Ròineabhal and Theastabhal - 11/12/04

I continue to curse the weekend busservice down here, which is not really good. The first bus goes at 7.54, which is too early for walking purposes. It's still dark at that hour. So I went on the 11.39, which didn't leave me a lot of time for walking - 4 hours to be precise. Remember, it gets dark quite early up here - 3.45 is the very latest you can be out and about off the road.

Walked out of Balallan at 11.50, heading west towards Ròineabhal, but not intending to climb the hill. As I knew the terrain, I could maintain quite a good pace and managed to cover the 4km to the valley south of the hill in 1 hour. It is not easy walking country, but I've grown used to it. It's quite a nice walk up to the top of the pass, but after that it gets a wee bit wet. The country opens up once you head west towards Loch Langabhat, and it's a long descent. It's important to know where you want to go, as this is potentially confusing country. Theastabhal is the next hill (do not pronounce the leading 'th'),and it has a hidden outpost. It only becomes clear once you go down the slope. Don't become confused by the vast myriad of lochans to the north of Loch Langabhat. Use it an orienteering tool, rather. What is confusing is the low hill by the lochside. I kept up at quite a high contour, and by 2 o'clock went round the southern side of Theastabhal to head out towards Airidh a'Bhruaich, southeast of there. Once on the other side of the hill, things became very boggy and difficult, but I decided not to head into the village, but instead steer an easterly course for Balallan, visible in the distance. There are two lochans along the way (sorry haven't got the map with me), and then you hit the fences again. I nearly had a grouse dinner - a lame one was sitting in the heather, but I couldn't bring myself to wring its neck. By 2.45 it started to drizzle, and it became steadily more gloomy. Having negotiated a couple of awkward fences, I finally came out onto the main road at the eastern end of Airidh a'Bhruaich at 3.15. Walked up that road to Balallan, only to stumble across a party of stalkers who were blasting off at something in the moors. Finally got into Balallan by 4pm, when it was quite dark already. After the drink at the Claitair Hotel, it was 4.40 and fully dark. The rain was belting down and it was not a very nice 75 minutes to Kershader. Particularly not if you get wisecracks offering you lifts in the opposite direction. What's the use of that, eh?