TGO Challenge 2012: Day 2 Coirehully Bothy to Eas Chi-aig Waterfalls

 Distance 35.7km  Ascent 1,507m

I  woke early again.  This time however it was because Nick & Kay had started to get up early - Nick hadn't put his glasses on when reading the time and thought it was 7:15 not 5:15!  As I was already behind schedule I decided to follow my FWA to the road at the West end of Loch Arkaig then walk along the Loch to a picnic spot Alistair had previous camped at in 2010.  I hoped to get a forecast on route that might indicate the weather had improved for Sunday so I could go up the Munros I'd planned.  Unfortunately it proved to be very  wishful thinking! I set off walking up vehicle track which lead towards Gleann Cuirnean with Jim and Geoff.  The route up was easy going with great views.

Glenn Cuirnean

I stopped for a slightly longer break at the bealach and Jim and Geoff went off ahead.  With Mr Grumpy's warnings in mind  I crossed over the river early on and followed rough terrain for quite some way down Glenn Cuirnean.  I saw Geoff heading up over a very steep slope to the East - it did looked quite hard work! Later on down the river I caught up with Jim & Nick & Kay towards the bridge.  They had crossed much lower down than me.  Jim was quite annoyed that for the first time he'd fallen in the river  after slipping off a rock showing Kay the easy route across (to look I think he'd just got a wet boot!).  We all pressed on through slightly boggy ground to the bridge.  At this point Nick and Kay decided to try the South Shore of Loch Arkaig and headed off.  Unfortunately I never saw them again on this year's challenge to see how they got on. I was pleased to see they had completed on the Monday as planned when I got to Montrose!  


Me and Jim continued through very boggy ground to get to Strathan.  At this point Jim headed North to go to the next Glen North (whose name I forget).  I set off down the track and then road along the North Shore of Loch Arkaig.

Loch Arkaig

There is much to write about the route it is a very long road walk!  I deviated off at one point to follow the forest track.  About quarter past 6 I was approaching my planned camping spot and got phone signal.  I used the opportunity to call Alistair and check things were OK at home.  At that point he told me about the weather - MWIS were predicting heavy persistent rain and gusts up to 110mph on the hills.  There was no chance of climbing the munros.  A tad disappointed that my early hill bagging plans were to no avail I carried on to the picnic spot.  The spot was well hidden from the road but unfortunately I lot of people kept turning up to take photos of the waterfall!  I had a whisky and hoped tomorrow wouldn't be too bad - at least I only need to get to Laggan Locks hostel.