Collected Musings of a Hill Wanderer

I have written on this blog before about an idea of exploring the Western Isles that I got into my head. Well, it has come to pass and I’m now back from what turned out to be a good trip. The weather wasn’t too unkind to me at all and I reckon that I got far more sun than I had right to expect and even the rain that I got wasn’t unbearable either. Public transport got me from place to place without too much fuss and all of my lodgings did for me what I needed. Not surprisingly, I got in a good amount of walking with Skye, Harris and South Uist seeing my footfall, perhaps scratching the surface of what was on offer. Travelling about allowed me to see even more and the list of places glimpsed while on my way becomes a long one that includes names of familiar stomping grounds along with those on which I have yet to set foot. Relating it all in one long post seems too much so I’ll split up my account of the trip. I don’t know how many pieces there might be to it just yet; I think that I’ll see how that goes in the telling.

Stagecoach isn’t exactly flavour of the month in the Scottish Highlands right now. Their association with Scottish Citylink has resulted in changes, some for the better. In the background, there’s a potential takeover of the Rapsons group in the offing and West Coast Motors no longer run Scottish Citylink services. So, some suspicions of Stagecoach using Citylink as a stalking horse for moving wholesale into an area where they haven’t been up to now are understandable. Quite what the likes of the Competition Commision and the Office of Fair Trading will make of all this remains to be seen. In the meantime, West Coast Motors have launched services competing with those run by Citylink.

I first heard the murmurings of discontent on a trip to Lochaber in April and there was good reason: time was when two coaches were known to depart on a Citylink working at the same time if the number of passengers required it and that’s no more. In fact, I have have two experiences with 11:00 (formerly 11:20) departure to Glasgow from Fort William that rather makes me think that I should avoid using that service in the future. The first of these was last April and I was lucky enough to get on the coach. The second time around, I wanted to get on it at Tyndrum and found that it was full. There is a flip side to this, of course. For the summer at least, Citylink are operating a next to two hourly service between the capital of Lochaber and Scotland’s biggest city and it is virtually hourly in the afternoons. So, if we could change people’s behaviour so that the load is better spread, then the experience of getting ditched by a full coach would become a thing of the past.

In April, the extra services weren’t running and that brings me to perennial problem with the Highlands: the reduction in services during winter time. That means next to no train service on Sundays and the corresponding strain on coach services in the off season. In reality, there is no off season in Scotland with wonderfulness available to all every time of year; it’s just that the visitors often all turn up at the same time. Having been in Fort William of quiet January weekend, I know how quiet things can become but I still wonder if it would better to starting ensure that an improved public transport service started to operate from March on. There is a more extreme example of the shortness of the summer service period: direct coaches between Oban and Fort William are twice daily most of the year but for the Scottish summer school holidays when the service level is doubled. To my mind, that’s daft but I think that it has been the way for a good few years now.

On the subject of connections between Oban and Fort William, this year seems to see an improvement so long as you are willing to change in Tyndrum and don’t meet a full coach. That very same improvement applies to getting to Glasgow too, as does the caveat. Nevertheless, getting to the likes of Tyndrum or Dalmally for a walk has probably never been easier and I hope that’s how it stays. In fact, I would like all of the extra services to stay because of the limited train timetable along single track railway lines but their limitations are another story in itself.

This past weekend saw me head up to Lochaber in the Scottish Highlands after seeing a favourable weather forecast up there; the prospects for south of the border weren’t as good. A spot of overnight travel saw me reach Glasgow, from where a Scottish Citylink coach service carried me through the usually glorious countryside and it looking resplendent in the sunshine. The slopes may have been brown but many of the tops were still white, a reminder of the bumper crops of snow that fell over the past winter and spring. It seemed a pity to merely be passing through all of this wonderful stuff without stopping but it just isn’t physically possible to explore it all at once.

Appropriately enough for a day that was to be spent in its vicinity, my coach journey was completed on the shores of Loch Leven next to Glencoe village. My eventual destination was to be Kinlochleven but next bus there was nearly two hours away and a short stroll along the lower slopes of Sgurr na Cìche (also known as the Pap of Glencoe) was more than a way to spend the time. I found my way onto Forestry Commission land originally landscaped to mimic Canada for Lord Strathcona’s wife. Unfortunately, the creation of an artificial lochan and planting of Canadian flora failed to stall a return to British Columbia and the big house that he built is now Glencoe Hospital. I walked around the lochan, taking in the views of mountains, some with snowy caps, above and through gaps in the trees. At one point, I took a path that gave my legs a good workout, a prelude to what was to come later.

My time well spent, I caught my bus for the short hop to Kinlochleven where a trek to and from Loch Eilde Mor was in my mind. I was retracing my steps from a visit in damper, clammier weather last August. Kinlochleven seemed more alive with people when I got there this time around and there were no midges to plague those who were out and about. When I set to ascending the steep slopes by Allt a’ Chumhann and Allt nan Slatan, it didn’t take long for me to find myself away from humanity. Views down along Loch Leven caused me to dally; I saw the potential in August but I knew that better weather would improve the views and I wasn’t wrong. The Mamores and their others were the mountainous wall on the right as I looked west while, on left, the view towards Sgurr na Cìche took in what divides Glen Coe from Loch Leven.

By the time that I reached more level ground, banks of cloud had bubbled up and were limiting the sun but not that much. It meant a spot of patience was in order when it came to photographic activity, a very minor problem. By now, I had made my way from a well made path onto a good vehicle track and it didn’t take that long for me to reach Loch Eilde Mor from that point. I would have walked its entire length were it not for doubts regarding my catching a bus to Fort William in time to reach my accommodation for the night. Thus, I turned back with Locheilt Lodge appearing tantalisingly close. In the event, I could have continued on a bit more since I was left with an hour to spare before the said bus arrived. However, it’s best to be safe than sorry sometimes and I was getting tired anyway. On the way back, rather than following the path that I used on the way up, I stayed on the vehicle track and followed it until Mamore Lodge, after which I dropped down to the road on the West Highland Way.

Fort William was reached in good time and I spent a quiet night there before starting my journey home after enjoying the early morning sunshine. I was wondering if I left the area prematurely and whether a little more planning would have made a longer break of it. The views from the coach were as good on the way down as they were on the way up, even if a strange sense of fatigue with all things brown came over me. Even so, I might have been visiting Lochaber for next to ten years but I keep finding something new that always seems to convince me that I’ll only ever scratch the surface of all that it has to offer. I have left hoping to return and a trek from Corrour to Kinlochleven might be a plausible proposition that returns me to the shores of Loch Eilde Mor and Loch Leven again.

It’s very human to look back at the turn of a year/decade/century/millennium/etc. and, this time last year, I took the opportunity to look over my travels in 2006. In the same vein, I now cast my mind back over the same sort thing but for 2007 instead. If 2006 was to be the year of seeking out pastures new, then 2007 has been a year largely taken up with following long distance trails into country familiar to me from a different angle and, more often than not, into country that I am visiting for the first time.

2007 was to start quietly with only one walking excursion in January. The weather didn’t tempt but for day when I went to Chirk for a trek to Llangollen that saw me hop over and back along the Wales-England border before picking up a small piece of the Offa’s Dyke Path and leaving that to get to Llangollen before nightfall. It was a case of something old, something new and put an idea into my head that laid the foundations for a walk later in the year. The long distance trail ethic that was to pervade my walking in 2007 had made an early appearance.

February built up the long distance trail trend with my exploring two trails. First up was the Pennine Way with a hike from Hebden Bridge to Littleborough giving me a feel for the moors above Calderdale. Walks along the Pennine Way, still unfinished business in 2008, were to pervade my outings until the end of April. My second excursion took me up to Scotland for the southernmost part of the West Highland Way: Milngavie to Drymen. This was also a case of going into countryside new to me and, like the Calderdale trot, it was to give rise to more excursions later on.

The Pennine Way hiking continued in March and it started again early in the month with a trek that saw me return to Calderdale for a walk from Todmorden to Burnley by way of both the Pennine Way and the Pennine Bridleway. This was followed up at the end of the month when I yomped from Haworth to Burnley.

My Pennine wanderings were set to continue in April and the first one plugged a gap in the itinerary from Edale to Haworth: Marsden to Littleborough via Wessenden Reservoir. It was to prove a claggy day until lunchtime, something that very much focussed the mind when it came to navigation. My next day along the Pennine Way was in clearer if blustery conditions. It also was to take me through some of the best countryside on the Pennine Way as I voyaged from Horton-in-Ribblesdale to Hawes. Rain was to beset me on my next excursion as I left Malham Tarn to head for Gargrave but I left the rain after me in Malham and things cheered up immeasurably as I was nearing my destination for the day. Those two excursions left a gap that was filled on a tramp from Malham Tarn over Fountains Fell and Pen-y-Ghent to Horton on a day that when it felt like summer.

I started May with another trip blessed by fair weather. After years of admiring it, I finally made my way up to the top of Skiddaw. Some may view the manicured lines of the "tourist track" that I followed as dull, I’d rather not scare myself with descents that are too steep so I well appreciated its gentler approach and I still found time to take in Little Man and Lattrigg as well. Next up in May was a trip that my memory reckons happened in July; it’s just as well that I have this blog! I made my return to Chirk for another stroll along the Offa’s Dyke Path, this time to Oswestry. Cloud predominated on the day so photographic opportunities were rare. Even so, it didn’t stop my having a good walk in countryside that was new to me. If I had more time, I would have dawdled more so it might time for a return. In walking terms, the month of May went out with a bang: a two day trek on the West Highland Way along the banks of Loch Lomond with an overnight stay in Rowardennan. I very much took a chance with the weather on this one but Scotland didn’t let me down on what is for me one of the finest stretches of the WHW.

June was to be a quieter month with regard to walking and the long evenings were allowing me to get out in the part of Cheshire’s hill country that is near me. These outings were to become a feature of the "summer". June soon became a sodden affair but I still returned to Rhinog country for a creditable stroll through a landscape that was anything but dry. The weather that we were getting was a foretaste of what was to come, making 2007 a year of two halves: one fabulous and one that returned us to reality. Alan Sloman was lucky to complete his LEJOG when he did.

July was for many a washout but I managed to get two decent Lakeland excursions out of the month. Both involved my heading to Windermere with the first being an over and back hike to Kentmere and the second being a trek to Staveley via Kentmere. On both outings, I enjoyed the fine scenery in excellent weather, something that must sound ironic to those sodden by the floods of 2007. Yes, water had accumulated underfoot but the worst difficulties, if any, were avoidable.

August saw me finishing two long distance trails and starting on another one. The first to be completed was the West Highland Way and that happened on my now habitual summertime stay in Scotland. That saw me complete of perhaps the noisiest stretch of the trail: that between Bridge of Orchy and Inverarnan and with some sun to enliven the views too. The other walking that I did during that trip was a soggy reconnaissance trip among the hills near Kinlochleven. The other trail completed was one passing not far from where I live: the Gritstone Trail. Hikes from Macclesfield to Congleton and from Eaton to Kidsgrove in pleasant conditions allowed me to bring my walking of the trail towards a good end. A final evening stroll was sufficient for me to walk the final short stretch around Bollington before I then walked home to my house. The bank holiday weekend at the end of the month allowed me the opportunity to start off the Rob Roy Way by walking from Drymen to Callander with an overnight stay in Aberfoyle. This got me into nice countryside that I hadn’t visited before and it seems more than worthy of a return.

After what must sound like a bountiful August, hillwalking activities were less prevalent for the rest of the year, even if I had planned not to have things slow down. September and November stand out as months when you could have said that I had gone into hibernation. October saw me head out for a local constitutional to take in the Autumn colour, follow streams in local hill country and visit the South Pennines for a hike lacking in any real progress on completing the missing link in my Pennine Way journey so far. In December, I decided to vanquish any sense of hibernation by another wander among the hills lining the Cheshire-Derbyshire border followed up by a fleeting unintended visit to the hill country of the Long Mynd near Church Stretton.

All in all, 2007 was another good walking year for me. Unless you lost out in the flooding (and I don’t envy anyone who did: hope it all works out alright for them), it would be a travesty to remember 2007 for its sodden summer when we had so much clement weather earlier in the year. As it happens, the continual greyness that pervaded nearly all of 2004 remains with me with 2007’s bright spots easily cause me to forget any grey bits. The proverbial question of what 2008 will bring does raise its head as it is wont to do; so also is the realisation that the future is not ours to see (we’re probably better off!). I never go in for big plans anyway but that doesn’t stop me having ideas in my mind for when the opportunities to explore them arise. We’ll see what happens…

Because I had until this year only walked the West Highland Way north of Bridge of Orchy, I had the photos from the corresponding treks bundled with those from Lochaber. Following my establishment of a Pennine Way gallery and my walking the rest of the WHW, it was time to split the previous Lochaber gallery in two and recognise that some photos that were included there really belonged under the Argyll umbrella. So, I now have tow sections in the gallery, one for a circuit of Lochaber and another for the WHW. The WHW one is still awaiting more photos and some that are already included may need a spot of sympathetic retouching so the WHW show really is only starting. And knowing me, I may even encounter the WHW again and again so you never know what’ll turn up yet.