Meall nan Tarmachan

Saturday 15 August

Another lazy day! You’d think we were on holiday, the way we’re lounging around.

Meall nan Tarmachan was our objective and it was lunchtime by the time we squeezed Colin into an available parking space and set off up it. Just down the road, the Ben Lawers Visitor Centre car park (which is what I’ll call it even though there is no Visitor Centre any more; in fact, the car park is also not where either of us remembered it being) was brimming – the combination of a good weather forecast and it being the weekend.

With a made-path leading all the way to the summit of our hill it was about as easy an outing as you’ll get walking up a Munro. We were at the top in just over an hour, where we chatted for a while with a couple of great chaps. The opening of the conversation involved the revelation to them that there were not standing on top of Ben Lawers. “Really?” said the chap. “It’s the third time I’ve been up here and I always thought this was Ben Lawers!”.

About half of the gaggle of people atop the summit were doing the obvious and excellent looking walk, along the ridge. We were being particularly lazy, with our plan encompassing having lunch and walking back down. However, the cold wind stopped us from lunching on the top; we thought we’d just drop back down a short way, out of the wind, first.

That was all very well in theory, but then it started to rain. Then it started to hail. Suddenly a deferment of lunch seemed the best choice.

We had nearly dried off again by the time we were a quarter of an hour away from Colin, when another approaching shower was seen. We ran, arriving back at our start point just as the first spots were felt.

Tomorrow we’ll try to be a bit less lazy.