander. My first stop turned out to be burial chambers of a type that is familiar to me from Ireland. We call them dolmens and it was intriguing to see similar constructions along the west coast of Wales, even if they were not of the same size; our ones are capped by boulders that cause one to wonder how they were placed where we find them at all. After that piece of prehistory, it was back to the modern task of hiking along public footpaths and quiet roads.
The tarmac mercifully ran out after Cors y Gedol Hall to be replaced by a hard core track. Behind me, I left the coast while the countryside in front of me contained significant and not so significant attractors of clag. Moelfre was one of these while Diffwys was shrouded too. On a fairer day, the temptation to mount the latter might have been there, but the shrouds kept ambitions on a short leash.
I stuck with the track bound for Llyn Bodlyn until it passed the summit of Moelfre and I then began to ascend its shoulder after that few kilometres of gravel bashing. A sound grassy hillside more than capably replaced it and I continued until I found the wall through which I was to pass before taking a left turn to motion towards the top of Moelfre. As it happened, I decided not go all the way to the top. Standing in the midst of murk didn't seem worth the effort and there were rather more stone walls about than was suggested by my OS map. I probably had the best views anyway and could see Llyn Erddyn across the valley from me.
Having satisfied myself, I began my descent to reach a bridleway that I had intended to use. My northbound course took me from one valley to another and with new hills to see. Foel Ddu lay across from me while Rhinog Fawr, Rhinog Fach and perhaps Y Llethr nestled behind lesser bumps. These heights weren't so clag-bound as those that I had been seeing earlier, but cloud remained abundant, limiting sunshine to spouts from any openings.
Once the bridleway had returned me to tarmac, I had decided to start returning to Dyffryn Ardudwy using a mix of quiet single track roads and rights of way. The tarmac element was well gated to keep sheep where they were put, so the possibility for any traffic was much reduced, so the countryside still could be enjoyed and admired without there being any interruption. Looking at the map now, I suppose that going to Llanbedr might have made more sense, but that wasn't what my train ticket said so I stuck to the original plan. Not long after passing Moelfre, the sun escaped from the clouds to yield a magical display and allowed time for a spot of photographic activity. It didn't last so long though, which was probably just as well since I needed to continue on to bring a good day's walking to an end before night fell. Sun and blue skies may have been in short supply at times, but there was easily enough of both to keep me happy.
Travel arrangements:
Return train journey to Dyffryn Ardudwy, changing at Stoke-on-Trent, Wolverhampton and Machynlleth on the outbound portion while the return trip only involved a change at Wolverhampton.
Another one for the ideas shelf
27th February 2009 I don't know whether I have been bedazzled by the the high country of Argyll, Lochaber, Lochalsh and Skye but their eastern counterparts such as the Cairngorms haven't played host to my attentions to the same extent at all. Apart from my passing by the aforementioned hills while on various train and coach journeys over the years, the nearest that I have got to them was when I fanned out from Pitlochry while spending a few days based there in late July nearly three years ago. Then, the closest that I came was when exploring the hills near Kingussie on the other side of the A9.
Many of my highland escapades have centred about the A82 but I realise that there's quality stuff about the A9 too. In fact, on that visit in 2006, I considered venturing into the area about Loch Ericht and the splendid emptiness suggested by the inspection of maps would have drawn me but I was lead away from the idea for some reason, possibly because of a 24 hour railway strike. An out and back journey to Braemar was considered too but the bus timings didn't look so appealing. My courage never extended to savouring what lay further north but there was an embarrassment of riches where I spent my time anyway and I seem to remember leaving with the feeling that I sample next to nothing of what was on offer, never a bad thing.
To return to the subject of perusing maps, my eye was recently drawn to Aviemore and the countryside that lay within its reach. I can only claim to have passed through it but the impression given by some is that it isn't all that interesting a place. However, like many a less than stellar conurbation in the Scottish Highlands, the main draw for many like me is what surrounds it and this is also an area that I have left unvisited thus far. Its decent transport links help to make it a workable base too so I think that I'll leave it for a long weekend when the weather is offering or maybe for that longer stay in Scotland that seems to come to pass every summer. In the meantime, I'll continue to cast my eye over the tracks fanning out through the likes of the Rothiemurchus Forest and into the hill country beyond, formulating better defined possibilities all the while so as not to end up taken by surprise should wondrous Scottish weather decide to make an unexpected appearance on a whim. Only time will tell what might happen.
A breakdown in transmission
26th February 2009 There is something that I should have spotted earlier that I only noticed yesterday. The RSS feeds for this blog weren't working as I would have liked for a while so you may may not have seen anything coming through because of this. When I went looking, there were a few gremlins running about the place on me but they have been quashed by now. Part of the machinery that I was using to pretty things up was Feedburner but that stopped liking the output from here so that's been ditched until they sort themselves out; I am not sure how they manage to turn a 19 KB file into one of more than 512 KB! So, if you have come here after a splurge of items in your feed reader of choice, then that's how it has happened. Apologies for not heeding the situation sooner (I might have been too occupied busying myself with adding stuff on here after various excursions...) but I'll be keeping a firmer grasp on things from this point onwards, if only to curtail semi-technical discussions like this one.
