Coulin to Loch an Nid
After a great night’s sleep, I woke up to a drier morning! I’m able to get weather forecasts via my tracker and I’d requested one last night. It said that today was meant to be drier, but I wasn’t quite sure whether to believe it. I was very pleased to find out it was true!
I set off along the track, to Coulin Lodge, then up through the woodland. The views of the surrounding mountains were beautiful. It really was a stunning place.
The sun came out and so did my sun hat! In Ardnamurchan, I had wondered if my sun cream would last me until the end of my trip. The weather of the past week has definitely helped that, and I have plenty for the last couple of weeks! It felt amazing to be walking along, with the hills around me. Some of the area has been planted with native woodland, as part of a regeneration programme. It was really nice to see it establishing well. There are projects all across Scotland to replant the Caledonian pine forests, making a nature corridor through Scotland. The aim is to allow animals, such as red squirrels to spread and mix their gene pool.
I turned off the track, to take the path down to Kinlochlewe. This path was VERY boggy. As the path narrowed the bogs got deeper and it was definitely a challenge at points to stay upright and not sink beyond my ankles at points!
My reward was the arrival into Kinlochlewe and a visit to the village shop. In the shop, I bumped into Ella for the final time. She had only camped a mile or so down the path of me last night. It’s amazing how you can be so close to each other on the trail and have no idea.
From the shop I treated myself to a bottle of orange juice, a milky way and a bag of salt and vinegar seaweed crisps. I’ve had these crisps when they’re on Aldi Specialbuys, and they’re really good! The packet says that it contains 3.2 servings, but I can in fact say they have 1 serving (if you’re Danielle and walking LEJOG 😆)! I enjoyed them all very much whilst I sat on a picnic bench in the carpark. The local community looks after the picnic area and the toilets. They were lovely and really well kept. They even included a shower, but I gave that a miss, as my shower kit was at the bottom of my bag.
From Kinlochlewe, I took the track, then path through Kinlochlewe Forest towards Lochan Fada. The path was beautiful, with a mixture of trees and heather. The cloud cover was coming in and out, making it perfect walking weather!
I passed a couple of small lochans, before meeting Lochan Fada, and taking the path up to the bealach.
The little path was marked by tiny cairns. Some only had six stones! They guided me up to Bealach na Croise. Where there was a much bigger cairn.
From the bealach, the path petered out, but I needed to make sure that I reached the river to cross above the waterfall. This meant it was finally time to get my compass out and do some proper micro navigation! I’d been waiting all trip for a time to really use my compass skills. It felt really good to put them to the test.
My compass bearing was spot on, and as I reached the river, I came to a small path, showing me the common crossing point. I felt elated, there’s such a sense of achievement in walking across rough terrain from tuft of grass to stone to the next tuft, then finally arriving exactly at your planned destination!
I made my way to the bealach, then followed the path down and alongside Allt Cul Doireachan.
Along the way, I spotted some club moss. Club moss is a moorland plant, it’s one of the oldest plants in our country, having been around at the time of the dinosaurs. They have found fossilised remains proving that it used to grow 30m tall and over a foot wide! It now grows at a much smaller size, but it was beautiful to see.
I reached the bottom of the glen, where I decided to camp next to a ruin. The views were incredible and the ruins gave me a little bit of shelter from the wind. The water was rushing over the quartzite slabs of Sgùrr Ban, giving a quiet rumble in the background (almost like a very quiet road). It felt so peaceful and I felt so lucky to be able to camp in such a secluded place.
Tonight I went to bed, knowing that I have only 10 days left on my trip. It feels amazing to have made it so far and I’m definitely going to savour every last moment. I remember celebrating my first 10 days completed, it felt like a milestone and that I was truly on my way. To now think that I’m very close to 100 days, is amazing and quite hard to believe!
Leave a Reply