It looked to be going to be not too bad a day, bearing in mind that the week before we had left the car at 4C and then been chased off a 500m hill by a blizzard the bar wasn't very high.
To leave the car with the temperature in double figures was amazing, we were in Amulree as shown below, junction of the red and yellow road, so our walkstarted here rather than where the boot is, which is from http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=31009
But as soon as you leave the A road, the route planned was pretty much as shown.
A few spots of rain hit us as we started out south from the car - surely not..... but patches of blue were showing.... and anyway it was all going to be fine, I'd cheated death and survived
As we started up the hill, it became clear that I'd made a good choice in not bringing the proper winter coat as even the fleece was abandoned
The view starts to open up pretty quickly looking south at out destination, you can see Meall nan Caorach (Hill of the Sheep) on the left and Meall Reamhar (Stout or Fat Hill) on the right, reference GM/SS-104 and 105 respectively with a trig point TP4737 on Caorach.
What we didn't at first clock was what was opening up behind
I make no apology that there are quite a few photos looking this way from different points, it was just too nice
Eventually (well in pretty quick time actually) we made the first summit
Where we made use of the trig point as a handy mast support
And set to with the radio
and the Westmalle Trapist beer from belgium (just a small one). All the while the weather improved
That's Schiehallion in the background.
A visit to the WAB net on 7.160 proved very pleasant and yielded 15 qsos in 7 minutes, they seemed very pleased with WAB NN93,the trig and the SOTA summit. Then we moved down the band to try and get the SOTA regulars. Spotting ourselves on the facebook page or sotawatch proved problematic. The cell from Amulree did not have data, the only way we could get it was to walk a bit down the south flank where it was shielded and reconnect! Eventually I was noticed and the usual folks were found, including Mike G6TUH, Ken and Christine, GM0AXY and GM4YMM, Mick, M0MDA and of course Don G0RQL amongst others. Jim, EI9GLB was very strong and nice to catch Carl 2E0HPI/P from Hartlepool Lighthouse. 20M yielded a few more regular friends, OK1SDE, EA2DT, Manuel (who also provided AO150I celebrating 150 years of the ITU), Guru, EA2IF, Robert SP8RHP and several more who I miss when they're not there!
The view was very pleasant,
But if we were to make the next stop before too late we had to start down, it was quite a steep slope down 160m and up the same, looking at what we had to do looked quite daunting
Basically straight down and then straight up where the fence is.
It really is quite steep
Ian tried to get me across the slope but it doesn't do it justice
Eventually we made the cairn, and more rubbish views
We were a bit surprised to find it had taken us less than 30 minutes to get down and up!!
We soon had the station reassembled
And added Manuel EA2DT back into the log! Plus several more regulars on 20m and then 40m with Ken and Christine GM0AXY and GM4YMM again and of course Don G0RQL!
17m yielded a few including OM1AX (also on 20) and although we could hear big signals from Japan and Thailand they couldn't hear our 4W.
By now the weather was becoming very pleasant
But it was time to head down
Looking north you can see the large wind farm, what's not to like, free electricity. Beyond that is the Cairngorms
By now the sun was getting quite low in the sky, but I couldn't resist one last ridge so we stayed a bit higher than we should just because it was so nice
and yet another view of Loch Freuchie, just because it 's so pretty with the sun so low
And a last look back at the twin peaks behind us from the ridge
and then from the valley below
and finally from back at the car
Just 10 miles around the A822 we end up at Dunkeld having passed on the way the Strathbaan brewery just outside Amulree http://strathbraanbrewery.tel/ so it would have been rude not to stop for a pint of "Due South" overlooking the river Tay
This story seems to have had more than its usual share of pictures, probably because it was such a "pretty" day!!
No comments:
Post a Comment