Area: Tyndrum, Scotland
With such limited time at my disposal, I just focused on filling in a few obvious gaps in the Southern Highlands (not that I'm a munro bagger or anything). I have been up Ben Lui twice in the past, and it is one of Scotland's finest mountains, but I hadn't done its twin satellites on the Tyndrum side. So this seemed a logical outing from my base in Dalrigh. After a good night's sleep in the van, and a bacon bap, I set off across the Fillan into a glorious morning towards the wonderful regenerated woodland of Coille Coire Chuilc. A long and rather boggy haul up the shallow Allt Choire Dubchraig, rarely particularly steep, leads into the upper bowl and the ridge east of the summit. After this, the hardest work is done and the broad ridge was superb in crystal clarity - the Southern Highlands at their sparkling May best. When it is like this, it is magical: and it took me right back to my first ever May trip in 1989, when I went up the southern Glencoe peaks with a similarly inexperienced lad from Ruabon (it was a Manchester University hiking club trip). In a different technological context, we had no weather forecast and after a stunning, glorious start on Buachille Etive Beag it changed very suddenly on Bidian nam Bian, one of Scotland's more serious peaks, and a salutary lesson ensued. No chance of that happening today, the weather was set fair until tomorrow morning at least, and there was barely a cloud in the sky as I reached the undistinguished summit of Dubhchraig. From here, the ridge stretches out to Ben Oss with Lui in the distance. I could also see across to yesterday's peaks as well as the hills across the valley like Beinn Dorain. I trotted along the ridge to a steep descent down to the pronounced Bealach Bhuidhe (with lonely Loch Oss shimmering below) before climbing back out the other side to a forepeak, and then another descent before the main summit of Ben Oss was reached. This mountain is famous for its full-on view of Ben Lui, arguably one of the best views in Scotland. A couple of snow patches lent this particular definition. I then had a bit of a dilemma: whether to continue to Ben Lui or fashion an interesting descent down to Cononish. I went for the latter, returning to the col as I thought I had read it is the best way down to the glen. I had actually read that it is the worst way down, and that it is conventional to retrace steps. Oh well, I should concentrate harder! It was fine, a little steep at the top and then tiresomely tussocky at the bottom, but the Choire Bhuidhe was completely untracked, empty and with the Highland flavour I enjoy. A tricky river crossing at the bottom, but with a superb view up to the central gully of Ben Lui. A climb then led to the track that becomes a road lower down the glen, because there is a working goldmine two-thirds of the way up. It is still a long haul back to Dalrigh though, and I began to feel those 10,500ft of ascent over the last 24 hours, and another 20k day, albeit at a very gentle pace. A river bath in Strath Fillan, and then a gentle amble through the birch woods to the Tyndrum cafe for scampi and chips.
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