Sue and Martin in Mallorca 2019

Sue and Martin in Mallorca 2019
On the Archduke's Path in Mallorca

Thursday 19 April 2012

Thursday 19 April 2012 - Harvey's First Corbett

Today dawned fine and leisurely. Happily Sue found time to join me for a walk from Kingussie, together with four year old Harvey.

A by now overcast day saw us plodding slowly up Glen Gynack towards Pitmain Lodge, where a huge new building is going up.

Harvey's ablutions were dealt with and we continued on up the path to a conveniently positioned lunch hut. Elevenses revealed my failure to re-stock the shortbread box, but at least there was a piece for Sue. "Harvey wouldn't have liked it anyway" observed Sue, "he prefers hares or ptarmigan" she added later, as he strained on the leash in their presence.

As we rose up the slopes of Beinn Bhreac, the path that stops on the Ordnance Survey map continued all the way to the summit as we passed through a fresh snowfield that became even fresher as we passed through the flaky cloud.

A winding track then delivered us to the 878 metre summit of Carn an Fhreiceadain. It wasn't entirely clear where we were, so I turned on my Satmap GPS. It was intent on plotting a route, as the crow flies, from Skye to Westminster (700km - I'm sure someone might like to know). So Sue turned on her Garmin Geko which "always tells you where you are". It didn't, preferring to interrogate the user about its 'settings'. Eventually, after numerous random pressings of buttons, the Satmap gave us our location, on the correct path to the summit. It was just as well the gadget remained turned on, as we immediately set off in the wrong direction.

Anyway, the header image should confirm that Sue and Harvey, her placid rescued lurcher, did eventually make it to the top of Harvey's first Corbett.

The descent was easy, as we soon freed ourselves from the cloud and any precipitation reduced to a very light mizzle.

Three old but jolly men were ascending, the only people seen on the hill today, and after lunching in a pleasant spot by Allt Mor we continued on back to Kingussie after about 19km, 700 metres ascent, and 5 hours.

A very jolly little outing, and thanks go to Sue and Harvey for finding time to accompany me, and to Neil for not seeming to mind being left behind with the tough job of cleaning the hostel after last night's occupants. Apart from me a French couple had arrived at around 1.30am! So any mess was probably mine!

3 comments:

Louise said...

So sorry I couldn't join you, but I would only have held you all up, so it's just as well. I have my eye on that Corbett before the Challenge, I hope.

AlanR said...

hi Martin,
My first thoughts were, Why does Sue want a Lurcher? Then i realised that Sue's waterproofs are Rab blue not purple. Then enlarging the photo i got my answer.
Have a good time. Thats a nice area.

Phreerunner said...

Thanks Louise, thanks Alan. I don't think you would have held us up, Louise! But it didn't help that my mailbox was full when you sent the earlier comment about the route. Sorry you couldn't make it.