Journal:
I got up at 7am and had a coffee back in the main
part of the hostel along with my trail mix breakfast
before leaving around 8:30am without sighting the
hostel managers. A few hundred metres from the
hostel at a track junction, I encountered a family
camping and compared notes with the father for a few
minutes. He was interested to know my route to
the Falls of Glomach, since it was largely
cross-country and he was planning to go there today
as well, but wasn't sure of the best way.
I continued on, climbing
over another pass between towering mountains before
descending to Loch Bhealaich in Glen Gaorsaic.
The scale of everything was fantastic and I again
felt dwarfed and insignificant. My route left
the path at the Loch and followed the Loch shore
cross-country northwards along its western edge.
Sometimes I could walk along the stony shore, but
mostly had to negotiate the peat and peat channels
where it was boggy and difficult. The going
was very slow, but I finally reached the end of the
Loch and took my first break sitting on a small
gravel beach. There was barely a ripple on the
water and just the occasional bird call to disturb
the scene. As I left, I could just see the
tiny figures of the family I had passed arriving at
the other end of the Loch.
I had to continue
cross-country following the river that drained the
Loch and again encountered many peat bogs which had
to be navigated through. I felt like an early
explorer. My route passed another loch and
then a small ruin before picking up a barely
discernible path continuing in the same direction.
It was an old path and the bridges that had crossed
two creeks were gone, meaning more detours and bogs.
The rest of the time it was close to the babbling
river and I kept an eye out for otters reputedly in
these parts, although I didn't see any. The
rate of descent gradually increased and there were
more rapids on the river until I reached the head of
the spectacular Falls of Glomach where the river
plunges 200m in all and 90m in one sheer drop.
I dropped my pack at the top and carefully descended
a steep trail to a look-out point where I had a
clear view of the Falls. Then it was back up
to the top for a break before following a new track
along the side of a mountain and down to the base of
the falls. The path was narrow, with a very
steep drop to the right and many rocky bits
necessitating the use of my hands to climb. I
took extra care and moved slowly in the scary bits.
Eventually I reached the
bottom and emerged into relative civilization - a
gravel road and a couple of isolated cottages.
I still had a long way to go and it was already
early afternoon. I followed the road, which
soon degenerated into a cart track, upwards along
Glen Elchaig. The climb seemed to go on
forever with, as usual, mountains towering on both
sides. I finally crossed a pass and descended
into a wild and remote valley with Loch Cruoshie to
the right. I was able to keep my feet dry
crossing River Long by using some just submerged
rocks and avoided the waste deep ford referred to in
the guidebook. There followed another slow
cross-country climb to the shoulder of Ben Dronaig
where I picked up another track and eventually
reached the beautiful, remote and mirror calm Loch
Calavie. Although it was now after 7pm, a warm
sun came out and I stopped at a small stream to get
a drink and fill my water bottles for camping.
Although I had almost made
up my mind to camp, I could see the Bothy Dronaig
(bothies are Scottish mountain huts with no
facilities, available to use overnight) in the
distance and I decided to try staying there instead.
I arrived at 8:30pm and found the place deserted.
I collected some water from a nearby stream and had
a wash before eating and updating my diary.
There was a large pile of cans of sardines in the
bothy, so I had one of those to supplement my trail
mix. My camera began playing up at the end of
the day and the SD Card seems to have had some kind
of failure, meaning that I am unable to access the
pictures I took today, which would have been
fabulous. The camera has an internal smaller
memory which means that I can still take photos,
though not too many per day, and I'll have to wait
until I get home to try and get the pictures off the
SD card. It's very quiet here and I have this
vast glen in the Highlands all to myself on a
beautiful sunny calm evening. It's light until
after 11pm in these latitudes at present.
