Friday 20 May 2011 - TGO Challenge Day 8 - By Loch Cuaich to Camp by Ruigh-aiteachain Bothy (NN 846 928 - 360 metres)

Route: virtually as planned, with Mike omitting Meall Chuaich and tomorrow's FWA up the Feshie started in preference to Allt Fhearnagan, with other minor adjustments.
See http://www.topwalks.com/tgoc2011.html Day 8 for map

Distance: 29km (Cum 184) [Mike 29 - Cum 174]
Ascent: 1240 metres (Cum 7595) [Mike 970 - Cum 5885]
Time taken: 10.7hrs including 2.6hrs stops
Weather: rain all night, turning to snow when we got up, then wintry showers all day, with spells of sunshine and spectacular rainbows (pictured)
Challengers encountered: Peter and Barbara this morning - we thought they would come here, but they haven't arrived, Richard Fuell who arrived a little while ago and is staying in the bothy, and Stefan, who has just (9.30) arrived by a different route. He has sore feet!
Others encountered: nobody
Flora and Fauna: mountain hares on Meall Chuaich
Best bit: fabulous rainbows over Glen Feshie
Worst bit: having full waterproofs on all day

After raining all night, it went quiet in the tents. Snow.

Nevertheless, I couldn't resist going up Meall Chuaich. It was even quite pleasant on top, by winter standards. I stayed for some time.

Meanwhile Mike caught up Peter and Barbara and found me by chance at Allt na Fearna. We spent an hour over a brew, and with some difficulty replaced a pole section on P+B's Nallo tent.

We left P+B to potter along at their own pace and enjoyed a bit of sunshine between the showers. An otherwise idyllic lunch spot on the bank of a river housed a cold wind that deterred us from brewing up.

A mixture of rough but easy ground and Land Rover tracks took us easily up to the summit of Carn Dearg Mor, Mike's first Corbett. A high wind made it unpleasant to stay long, though the views towards the Cairngorm plateau were great.

Mike continued on whilst I hunkered down to post the previous entry, during which one of several wintry squalls passed over, resulting in a spectacular rainbow.

The rest of today's walk was uneventful, even to the extent of the bothy being empty when we arrived. But Richard is now ensconced in there, and the ever jolly Stefan, who is proud to have seen an adder today, is again camping next to us on a fine patch of grass behind the bothy.

This is a lovely area of natural pine forest. I've enjoyed the evening (we arrived here at 6.15) gazing at it from the door of the tent.

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