250 Grahams/Donalds left out of 364 after 16 summits visited this month. No frost at night. Damp throughout but two good clear days for great views. The day with the wind turbine on a Donald summit, Bowbeat Hill 626 m, in the Moorfoot Hills SE of Penicuik. And the day I walked up Windlestraw Law 659 m and Whitehope Law 623 m.
7 to 9 hour days when I was attempting summits left me exhausted. I was well pleased with the 16 total (out of a possible 22) and the lower walks on rest days.
Walking poles were a great help in fording swollen burns. One took the water right over both hubs of the bike!
3 nights were like sleeping in a drum; rainbows and goldfinches at Aultbea, Wester Ross; and full wet weather gear just to get from the car park to the old but transformed Loch Ewe Church in Aultbea in a southerly gale that was blasting straight off the sea into the south facing front door of the church. You had to quickly shut it behind you to keep the torrential rain and gale out! Inside was an amazingly fine, modern, packed church at their 11 am service in a six or seven-year-old restored, updated and made energy-efficient building. What a pleasure to see. Three men led the three sung psalms, instead of musical instruments and hymns, from the Scottish Psalter.
Lots of showers to begin the 3 weeks, followed by cloud and still more rain. Two complete rainbows seen in the period of sun and showers. My last day - a big circuit to take in four Donalds - was in cloud and murk and was the only day of low cloud throughout the 9 hours bike and walk.
I achieved two out of the four Grahams I wanted in NW Scotland and those two were the most remote that needed 8/8.30 am starts. The 29" wheels bike was a great help and made all the difference to get within striking difference of the two remote summits. But still long walk-ins even then!
The most almighty very heavy rain bucketed down on me just ten minutes after I had safely got back to the car from the first long day of 8 hours.
Four nights in three different hotels. Left on Monday 3 October and returned on Sunday 23 October. The last full day was to complete the last four Manor Hills summits north of St Mary's Loch but after an exhausting 9 hrs to do the first four, I was easily diverted to do a little guerrilla gardening. I came upon native hardwood planting at 450 metres on the rough track I was cycling up, straightened one sapling and collected lots of tree guards that were lying around having been pushed off the growing trees.
Last Friday's long circuit round the Peebles horseshoe was satisfyingly accomplished throughout in cloud and murk. I was overtaken by a fast young man with map and compass held out to guide him. He was doing the long circuit by starting and finishing in Peebles, like me but without the help of a bike. I had stopped in tiredness after a long ride, sat on the grass and took a long hard look at the steep valley side on the other side of the burn that I had to get up. I realised I had stopped just in time. There was, I thought a way to avoid much of the bracken and then heather to get up onto the ridge to find the Cross Borders Drove Road to my first summit, Birkscairn Hill 661 m. I started the big walk 300m short of Glensax after abandoning the bike by the track.
Above Gairloch Harbour were two 300 metre rocky hills that looked daunting to climb but I did one from round the back in deteriorating weather.
I came away from one Graham when I soon met a stalking party that had spotted me when I was getting ready at the car. They walked down to meet me just after I walked up from the road. A truly lovely estate manager in charge of the stalking. The first time that I had relented when similarly spoken to. The other two men, in previous years, let me continue. Very decent of them. This was the day, for plan B, I returned to Gairloch Harbour to find a way to climb one of the 300 m hills mentioned above.
A fabulous day photographing on the shores of Loch Maree and then a late four-hour Beinn Eighe mountain trail that was well worth doing but I came down in the dark for the last few hundred metres. Highlights were a Caledonian pine forest, a deep vertical gorge alongside a well-cairned trail and lochans passed in the higher reaches to the summit cairn at 550m.
Best meal was a simple pea and mint soup, followed by a cheese and cranberry toastie at Traquair House. A delicious meal and lovely staff, too. Interesting house of three floors to explore and, the priest steps to escape from the top of the house at the approach of a search party in the 17th and 18th centuries.
So damp this expedition I actually had condensation dripping on me twice as I slept with head and shoulders under the rear windscreen - just as I normally do. Dampness was discovered on both my black cycling bumbag and bivy tent when I came to unpack back home.
At Peebles, my night stays were noted for rain drops from trees sounding like I was in a drum, so loud was the split splatter on the steel roof!
Left 3 October; returned 23 October 2022.
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