Friday 23 March 2012 - Meall na Fearna (in a cloud)

With a dinner appointment in Manchester, today was always going to be a bit of a rush. Added to that, I woke feeling queasy. Then cold sweats hit me on the drive to Lochearnhead, and I soon realised that Ellie and Maggie had passed on the stomach bug that has inflicted them this week.

It was foggy, but my main requirement was well satisfied by the thankfully open and well stocked conveniences in Comrie and Lochearnhead.

I didn't feel like driving much further, so went round to Ardvorlich House and set off optimistically up Glen Vorlich. Tea stops kept me going, but by the time I reached the boggy watershed extreme weariness had set in - Dunkeld Hilton Lassitude, I suspect.

The route up Meall na Fearna doubles back a bit before rising steeply over rough ground to the summit. At 600 metres I pressed on into a cloud, forgetting the guide book's advice that "the high undulating ground above 600m may cause route finding problems in misty weather". Correct!

The Garmin gadget was switched on so it'll be interesting to see where my half hour's wanderings took me. But despite feeling unwell I eventually made it to the summit. I even found time to take a picture (above) which captures the ambience. I'd thought the fog would clear, but despite an optimistic comment from Louise, it didn't. Never mind.

The route down, on which I paid a little more attention to the map, was easy enough. But given that frequent stops were necessary and I'd resigned myself to a foodless day, the dinner appointment that I'd been looking forward to was aborted. Shame - it was with Sue's highly efficient PCT team that's being disbanded next week.

So I pottered back to Timperley after three excellent if fairly modest forays on which I didn't see a single other walker.

Tomorrow will be different.

In due course I may get around to an entry with some routes and a slide show - most of the pictures being from yesterday's wonderful outing on Creag Uchdag.  The routes are now with the slideshow - here.