Day 5
Tuesday 16th May - Lairig Ghallabhaich to River Tummel
I was getting into the routine by now as I woke at 5am but could not get out of the bag, it was so cold the water was frozen solid in the bottle, until I had had a cup of tea. The idea of going without breakfast was forgotten but I was away again by 6:15.
Heading north along the lairig I exited the forestry at 7am and turned east to climb Beinn Dearg walking directly into the sun. As I approached the summit I picked up a fence line running from my left and I could also see a cairn but not on the correct bearing. As I got almost to the top I realised the summit cairn lays back and the other is only for guidance, at least my bearing was spot on. The view from the top was stunning. I had a 360 degree parorama from Ben Lawers in the south round to the Ben, the Mamores, Grey Corries, Ben Alder and Carn Gorm my next hill.
The way down was incredibly steep and coming off Dearg I felt pain in my right knee so I decided to get off and headed for Rannoch Forest to be on the safe side. On the way through the forest I met some people who had a time share in Kinlochrannoch and we chatted until we reached the Forestry Commission camp site. I had lunch by the loch side and fell asleep for a while. After looking at my maps to see how I could get back on track, I firstly decided to go around to the bothy but once on the track to Schiehallion I could see that it was in cloud, there was snow falling and the thought of another camp over 600mt did not appeal. Instead I went looking for McGregor's Cave, I did not find it but I did find a nice camp site by the river instead. I had dinner and a Mars plus a muesli bar that I had forgotten to eat at lunch time. I have not seen another person all day, the third day running no one on the hills so I suppose that my aim of picking a quiet route is succeeding!
