Leaving Edinburgh on the Thursday evening at 6, we arrived late at Glenfinnan and hoofed it up to Corryhully, all 4 of us (Myself, Moray, Chas and Barbara) soaked to the skin by the time we arrived. There was a German student, David. The fire was quickly lit and David was encouraged out of his sleeping bag with a can of beer. Can't remember what time we wound things up, but it was into the wee small hours, which meant a late start on Friday.
Looking down from the pass to the head of Glenfinnan
Setting off well after lunchtime, we hauled slightly lightened packs over the pass between Streap and Sgurr Thuilm. Having been down this way before, we crossed the river to the east side as early as possible to avoid the lethal gorge path further down that starts just above the waterfall. The path on the east side of the gorge is level and easy to follow. On the west, it is no wider than a boot and with a severe drop to the right. A simple slip would mean disaster - body bag type disaster, not spreigned ankle type disaster.
Reaching the bridge at the bottom, we headed through the woods up to the track as it was getting dark. If there's a path here, we couldn't find it, and simply headed in the general direction of the track, knowing that we would hit it eventually. The forest is very boggy, almost swamplike, and became something of a surreal experience in the pitch black. Chas, being a retired chap was beginning to find it laborious but we weren't far off the bothy now. Still, it took us longer than we thought. A 'diversion' had been set up through yet another section of forest and we had to follow a series of markers before popping out the other side and to the bothy. At least it wasn't raining, or particularly cold.
Glen Pean Bothy
Saturday was an earlier start. We backtracked along to Strathan, which was easy enough, but Chas was still fatigued from the previous day so we hitched a lift from a guy along to the eastern end of Loch Arkaig. From there it was a relatively short 4 1/2 K's to Invermallie bothy. Arriving with plenty time before darkeness, Invermallie was already filling up with crews from Edinburgh, Fort William and elsewhere. Some were still sleeping from an extremely late night previously. Others had recently arrived and were planning similar. Music played, fires burned, drams were savoured and whole pallets of beer disappeared. Accumulated aches and pains washed away and sleep drifted in.
Sunday was a leasurely walk out to Achnacarry, where we were taken back to Glenfinnan in a taxi by Jamie Blackburn, an old acquiantance from years back. From there, a decent lunch in the Glenfinnan House Hotel before returning to Edinbugh.
