Today was supposed to be a rest day for Sue, but the poor weather that had been forecast was postponed, so it was another Munro bagging day for her, bringing her tally to 20 since 26 April, only 4 of which she had been up before.
A 45 minute drive saw us parking up in the Grey Mare's Tail car park in Kinlochleven (£4.30).
Sue soon zoomed up towards the 1056 metre summit of Na Gruagaichean, whilst I went to a viewpoint for the next picture.
The Grey Mare's Tail was just visible ahead.
I soon entered Via Ferrata country. Not today, thanks.
Before long I was below the waterfall. To give perspective, the next picture shows the full drop of 50 metres.
Bluebells were abundant and I caught the songs of at least eight bird species in a small section of woodland.
Blackbirds can be added to this list.
The Pap of Glencoe stood out in the view down Loch Leven.
The metropolis of Kinlochleven was now far below. This was home to an aluminium smelting operation employing up to 800 people before its closure in 2000. Now it's a tourist town - the West Highland Way passes through and the Ice Factor, the world's biggest ice-climbing wall, opened in 2003, now welcomes over 150,000 visitors a year.
Numerous rhododendrons were passed on the steep climb to the former Mamore Lodge Hotel, suggesting a throwback to an earlier era when such specimens were brought back from distant regions such as the Himalaya.
The mountain on the right below is Beinn na Caillich, near the summit of which I enjoyed an idyllic campsite on 17 May 2010, before descending to the Mamore Lodge Hotel to pick up a resupply parcel on my 4th TGO Challenge.
Today the house sitter I met has long gone and the once splendid shooting lodge (and latterly hotel) dating from the late 19th century is now surrounded by a high fence and in a dilapidated state.
I wonder what happened to the full size snooker table that I noticed in one of the impressive rooms when I passed by in 2010?
A little further on, I met an elderly gentleman who was helping with some field studies for second year geology students who were littering the place. His response to my question "were you a teacher?" was in the affirmative and accompanied by a lecture on the local geology that had me thinking that he was possibly a retired professor from Imperial College, on a mission to help the students on their first foray outside the lecture room, which he described as 'challenging'.
We sat on a bench chatting, and admiring the wonderful view down Loch Leven.
Soon after that I joined the West Highland Way path, not overly busy today, and walked all the way back to Kinlochleven with two mountain bikers who were walking in order to avoid any mishaps with the numerous run off ditches for rainwater.
The lady was due to complete a 550 mile route around northern Scotland later in the day at Tyndrum. Her friend for the day was a more confident local mountain biker with whom I had a good chat on the way down.
On reaching the road at Kinlochleven, I admired a nice sign pointing walkers to Fort William. This was just off the well signposted West Highland Way route.
By the time I got back to the car I'd walked 5.7 km, with 280 metres ascent, taking a leisurely 2.5 hours.
Sue arrived back a couple of hours later, having happily got a view from her 1056 metre summit.
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