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Report on Beinn Narnain
18 October 2008
(3377 views)
Beinn Narnain Saturday 18 October 2008
Present - Irene, Kathryn, Alison, Gail, Dorothy, Peter, Gavin, Phil and Jan
It was a good turn out considering the weather forecast, Jan was a friend of Alison and had decided that she and her wee dog Kip would join us. Seems Kip had been on one of the club outings before, so he must have liked us and decided to come back again. On the journey up the weather was pretty grim, raining and windy so we were thinking that we might end up having to do a low level walk but by the time we met at the car park at Succoth it looked like it might clear up for us. Peter and Gavin arrived and were already a bit dishevelled as they had had a puncture and had to change the tyre in a lay by off the A82.
After paying the ?1 per car to park, we crossed the road to make our way up the zig zag path. We followed this path for a short way, stopping to put on our waterproofs, then we left it to join the old track which took us up over the concrete blocks which had been used for the construction of the small dam. Peter decided at this point that he would continue on the zig zags and make his way directly to the Cobbler. I was sorely tempted to go with him, as the path we were on gave us the impression we were walking up a waterfall, it was really wet. It had been a long time since any of us had been on this track but none of us could remember it being so wet. Just to make sure it wasn?t only our feet that would get wet, the rain stayed with us for most of the ascent. But we did have a few wee breaks when it looked like it would brighten up. We eventually got off that track and onto the path up the grassy ridge. It was getting really windy here and Kathryn was blown over about three times. During a break in showers we decided to have our lunch at the dip after Cruach nam Miseag. This was a much needed re-fuelling as my legs were beginning to feel really shaky and I needed a wee sugar boost. I was also getting a wee bit crabbit by now!
After the break everyone felt energised enough to make the climb up the steep and rocky ridge and over the Spearhead. There was a fair wee bit of scrambling, but nothing hard just a good stretch. We soon reached the plateau and made our way to the trig point were Jan and Kip were patiently waiting for us, I am sure she must have rocket fuel for blood, she fairly runs up the hills. There was a group of men already there and they took our group photo for us. After another wee rest we made our way over the boulder field to find the path that would take us back down towards the Bealach a?Maim, then follow the path which skirts the Cobbler. This is where we made the decision to leave the Cobbler for another time. We followed this good path down past the Narnain Boulders where we stopped for a wee rest and marvelled at how lovely and blue the sky was now and what a great view of the Cobbler we had. Then it was on down the path and down the dreaded zig zags, which somehow didn?t seem so bad and back to the car. The whole trip took 5 hours. We decided that we had earned a drink and dinner at the local pub. A great ending to a really good day.
Dorothy McGhee
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