Tuesday 7 April 2009 - Soggy in Skye - Sgurr na Coinnich

Setting off in good humour from Bealach Udal

Today Chris and Andrew joined Sue and me for a quick outing on Skye. It was showery, and not due to improve, so we simply made the short journey towards Broadford, turning left along the road to Kylerhea, and parking at a convenient point near 279 metre Bealach Udal. From here a blustery hour and a half's plod through heather, bog, grass and rock saw us on the 739 metre summit of Sgurr na Coinnich.

Conditions deteriorated, and some were unhappy about the pathless terrain

Sue had wet feet - not surprising as she'd forgotten her boots and was wearing trail shoes.
"Remind me never to contemplate using this sort of footwear for the TGO Challenge" she remarked. Of little comfort to Sue, the Hi-Tec boots given to me by Darren for testing had their first taste of rain today. They were just about as waterproof as Sue's trail shoes. Not really waterproof at all then, despite the optimistic label! Very comfy though.

Alan, as the intended recipient of these boots, may have made some more interesting comments on their performance. But do you enjoy walking with wet feet, Alan, and would you have been able to control the natural inclination of these featherweight items to shoot ahead of others on the same walk? They are not suited to 'Slow Munros', especially in cool, windy weather!

Andrew and Chris had had enough of the buffeting wind and slithery heather by the time we had descended to Bealach nam Mulachag. So they contoured back south, whilst Sue and I spent the next 30 minutes popping up to and down from the 733 metre summit of the pimple named Beinn na Caillich.

RAB clothing - ideal for people with large heads!

It was quite wet and breezy, with mist obscuring the fine views that must exist from here.

Returning to the car, we spotted Andrew and Chris below. Whilst we lunched they disappeared towards the road, and a walk back up to the bealach where the car was parked. Sue and I did our best to contour all the way, dropping down to the road a few metres before we reached the bealach. We had encountered steep ground and should have stayed a little higher in Coire na Coinnich.

This short outing was enough for all of us on this breezy, showery day. So we returned to base for a leisurely afternoon, a stroll around Plockton and another communal meal, this time at Shores Restaurant. And very nice it was too.

The cottage we stayed in is named Duilisg, after the hill across the loch, Creag an Duilisg

Shore's Restaurant seems now to be the premier 'eating house' in Plockton

Herring gulls look out for scraps in the village...

...with great views down Loch Carron

During the course of all this the ever witty Martin S (aka 'Bagger Martin') turned up after a four hour drive from Aberdeen, to join us at Shore's and resume occupation of the bed-settee vacated on Sunday by Janet and David.

Here's today's route - 7 km and 737 metres ascent, for two 'Grahams' in rather less than 3½ hours.