Oban Weekend

I do love a weekend break during term-time. Leaving work sharp on a Friday afternoon and having a couple of nights away refreshes me so much, seeing me return to work on Monday feeling like I’ve had a holiday! This weekend was a real cracker!

The Main Event: Ilona’s Corbett Compleation Party

The main focus of the weekend was the completion of corbetts for Ilona Turnbull. Bruce and I were delighted to be invited to join Ilona and friends for this adventure, a great opportunity to meet Twitter people in real life.

Staying in Oban was great, the only downside was that our accommodation was up a hill, a steep trek up and down each day. Had I remembered footwear other than Birkenstocks for leisure this wouldn’t have been an issue. The upside of the location was most definitely the great views of the bay. I joked with Bruce that perhaps Oban and the ferries coming and going may overtake my fascination with the locks on Fort Augustus!

Ferry to Mull

Saturday started with the ferry across to Mull. Meeting the first of the group at the ferry terminal we made introductions and chatted before boarding. We were foot passengers, others had cars for which we were very grateful as we got a lift to the start of the walk, saving time and a longer than anticipated walk out.

On board we met Ilona, her family and friends, and chat was easy as we all got to know one another a bit. It was quite surreal in some ways as it was almost a who’s who of hillwalking with some very familiar faces from social media.

After a very quick journey we were off the boat and bitterly disappointed to find that the cafés didn’t open until later! This was a real letdown having spotted a sign offering breakfast rolls! (There’s food on the big ferry, but we were on the smaller one).

Dùn na Ghaoithe

The merry band set off in good spirits with the plan to celebrate Ilona’s round of corbetts on Dùn na Ghaoithe. Having already compleated the munros in 2020 (just ahead of Bruce) this is a significant achievement and a massive effort in terms of commitment, logistics and planning!

Most of the group made it to the top, a few dropped off along the way, the important thing being that they’d been there; it was the sense of community and being part of the occasion in whatever way folks could manage that made the day what it was.

As we made our way up the hill the conditions deteriorated. We’d started off with a day that the optimist in me hoped would brighten up. The optimist was wrong, as was the weather forecast.

We were blessed with some initial views and a a beautiful rainbow. Then we were rained upon quite a bit.

Waterproofs on, we gloried on. The path was decent and we were grateful of the building at the masts that provided brief shelter from the wind that had picked up, allowing us to wait and regroup.

The views (according to Walk Highlands) are great; we didn’t see them so may have to return another day.

There was a point at which the wind became really quite unpleasant. It was blowing quite strongly and seemed to be coming right across us. Alongside the heavy rain, had there not been a sense of occasion I’d have been sorely tempted to bail, all the more so as the mist had descended and visibility was pretty poor at times. It didn’t take much to lose sight of those in front.

There was a brief section where the drop off the slope was pretty steep; again in the wind this was not my favourite place. As the ridge widened it was possible to stay comfortably away from it, all the time getting closer to our summit.

Reaching the huge cairn that isn’t actually the summit, we found a couple of our group who went on while we waited there for others to join us once again. The cairn provided a fine shelter from the wind until it changed direction once more.

Continuing on, we had a wee bit of ascent before reaching fairly level terrain that took us all the way to the real summit of Dùn na Ghaoithe. There we gathered, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the star of the day, Ilona.

As her imminent arrival was announced we formed a guard of honour with our walking poles and one special friend piped her in. Serious kudos for lugging the bagpipes up the hill and playing on such a driech day!

Celebrations over – Cherry Ripe sweets, bubbles, whisky – it was time to round up all the walkers (more challenging than it sounds for reasons that will remain on the hill) and begin to retrace our steps. As on the way up, folks went at their own pace and enjoyed company and chat back to the cars.

Special thanks to George for getting us back to the ferry. This time with food, thankfully as I was pretty ravenous by this point. The brilliant day was rounded off in The Oban Inn. Ilona, if you read this please accept my sincere thanks for the invitation. Keep us posted on future dates!

Breaking Up The Journey Home: Ben Chonzie

Having various options (alongside very wet boots from yesterday) we were keen to do something in finer weather, checking the forecasts for the various options under consideration. I didn’t want a really long day as my preference was to arrive home before with a bit of the evening remaining; Ben Chonzie ticked all the boxes and proved an ideal stop off.

It was an ‘interesting’ hill. We’ve both previously climbed it but neither of us could remember anything about it; no surprise there as far as I’m concerned but Bruce is usually reliable on this front. It transpired to be pretty easy in terms of navigation, but was also one of the busiest hills we’ve done in a very long time! Our conclusion was that we’ve never seen so many people on a munro apart from Ben Nevis or Ben Lomond! The benefit of this was there were some interesting characters and stories to meet and be heard along the way.

We met one chap who was on the descent, fair chuffed with himself as it was his first munro; his mate had bailed as he was finding it tough, while he recognised the need for mental strength and was determined to succeed. Hopefully the first of many for him.

We met another young couple doing their first munro, yet another pair that gave up as it was getting chilly and they weren’t quite equipped (sensible decision, it’ll be there next week), and many others of varying ages and abilities, the youngest being three!

Heading up was slow and steady. Deemed to be one of the easier munros, we debated whether this plaudit is justified. In some respects it is ‘easy’: it’s a relatively short day, the path is good and navigation is not particularly challenging even in less than ideal conditions. On the downside, the climb starts from the car park and is pretty unrelenting with very little respite ahead of the summit plateau.

We set off in bright sunshine and were not unhappy when the cooling mist enveloped us and cut off the heat of the sun.

Having left the main track behind at a cairn, the initial path faded as we made our way towards the summit. There were cairns marking the route and staying between these kept us on course.

Each time we thought that we were maybe nearing the summit another cairn would appear or we’d catch a glimpse of something a bit higher again.

The misty conditions made it difficult to see what was ahead, but the fence posts gave a clear line to follow, useful both on the ascent and in retracing the route back.

Sadly there were no summit views but the big windshelter cairn did provide a fine setting for our sandwiches. We didn’t linger too long as it was a wee bit cooler when stopped.

Heading back down the views opened up as we came out of the cloud.

We were amazed by the number of people we met on the return leg also, some on their way up, others passed on route down.

The sun had gone by the time we descended leaving some cloud, but the day was still fine. There were a few very fine spots of rain, the sky suggesting there was rain further afield, so we horsed on hoping to stay dry as our boots were beginning to dry out after their soaking on Mull. Mercifully the rain didn’t come to anything!

We made it up and down safely, happy to have had two great hill days and with lots of lovely memories to enjoy in days / weeks to come.