Wednesday, June 01, 2016
Beinn Liath Mhor Fannaich
The hill in the centre of the picture with the long patch of snow was our destination. Instead of walking along the river, however, we set off in the opposite direction and followed the track up through the plantation.
Coal tits were seen along the track, and this is one of several singing Willow Warblers.
A large red damselfly was also present. After leaving the trees and dropping down a bit, we had the luxury of a footbridge across the river.
Sgurr Mor looked so close, but to get there and back would involve four kilometres more of walking and a pretty steep climb and descent. We had never aimed to do the round of four Munros, but had talked about doing two of them. Now, Greger was doubtful if my knee would cope and I had to agree he was probably right. In the picture below, the third top ranged above Loch a' Mhadiadh is Meall a' Chrasgaidh - a Munro we climbed last year; and on the extreme right in the distance is Beinn a' Chlaidheimh, one of the Fisherfield Munros.
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And no more we had, when all is said and done.
Birds would prove scarce on this walk, but compensation came in the form of a new dragonfly, settling on a rock in the sun. Despite the grey appearance of what should be blue abdominal spots and blue eyes it's almost certainly an azure hawker, and in Britain, occurs only in Scotland.
Stopping for elevenses, we attracted the attention of what I think is a botfly. It might look like a harmless little bee, but it lays its eggs in living flesh - in this case, the flesh of deer (we hope, anyway). There is something unnerving about this mouthless, large-eyed fly that sits on a rock and looks at you, turning to keep you in sight if you try to walk round behind it.
One of the nice things as you ascend is the number of high lochans that gradually come into view; this is looking over Loch Gorm towards the pointed top of An Coileachan.
The going underfoot was a delight, thanks probably to the present dry spell. Looking back we could see Loch Glascarnoch, and the long profile of Ben Wyvis making the skyline.
A family with a dog soon caught us up (who doesn't?), and in passing the man said he'd put the kettle on for us when they got to the top. Huh! Just after that there was a startled croak and a ptarmigan rose from the path ahead of them in a whirl of white gorgeousness. It scuttled down the hill and I just managed a poor shot before it disappeared.
We reach the top! To the right, Loch Broom can be seen curving away towards the sea with Ullapool just out of sight round the bend.
Sgurr Mor looked so close, but to get there and back would involve four kilometres more of walking and a pretty steep climb and descent. We had never aimed to do the round of four Munros, but had talked about doing two of them. Now, Greger was doubtful if my knee would cope and I had to agree he was probably right. In the picture below, the third top ranged above Loch a' Mhadiadh is Meall a' Chrasgaidh - a Munro we climbed last year; and on the extreme right in the distance is Beinn a' Chlaidheimh, one of the Fisherfield Munros.
After lunch we took it easy on the return journey, sometimes looking across to the parallel ridge where we could see the family and their dog on the skyline. A thrilling moment came when a hare went running past us; I could manage only one poor shot as it vanished up the hill, but it was my first picture of a mountain hare.
We continued down, negotiating a couple of boulder fields before getting back onto the lovely dry grass-and-moss surface of the broad spur of Creag Dhubh Fannaich.
As we paused to admire the Beinn Dearg group, Greger pointed out some rocky seams or ribs that ran up the nearest, lower slope like faint stripes, continuing beyond the valley up onto Beinn Dearg itself.
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This fine big hoverfly is, I believe, Sericomyia lappona.
A Sericomyia silentis was also seen on the walk.
Our walk was about 16 kilometres (10 miles), and we had bagged a Munro (954m/3130ft) despite my fears I would not be able to get up one again. As we made our way back towards the still-full car-park, I remarked wistfully that we were probably the only walkers that day who had come down after doing just the one top. "Now look," said Greger firmly. "The people we saw up there were younger than us. We're in our sixties, I've got mild asthma, and you've got mild arthritis. We haven't done badly!"
And no more we had, when all is said and done.
// posted by Christine @ 2:40 PM 
