Last Meet
Rain and gale force winds failed to dampen the ardour of the hardy Ptarmigans and their guests, most of whom made it to the terminus. Lead mines were examined and oak woods explored. Sadly, the summit of Ben Resipole proved too ambitious in the limited time and adverse conditions. One group attempted Garbh Bheinn. Sorry no photographs of drowned rats on summits but a close up of the local wild life from Tom Stratton more than compensates.
Many sensible people kept to low levels but our hardy lot was ambitious.
We wanted to climb up Ben Resipol (especially after the glowing report by Christine in her recent email).
We lost about half an hour waiting for the ferry going out.
(Would a 7am start help in future?) Sadly this left us with too little time to get up the Ben.
The minor hills east of the paved track were still a challenge, as tough grassy undulations gave us a serious "workout".
Even with strong gusty winds and heavy showers of rain we were able to glimpse some distant views
and could once again appreciate that you do not always need to climb a Munro to see inspiring scenery.
In Glencoe on our return we saw what appeared to be a cloud high up on one bastion of a hill.
On looking closer we were astounded to see that the tail of a high level waterfall was being blown horizontally eastwards by the high winds.
While the Lake District was suffering from a water shortage all the burns on our trip were spectacularly full of white water.
Michael Good
A local resident at Victoria Bridge caught napping by Tom Stratton.
