TGOC25 Day 6 - to Lochearnhead

WHW, in the far glen, under a cloud inversion whilst I basked in sunshine

Tuesday 13 May

Distance and ascent: 31km 950m

Weather: glorious! Just a few fluffy clouds late in the day

What a fantastic day! I had an absolute ball, and was loving life and my route choice for most of it.

It started with my ascent straight up the side of Meall Mhor, as I suggested it would. 620m of ascent over the course of 1.5km as the crow flies - or 2.6km as I approached it. The first 2.2km took me two hours, with just a couple of faffs on the way, one for water, the other to remove waterproof socks, once the sun had dried the grass. Otherwise I kept a slow but pretty constant pace (lower down I was getting midged if I stopped, although they were annoying rather than biting).

Dumping my bag at the low point just E of the summit, the final 400m was quick and easy. I had a 15 minute pause up there, not just to admire the view, but to try to talk Mick (at Challenge Control in Montrose) through finding some files he needed on my laptop.

As nice as it would have been to continue along the ridge, per my route sheet, I knew it wasn't a realistic option. Such is the competition for accommodation (particularly cheaper accommodation) in Scotland these days that, for the first time ever, I pre-booked some. The obvious downside of that is the loss of flexibility, so I couldn't just decide to take an extra day (plus I would have run out of food!).

So straight down there other side of the hill I went, into the glen, which was also a mighty fine place to be. Absolutely stunning under the perfect blue sky.

I stopped for lunch 4 hours through my day, at a few minutes before noon, at the point where I joined my planned (FWA) route for this day. I can't remember how far I'd actually gone to get there, but it was just 3.6km through the planned 32km day - although as my Main and FWA routes were intentionally out of sync at this point (to take their relative difficulties into account) there was going to be no problem with stopping short ... except the issue of where to camp but I'll come back to that later.

First though, I needed to make my way down the glen, almost as far as the public road (which I could have followed to Balquhidder, had I felt inclined to some tarmac bashing). My choice was to use forest tracks on the S side of Lochs Doine & Voil, involving a km or so of pathless yomping and needing to cut through the forest to access them. I decided that for the shade of the trees on a hot afternoon the extra effort would be worthwhile. 

It was, and not just for the shade and hot-tarmac avoidance. My way across the flat riverside land was much easier than expected with an old track (no longer on the 1:50k map, thus I hadn't spotted it in advance), now mainly just a single trodden line through the reeds, maintained by the passage of sheep. The bit where it dwindled to nothing for a while before resurrecting was hard work, but I took comfort from the fact that it must have been harder for the mountain bikers who had come this way, as evidenced by tyre prints in the (currently quite firm) mud. Reaching the side burn that I needed to cross, I was also in need of more water. There not being a good filling point immediately to hand I went upstream a way (as I needed to anyway) and discovered the most delightful waterfall below which were perfect circular pools worn out of the rock. 

Finding my way through the trees to the forest track might then have been a trial, but no, another old track, completely grassed over, and again not on the 1:50k map, awaited me and made me wonder if this day could get any better.

Of course I did eventually reach modern engineered forest roads, together with signs telling me I couldn't proceed due to forest works. I proceeded and encountered no hint of works. The same happened in two more locations, with me passing signs at beginning and end of the alleged work area (they clearly had been worked -the trees had gone and with them my cool shade, but the signs should have been removed).

Ironically, when I finally did come upon an active work site (not that there was any work in the immediate vicinity of the track), there was no signage telling me I couldn't pass.

By now the hard start to the day was catching up with me. I was beyond the end of my planned main route, so it wouldn't have been unreasonable to stop, if I could just find somewhere. I did have a couple of half hearted attempts to find a pitch, but there are a lot of permanent caravans dotted around on the S side of Loch Voil, as well as houses further on, so it would have been a stealth camp rather than a wild camp. As it went, I didn't find anywhere I liked anyway.

As I trudged along the minor road from Balquhidder, now really feeling the effects of effort and heat, I contemplated the map. I'd struggled whilst planning this section to come up with somewhere I would be happy to camp between Loch Voil and beyond Glen Ogle Cottages (which is why my main and FWA routes became so out of sync here), but I had mentally noted an option about 0.5km off route, about 7k hence. I now reckoned there might just be somewhere where the Rob Roy Way took a little away-from-the-main-road detour at Balquhidder Station (the RRW/cycle route 7 doesn't go along the road, but runs adjacent, on an old railway line). It was as contemplating the options that the thought popped into my head to look if there was any accommodation near by. 

Within moments I was informed that I'd passed a place less than 1km ago (but I wasn't going to backtrack), but there was another option in Lochearnhead. I'd still been walking whilst searching, so by now I was only(!) about 7km from there. I contemplated for another 10 minutes or so, then booked it. 

Soon afterwards pitch options galore stayed presenting themselves, but I wasn't sorry for my frivolous impulse. Yes I'm using more accommodation on this trip than ever before, but a year ago I opened a savings account called TGOC, specifically for this trip and stated paying £5 per week into it -a small enough sum that it wouldn't be missed -as well as topping it up with the occasional small sum of magic money (that being money unexpectedly received). Having accumulated a budget, it was there to be spent.

My final 0.5km, before I turned off the cycle way was in the company of a local lady who was out training for a Spanish Camino walk. Then before I knew it, I was in Lochearnhead and my accommodation was before me.

This B&B had cost more than twice what I paid at the Loch Long Hotel, and was the most expensive of the trip (I have two more places booked). It was not good. Amongst the lowlights, there was no curtain on one of my windows (downstairs room) and the other window, facing the road) had a blind that wasn't as wide as the window, so anyone walking by could see me sitting in bed. Those blinds were horribly water stained, and the whole place was grubby - forgivable at Loch Long prices, but not at premium prices. There was also no toilet paper for the first 5 hours that I was there.

When at just before 9pm the host's daughter, in the next door room, stated playing music, I had a sense of humour failure. I stomped out of my room, and straight into the chest of drawers that the daughter had just moved out of her room to *right* in front of my door. At least she was apologetic about the music and turned it off straight away.

All doom and gloom, but in tomorrow's post I will have more positive things to say about the accommodation.

(Details I'd forgotten about until I just looked through my photos: I'd had a 'midnight feast' at 2am, so I could fort in a third dose of antibiotics. A hunk of cake was my chosen foodstuff. You should have seen the state off crumbs in the tent the next morning! It was also another morning on which I needed my Midge head net.)