Rita's Birthday on Skye, May 2005

Sunset at the cottage, post BBQ (on the sewer cover...) and just before the midges attack. We spent the night in the local snoozing in front of the Eurosong contest.

There's nothing like a gentle saunter up a mountain for a birthday. So Olivia found an entry in Bionic Ralph's hill walking guide that recommended a route up Bla Bhein (or Bla Bheinn) which was described as 'Delightfully Easy'. But only if you're bionic. The route was roughly this:

although I got myself confused by looking at a completely different route (from the car park to the east) and thus fabloned the wrong minimaps for the walk. And navigated to the wrong car park. Oops.

The route starts at a car park to the south, following a well defined track to near the base of the ridge at the south. A footpath leads off towards the base, and into some dead ground to cross the stream something-nan-Leac just below a rather pretty waterfall. All this is pleasant and fairly flat.

Tom abandoned us here as his feet were starting to blister. I cannot recommend enough getting decent walking socks for this kind of thing; modern socks keep your feet comfy even when they are damp. If you do get blisters, Rita can recommend blister kits that include the little gel-like patches to cover them with.

From the stream it becomes very 'up', and it certainly beats a stair-master for exercise. And view. The trail is not always easy to follow along the ridge, and you may find yourself on some rather steep bits with lots of 'down' alongside you, which apparently is great if you like that kind of thing. We started associating a lot of very rude words with Ralph.

For progress, it's worth keeping an eye on the height of Fionna-choire compared to you; once you're about the same height, you're about half way along the ridge to the first summit at 926m.

We were extremely lucky with the weather, lots of brilliant sunshine really showing off the surrounding country. As we neared the peaks though the weather started to close in. We were getting tired and there were no obvious escape routes, the sides of the ridge being fairly cliffy. Luckily while the cloud darkened around us there wasn't much rain, and the visibility was only occasionally reduced by odd patches of cloud/mist around the peaks.

There's not much of a trail coming down off the peaks to the Fionna-choire and what there is is often covered in a layer of loose shale, so it's very slippery. For those with dodgy knees, bring a hang-glider. By this time Ralph was associated with some of the more unpleasant characters from various religious pantheons.

Once we'd reached the pool on the saddle between Bla Bheinn and Fionna-choire, we thought about contouring around the plateau to pick up the path we came in on, but the plateau was only a short climb so we went that way as recommended by Ralph. By this time it was quite late, the sun was going down behind Bla Bhein, and it seemed the most direct route. In fact we would probably have been better heading for the path; the walk over the plateau was pleasant enough but slow cross-country, with a bit of messing about coming off the south end where there are also some fences and river cuttings.

It's worth bearing in mind that the route has a lot of 'up' (from sea level to 900+ meters) and that the trail is not always easy to follow, so be prepared to do a bit of route-scouting. It took us about 10 hours, in good weather. I think the fitness range of the group is about what you would expect from a random group of friends doing this, so allow for the 10 hours. That means starting well before midday, which is when we finally walked out of the car park having prepared and eaten a cooked breakfast, faffed a bit packing, and driven an hour or so to get there.

So it's not all Ralph's fault really. 'Delightfully easy' is pushing it a bit though.

At the wrong car park

Matrix special effects with two cameras

Hey Good Lookin'

Easy first steps...

Tom flexes the wrong muscles and Michael checks his nail polish is dry. Blokes eh?

Remote farms; only a 'Land Rover' rough track to the main road. But what a beach!

Look at all those fresh faces... Starting up the ridge end

Not a bad sparkly water shot for an instant camera

Rita passes a lifelike statue to Olivia, in the classic 'explorer' pose.

The Band, on the way up

Some handsome chap. Look at those shapely knees.

Rita, the Cuillin Hills behind

On the Ridge.
That may or may not be the peak just to the left behind Michael. We came down the line on the horizon (although it felt a lot steeper!) to the saddle, then up and along the plateau to the right.

Coming up the ridge

Them dark brooding Cuillin Hills parallel to the North West.

The Navy Guitar

Aaargh, steep! Too much down...

Tea at the top

At the top; the weather all about our heads, but the sun on the surrounding hills.

Caz buries herself up to the waist in stones

A moment later Olivia slings the rucksack over her shoulder and squashes the Lillepudlian tourists who had just been admiring the weave of her fleece.

Follow me!

Apparently there is not a pub at the top.

Poseur

The band, still with a complete set of limbs and people, on the way down.

Band with hanger on

Coming down.

Skimming Stones

The Route off from the peak.

We took the red line (roughly) but if you're in a hurry it's probably best to head down the valley to the right (blue line) and pick up the footpath you came up on.

Huzzah! The bottom! Only another 6km across soggy ground and fences to the car...

Too much meat!

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