Monday 12th September 2022
Today’s walk was a relatively straightforward walk out of Kinloch Hourn to bring us back into civilisation at Corran; the only complication is a river crossing. It was an interesting walk today and so we have lots of photos.
We had a good breakfast at Lochhournhead and with only the contents of our rucksacks to pack up, we were on our way quite early. We walked down to the bridge to cross the Loch Hourn river. We could see the line of our route ahead picked out by the electricity pylons.
We walked back up the other side of the river through the grounds of a nice house and onto a very steep track.
The track looks as if it had been degraded by heavy rain with most of the binding substrate washed away on the steeper sections. Although several folk told us they had not had a good summer up here, I don’t think there had been the torrential rain to cause that sort of erosion for several months so presumably the track was not used very much.
We climbed steadily, all the time aware that the steepest part was near the top.
The track then levels off and pursues a more undulating course along Cadha Mor. A path branches off which is the route taken by the Cape Wrath Trail but we continued along our path until it reached the watershed at 230 metres. The route is easy to follow because it follows the line of the electricity pylons and indeed the track is duplicated in many places where they built a trackway for installing the pylons and now provides access for maintenance.
Although it was not especially cold, the drizzle became light rain and we still had far enough to go that we couldn’t really allow ourselves to get soaked through. So we stopped to don jackets and put our rucksack covers on. Shortly after that, we rounded the mountain on our left and could see Loch Hourn stretching away past Barrisdale Bay and on round the corner towards our destination at Corran.
There were half a dozen ducks on Lochan Torr a Choit though I could not identify the species.
Now the path descended gradually to join the water course of Alt Coire Mhalagain draining the other side of the watershed.
As we came down to the river, I could the see the old shielings which is roughly where we needed to cross the river. There is no clearly defined ford and so you just have to select your favoured route and go for it. We looked upstream a bit but though the river was narrower it was deeper. Jill used her wonderful “Festival Wellies” which she pulls on like over-shoes and she made her way cautiously across. She had hoped to throw the wellies back to me so I could use them but the river was too wide for that.
I had my rather old Oboz boots on and gaiters. I just strode across as fast as I could. In truth I might have got across with dry feet if it were not for the fact that my boots actually have now got holes through the uppers and, of course, the Gortex lining is piss useless now (I am not convinced it ever worked). For the benefit of other walkers on this route, as we walked down the far bank of the river, I noted that the most consistently shallow and therefore best place to cross is close to the next pylon which is itself the closest pylon to the river.
Jill packed her ”Festival Wellies” away; they fold down to a very small pack and are not very heavy. At less than £12.00 they were a good buy and so long as they are just used for getting across rivers they should last well enough. They are a good alternative to wading through bare foot (or in neoprene shoes which protect feet from the sharp stones as Jill did to cross the R.Erme on the SWCP) and having to dry your feet and get socks and boots back on – or wading through fully booted and getting soaking boots and socks. Oddly, none of the walking retailers seem to sell them and Jill only found them down the back of the internet being sold for festival-goers.
We crossed two bridges with this warning sign – the wood used for the slats had some give in it even with just our weight and the sides were unsupported. You would want to try to keep your wheels on the long planks if you were crossing in a vehicle and we could see why crossing on horseback might not be a good idea.
The track now descended very gradually to Gleann Dubh Lochain which is divided into two by a narrowing point formed by glacial moraine. We were more than ready for a break by now but there had been few places to perch comfortably. Fortunately, on the second part of the lochan, beyond the little boathouse, we found a flattish rock sheltered from the wind and settled in for coffee.
Toads were out in force.
From Dubh Lochain, the river becomes River Arnisdale. Shortly after the partially-broken dam, the track crosses the river via a simple bridge, which comes complete with the disclaimer warnings, and continues on the south side of the river. The track has a steep climb and descent as the river passes through a bit of a gorge. Somewhat to our surprise, at the top of the steepest part of our descent, we met three people taking a stroll.
The final mile and a half was almost level as Glen Arnisdale opened up and we reached the sea once more at Corran. The car was there and we changed out of our walking clothes before driving to the Glenelg Ferry to retrieve the Volvo. While we had been crossing on the Glenelg ferry, the boatman had suddenly called out that there were a pair of sea eagles flying over and as Jill had her camera in her hand, she managed to get a couple of very distant photos.
I had some concerns over whether the Volvo would start. We only left it there 48 hours ago. However, having parked it there, we had walked down and onto the ferry when we could hear a distant car alarm sounding. The skipper of the ferry came over and said that the café at the car park had radioed him to say our car alarm had gone off. The skipper said he would wait for me and I legged it back up the hill to the car. The car seemed to have all doors and windows closed and there was no apparent reason for the alarm to go off. So having relocked the car, I headed back to ferry and we spent the next two days worrying that the car alarm had been sounding every few minutes annoying the people at the café and flattening our battery. The car started first attempt.
We had intentionally kept today’s walk short. On our original plan we would had added on a few miles but, having added this onto our previous walking session, we now had to head south because I had a dental appointment the next day. Such mundaneness after a few days of wild walking!
Just Coasting 