Path erosion and choices we make

Claire and I had stopped for a quick lunch on the way down from Bynack More. We had gone over Bynack Beag and were pleasantly surprised to find a small but clear path that helped us descend the steep heathery terrain towards the valley. Given that our half-term foray to the north had seen Claire experience some winter in the Cairngorms with a vicious squall on top of Bynack More this was good. Neither of us were especially fit and the fact that the rest of the walk was a walk along Strath Nethy then back to the Lairig and Laoigh path and back to Glenmore Lodge, were our van was, was a good thing - enabling me to relax and enjoy (or so I thought) the rest of a a lovely day out.

 This photo shows the view down Strath Nethy. I had walked down it over 20 years ago (gulp!) when Chris and I came up after my finals and did some walking in the Cairngorms. I only had vague recollections of the path - certainly not what we got.

I was born in the peak district and, although we left when I was young, I have walked there since and spent many years living and walking in the Lakes where the paths aren't so great; however the condition of the path in the Strath was one of the worst I have ever seen, anywhere. Apart from the difficulty of walking on this path there seem to me to be two or three major issues that could do with addressing.

One possible one is that the estate should be looking after the path...they have 'done' the Lairig and Laoigh path (at least as far as we followed it) and the path up to Ryovan Bothy. Given that Strath Nethy is one the 'escape' routes from the Cairngorm plateau - is there a duty on them to make the path better?

There must also be some responsibility with walkers as well - the path was horrendously bad and we (like many others) had to skirt the path in order to find some ground that was not too bad to walk on. However, when we do this aren't we just making it worse - are we creating the kind of motorway that used to be on the 3 peaks before they got 'fixed' as well...by being lazy and skirting around the path we are making the problem worse and making the path worse - we're creating a vicious circle for ourselves by doing this. Claire and I are as guilty of this as the next person so I'm not casting aspersions on others.
The problem with this lovely and virtuous view is that parts of the 'path' were literally unawalkable thus limiting options...what does one do in this situation?

Do we put flagstones down on the path and give it time to 'recover'?

Do we use the path that exists on the other side (the Cairngorm) side of the stream? Would that help or would it make things worse with a churned up path on both sides of the stream? And if you do that how do you get across the river - it was flowing quite strongly at the part where our path met the river....

No right answers, and certainly not simple ones...

Claire descends towards Strath Nethy

Close encounters with Ellies (part 2)

I know it has been a while since my first post on this..http://sitheclimber.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/close-encounters-of-elephant-kindpt-1.html.

To pick the story up, Claire and I were about to have our  full day on the Nxai Pan..and another amazing day it was. We got up early and went to see the watering hole at dawn..the Ellies were there as well, as were the other people staying on the adjacent campsite (they left after this). We were parked up and then along came a lioness with 3 little fluffy bundles of fur - her little cubs. She was about 100 m away from and walking towards the waterhole. The little ones were trotting along in fairly close order - the pictures are all up on the photobox site btw - they were so lovely. I am sure one of them would have liked to come along and have a cuddle with us and snooze on the bed back in Cumbria - it wouldn't have been too much of a shock for him!!

Looking through the binoculars from about 200m away I was then a little alarmed to see two other lionesses running towards us!! They weren't all out sprinting but they were certainly jogging - and certainly enough to make us put the windows up in Mo!! Fortunately, they were just coming to meet the cubs and say hello to them. We later learned from the rangers that it would have been the first time the cubs would have been introduced to the pride - hence the 'aunties' were so happy to see them.

Anyway, around 4.30 pm we went back for an afternoon trip to the waterhole - the lionesses and cubs were dozing in the sun. A lone bull elephant was wandering off in a line which would take him to near our camp; however I felt sure we would beat him back easily with the vehicle - which we did.

Safely back in camp - we moved things out of the elephant path and Claire was preparing the fire and supper whilst I was picking up the water containers to go and fill them up for the last time. I took 10 steps to clear the immediate campsite and looked left - to find a large grey being approaching! The large grey being was about 100m away at least - so I went to get Claire and we elected to take the longer way to the ablution block (which is of course, elephant proof!!). Having just turned onto that path it was not ideal to see another bull elephant loping along on that path. He wasn't charging rather jogging gently - however when one is 4m tall that is still rather quick!! A rapid change of plan was in order..involving us trying to scramble over the elephant trap and get to the block. Claire managed to make a hole in her foot doing so - which Howard had to patch when we got back - and I could barely do in my flimsy flip-flops. Rather relieved, we reached the block and waited about 15 mins or so in the hope that they had passed before going back (gingerly!!) to the camp.

As I said in my previous post - maybe I am very naive about this - but I was certainly less concerned than Claire was....it is doubtful that Usain Bolt could outrun a charging bull and we certainly couldn't!! However it was certainly a sharp reminder that camping in Botswana is not quite the same as camping in the Lakes or N. Wales - or even Scotland for that matter although they do have midges!!

Afternote: The 'safety' of the ablution block turned out to be slightly illusory as it happens...next morning there was no water and one of the pipes had been ripped off the wall and was spraying water all over, and a manhole cover was missing - clearly an ellie with a long trunk had got thirsty!! The water spraying out was actually presenting a challenge as it was starting to seep through the elephant trap and form a nice little puddle - and it had a nice little herd of lovely Springbok waiting for it!! As I decided I could do without a thirsty lion or two at that point! I was able to turn the stop tap off, we decamped and went home via telling the rangers (who weren't best pleased as the ellies had already rendered the other block hors d'combat ) and Baines Baobababs...see the photo site for the pictures...

What a difference a week makes...

it's been warm (for the time of year I should stress!!) and rainy all week in Penrith - the snow has all gone :-((.

Claire and I are going away in Suilvan next weekend - hopefully there'll be some snow in Scotland.

Hazy shade of winter..

which is now going as I sit here and type this two days later...but it was certainly there on Sunday..As can be seen in this shot of a wintry looking Skiddaw (taken from the slopes of Foule Crag).

The forecast did look good for the Sunday and it was also obvious that everywhere was going to be busy, with it being the last day of the half-term holidays. So, to avoid some of the madding crowds we elected to park at Mungrisedale and sneak onto Blencathra.

The path upto the plateau between Bowscale Fell and Bannerdale Crags had a few people on it - and the plateau itself was snow covered. This was actually quite helpful as we had steps to follow rather than having to break trail.

Crossing the col at the head of Glendemeckin, the number of people increased as we climbed slowly but very steadily upwards. If (a big if I grant you) one had carried skis up you could probably have got a half decent run on them. Lots of 4 legged friends were out - yet the hills seemed totally devoid of children, maybe they had all gone sledging!

Arriving near the top of Sharp Edge (as one breasts the summit plateau) it was immediately apparent that lunch on top would not be a quiet, peaceful experience - I think I have been to some football games with less people actually. So, we stopped where we were and had lunch - and enjoyed the rather lovely view (as can be seen).

To give Claire some more practice on steep(ish) snow, we elected to descend the same way - Claire romped down. We did have an axe, however it stayed in the sacks as the snow was soft enough to render it redundant. Then, as Claire is the daughter of a man so hard he has tabasco sauce rather than soy sauce on his Chinese takeaway - we climbed back past our previous tracks and onto Bowscale Fell. A couple of older walkers were partaking of their lunch whilst we had our second lunch - and I took some more photo's!! before a leisurely descent took us back to Mungrisedale - a superb day and great tonic for the mind, body and soul.

Pictures: http://www.photoboxgallery.com/3436739

Autumn in Scotland - part 3

in which Claire and Simon have an amazing day on two of the Drumochter hills...


with an excellent forecast we actually had a difficult decision as to what to do with our final day (given that we had to drive home as well)..Doing a round of Cairngorm, the mountain not the plateau!! was one option, with the possibility of some ice-axe braking practice and more snow experience for Claire. Another thought was to do Mullach Choire a Blair in Glen Feshie, however this is a long round with a potentially arkward river crossing towards the end...so we elected to go to Drumochter.

There was one munro of the 7 around the pass that I had not done, and Claire, who does not bag munro's of course (despite having the book) was not too upset at the thought of doing two new munro's. So with that in mind, we set off for the layby - only to have me move the van 1 layby too far and give us an extra 1/2 mile on the road....oops - not an auspicious start to the days walk!

Sgairneach Mhor

Our first objective was Sgairneach Mhor, a hill I had done before with a climbing mate on a wild day when our intention to do both hills was rudely curtailed by a massive gust of wind which threw me to the ground and ripped the map out of my hands! Having no spare we had enough 'fun' getting off Sgairneach Mhor without any other excitement.

Today was the opposite - a still day with very clear visibility. We came upon a bridge with a stalkers path off it - not on the map - and Claire's eagle eye spotted a path off the stalkers path which went in the correct direction towards the peak. Finding some footprints made us feel even better and we began a slow but steady plod uphill. Underfoot conditions actually improved as we gained height as the ground became more frozen and there was more snow. We eventually hit the ridge of Sgairneach Mhor and plodded uphill to the summit. After a lunch stop and a chat with a gentlemen doing all 4 of the Munro's (the other way round) [who was the only person we saw all day] we had another decision to make.

Due to taking the wrong bridge/path (which we only discovered later) and stops for Claire, me, to take photo's! time was getting on a bit. Going back the way we came was possible, however we elected to carry on and traverse over Beinn Udlamain. 

To do this, we descended quickly to the three-sided col between the peaks, Claire finding a very good line through the peat hags, and onto the ridge that climbs to Beinn Udlamain. Views over Ben Alder forest opened up, including the lovely Loch Ericht which goes to Dalwhinnie. It was noticeably cloudier to the west than it was to the East as can be seen by this shot from the summit looking east. In another (happier) slight misjudgement I thought Beinn Uldamain was 1100m as opposed to 1010m, so we were quite surprised to find a large cairn in front of us and a height of 1010m on my altimeter watch. Another glance at the map explained the situation, and a quick halt was taken for photo's..which are on the photobox website. http://www.photoboxgallery.com/3436739  

Descent was accomplished very easily, with the boundary fence to follow along over a couple of minor bumps and we soon descended to the col between Uldamain and A'Mharconaich (another unprononceable Munro!). We had spotted a little path descending down from the way up, and we were able to find it and make a quick descent to the stalkers path in the valley. This descent was quite slippy and quite steep, yet Claire went down it very well - and we were soon on the main stalkers path. Walking back along this was quite tiring for me - it's not the kind of path my knees enjoy - and it did not exactly go totally downhill the whole way either!! So, I was therefore rather chuffed to see a bridge fairly seen - and then somewhat less chuffed to discover it was a different bridge, complete with path that led right up to near the summit of Sgairneach Mhor! oh well - it wasn't on the map either. Eventually we made it down, and a quick scramble up a bank cut about 1k off the road walking section and two happy campers were back in the van - an amazing day with great views and really enjoyable walking. These hills don't have the scale of the Cairngorms or the sheer grandeur of the NW, but they are worth a visit.

Autumn in Scotland part 2....

or the one where Claire comes face to face with winter conditions in the Cairngorms!!

and make no mistake - conditions were wintry. There was not much snow around on the summits - although more than enough to make winter boots a must - but Claire got her first real experience of the winter wind and chill.

The day had started promisingly well - a good early(ish!!!!) start and a good walk in. Our destination today was Bynack More, well over 1000m but still an outlier of the Cairngorm massif - seperated from the main plateau by the Saddle and Strath Nethy. I had done the mountain and its two satellite tops after my finals (a few [ahem]) years ago - and remembered the walk down Strath Nethy as being long...it had not prepared me for what we got...more of that later.

We followed the same approach through the forest and past Glenmore Lodge as yesterday (in fact I parked next to the Lodge to save 1 mile of road walking - not good for my knees/heel in big boots). When the paths split we went up towards the Lairig an Laoigh. The Cairngorms are split by the two great Lairig's - passes - and the path we followed wound steeply uphill before dropping down to cross the Avon (pronounced A'an) and go to Braemar. Our speed up the steep climb was excellent  - steady and sustained - and we soon left the main path to start the climb to the summit of Bynack More. At this point we met the snowline. The snow was not a problem with its depth nor was it especially icy. We had not brought either crampons or ice-axe (tho we had them in the van) and neither was remotely needed. What it did do was slow us down as the path had disappeared as it wended its way in and out of the granite tors, which made the going arkward as it was. We then got joined by some driving hail/snow and a strong wind. I should have insisted that Claire wrap up very well and drink more - one of Claire's few faults is that she doesn't drink anywhere near enough fluid on walks - however she soldiered on well until just below the summit, where she started to feel very weak. Luckily, some hot ribena, christmas cake and more clothes did the trick and we were soon on top. We elected to descend over Bynack Beg (Beg/beag means small in Gaelic) and thence down the Strath Nethy.

The first part of the descent was done in excellent style and we soon made the Strath - despite a progressively worsening path and my broken trekking pole. What followed was quite possibly the worst path I have ever walked on - with the possible exceptions of Bleaklow and Black Hill. I am going to post a specific post on this with thoughts about path management later so will not say too much more at the moment. We eventually joined the main path we had followed up the hill and, now in heavy rain, made the final few km back to the van.

Our fun for the night was not over - we arrived at Glenmore Lodge to eat in the Lochain Bar to find it was late opening as the bar staff were late back from the hill!!! One good chicken curry later and we were ready for the next day...

Autumn in Scotland - part 1

So, as Suilvan told you, he was loaded up and driven over to Newcastle and Mum's house. This was because Claire and I were in Belfast first to support my stepmother as she became president of SIGBI - well done Pat!!

After a lovely weekend we arrived back in Newcastle and, after eviction from our sleep by the arrival of the builders 1/2hr early!! we set off towards Aviemore. A steady 6 hr drive saw us arrive in Aviemore and decamp into the Mountain Cafe for a cup of tea/hot chocolate. The changing of the clocks over the weekend meant that it got dark pretty early (by around 5ish) so we pottered up the road and found a layby to sleep in. We still had far too much stuff in Suilvan - although in our defence this was partly the stuff we had taken to Belfast. Claire made a lovely dahl and we were soon settling down.

A later than expected start the next morning, coupled with general lack of fitness meant that we settled on Meall a'Bhuachaille as our choice of walk.                                                                                          

   Meall a Bhuachaille, seen from the approach to Bynack More in this shot, is a simpl(ish) Corbett (hill over 2500') that can be combined with showing Claire some of the quieter parts of the Cairngorms. We had a lovely stroll out to Ryovan bothy, where we sat with a hot drink and some Christmas cake -being joined by an RSPB party (who actually own the Abernethy estate that Meall a'Buachaille stands in). After leaving them we commenced the ascent.

The ascent was on a good path and the weather was ok - for the most part we were out of the wind. There was no snow on the peak and the top was clear of cloud. The actual summit was pretty cold with the wind-chill, and the glimpses into the Cairngorm massif did show some encouraging signs of whiteness!

A quick and lovely descent to the valley followed - the autumn colours in Glenmore Forest were in full flow and the pictures are on the photobox site  http://www.photoboxgallery.com/3436739

A bit of a gear fix in Aviemore - new trainers for me, a liner for Claire (whose sleeping bag is not quite as posh as my -20 rated down one!!) and a light that didn't work - followed by a lovely Spag Bolg in Suilvan and a pint at the Glenmore Lodge bar - a lovely first day.