It was the ever-entertaining Muriel Grey who used to say on The Munro Show, "This hill features a particularly long walk-in - and you know what that means!" She would then be met with a chorus from off-screen, "A LONG WALK OUT!" Maoile Lunndaidh would more than qualify for inclusion in that little panto-style catch-phrase exchange.
In the good company of my only wife and our only daughter, and with the MET Office promising a lovely day, we parked at the forestry car park opposite the Craig level-crossing over the Kyle of Lochalsh railway line. The yellow signs just along the road saying "Gerry's Hostel" brought back a flood of nostalgia and emotion, great times spent there with the legendary Rogers-character and the late, great Kevin McPhee. It also meant I was certain we were at the correct level crossing, so after breakfast and several runs of coffee through the AeroPress, we took to the track.
Once over the railway-line the rough private road swings left and runs parallel to the railway for a mile before swinging southwards into the wild. As long as you carefully avoid taking the wrong turning, (there are many forestry tracks) it's possible to cover the ground pretty fast, and soon we were amongst high peaks - far from the sound of traffic - and filling our water bottles by the old rope bridge, and again remembering standing at this very spot with Ian and Kev. On that occasion we headed SW, up to the Bealach Bearnais and scaled Sgùrr Chòinnich and Sgùrr a' Chaorachain - but on this trip the route took us eastwards towards the lonely holiday let at Glenuaig Lodge.
Before the end of the 4x4 track, just after a small wooded area, we easterly struck across the bog - and had to walk upstream a couple of hundred metres, as the recommended route on Walk Highlands brought us to a deep, wide swamp of a river. Eventually we found a place where we could cross unscathed and regained our bearing over a large peaty-hump which eventually lead down to a second river to cross. This one was a delight, we stumbled into a little dell with a gorgeous waterfall and plenty of places to cross - and refill our bottles.
Soon we'd begin the real ascent of Maoile Lunndaidh, which is rough, pathless, steep and unrelenting. We attacked this in dry-weather, and were glad of it - imagining it wet and slippery doesn't bear thinking about. Grass gave way to heather, which gave way to stones, and after 850m the gradient relented a bit too - and views started to pop-out in all directions. Hill-banter on such occasions is somewhat formulaic- but no less enjoyable for that! It goes like this:
a) "Wow, look at the view!"
b) "Wonderful, isn't it- what do you think we're looking at?"
c) "Not sure, I'll get the compass out.... So if that's due South we're looking at Beinn (insert name) there,which means that the one next to it must be "Meall na (insert name) and beyond those the (insert name) group".
a) "Yeah, Beinn (insert name), do you remember the day we climbed that and (insert reminiscence #1)"
b) "Like when we were in the (insert name) Group with (insert names) and (insert reminiscence #2)
c) etc
a) repeat
I'm not mocking, merely observing my own behaviour! And the views here provided huge potential for this conversational cycle. An Teallach with Mark, The Fisherfields with Andy, Slioch with the old church walking club, and more... Maoile Lunndaiadh was a hill I had a planned to climb with Kevin, had he lived. In fact we'd sat in the kitchen at Gerry's Lodge with a huge mound of post-walk pasta and few bottles of beer and planned it out. I wonder if that was part of my reluctance to ever go and climb it. Thankfully, as it should be my penultimate Munro in my first round, my wife persuded me to stop procrastinating and just climb the thing!
Once on the summit ridge, whch is spacious and affords massive views in every direction, the brutal climb is soon forgotten and the stroll to the summit across springy grass and mosses, is like walking on air. Posing for the obligatory cairn-photo, we met two guys who were the only other people we saw all day - who took a family photo of us and did hill banter for a while. (see above)
The descent off the hill is far easier than the way up - heading down Northwards until a watercourse is found, then staying on its' left hand side, avoiding a steep gorge brought us down to the lovely dell and the waterfall which marked our way up. Once again bottles were filled, photos taken and a rest enjoyed before we embarked on the aforementioned "LONG WALK OUT!"
Maoile Lunndaidh is a slog, but as it is such a fine slog, I didn't mind at all! We landed back at the car in plenty of time to get back to the pub for food, and slink back early to our tent - where we all fell deeply asleep very quickly.
I do like my job - but a day off in the hills every so often isn't bad either!
