Saturday 10th May, TGOC2014 Day 2

Craig to Loch Monar

M&G, Croydon and many others had gone beyond Gerry’s Hostel to camp the previous evening. Given the wet weather and the warm welcome we received from Gerry I would say Alan and I got the best deal.

We had been expecting to see Little Miss Maria (henceforth to be referred to as LMM……less typing that way) and Dave at Gerry’s. They’d started from Torridon SYHA but had decided to bag a Munro hilly-thing or two en-route. Apparently they’d arrived at Gerry’s at 10.30pm – I didn’t see them arrive or spot them in the morning. It must have been a hard day for them both.

A short stretch of tarmac from Gerry’s took us to a level crossing over the railway line to open country. The rain had (re)started and by the time we got to cross the River Carron we were back in full waterproofs. We passed some tents en-route, their occupants getting ready for the day ahead.

The rain grew heavierer (that’s Timperley dialect for the rain getting heavierer) as we followed the Allt a’ Chonais towards Pollan Buidhe and then to Glenuaig Lodge where we we hoping to make a brew in the shelter. I spotted the lodge in the distance, it consisted of a group of three buildings. I joked that the smallest one would be a shed and that would be the shelter.

We arrived at the lodge and found just that.

 Soggy Lesley, Viv and Alan. The shelter is nailed to the ground so it doesn’t blow away.

The shed was rather luxurious. It had an electric light and an electric heater plus two bunk beds.There wasn’t a great deal of room in the shed ‘cos Lawrence & Lesley Dark and Frank Row were in residence, sheltering from the wet. It’s really a good emergency shelter, not a bothy – not intended for overnight stops other than in an emergency.

The Dunsires rolled up – all cheerful and happy-like. Shouldn’t be allowed on such a wet and miserable day like today. They were all nice and dry too, clad in new waterproofs an’ all that.

Leaving the shelter we continued in an Easterly direction (East is good….I may have mentioned this in the past) following the north bank of the River Meig, all the time looking for a suitable crossing point…preferably not like the wire bridge we had spotted earlier in the day:

Eventually a suitable crossing point was identified and we went over one by one.

Croydon in River Crossing mode, Alan in Photographer mode. Waiting, just waiting…..

Alan, being a gentleman, put his camera away as Viv crossed 

Croydon and Martin Angell had teamed up with us by this time and we all enjoyed a brew and lunch on t’other side of the river as Lawrence, Lesley and Frank continued East on the north side: 

Martin Angell and Croydon 

My feeble attempt at a selfie

Croydon doing a selfie….properly

Our target for the day, the north shore of Loch Monar, was a long time coming – the weather was very changeable and we had a climb to contend with. Much of the ground was rough and boggy, added to which there were some landslips that made the route difficult. As with many footpaths marked on the map, this path appeared only infrequently on the ground. There was much crossing and re-crossing of the river as we headed south – the route the path took on the map was really only notional. A virtual path.

The pull up to Coire Ffionarach wasn’t terribly steep but the false summits we encountered were frustrating. Alan and Martin went high above the river to bypass some of the trudge whilst we stayed close to the river, preferring to follow it’s grassy banks.

After what seemed an age, Loch Monar came into view. The last time I was at Loch Monar was two years ago and I was at the South Eastern side…in the sunshine.

Anyway, things were looking up: it had stopped raining (sort of), our destination was in sight and judging by what other Challengers had said we were expecting an excellent pitch for the night.

Loch Monar

No photographs of where we camped, we were all pre-occupied in trying to find flat(ish), tussockless(ish) and dry(ish) places to plant our tents. I didn’t succeed too well – the ground wasn’t brilliant. The only area that looked promising was already being used by a couple of lads who’s been at Gerry’s the night before. Eventually we all found suitable spots and settled down for the night – there was little or no socialising that evening, we were all a bit pooped.

Still no sign of LMM & Dave, they were intending camping at the same spot that night.

My evening meal was a home-made and home-dehydrated beef hash – think corned beef hash but using decent minced beef rather than corned beef. Well it was something like that.

And this is what we did:

15 miles, with 2300’ of up.