As a blip legend remarked the other day - it IS about time I got rid of the red balloon, so....

The assault on the remaining Munros continues.

With Tom AWOL (S6 Prom the previous evening, and only Alex to get out to school), I had the van booked for 0800. So with great predictability I managed to leave Edinburgh around 0940. Not helped by Alex wanting his boots for the 2nd semi final of the week and me choosing the wrong charging cable, and various other mishaps....

Up the M90 / A9 and brief stops at Perth / Aldi for a trolley photo and Inverness for fuel, it was over the Kessock Bridge and onwards to Achnasheen; arriving just in time to avoid the 1432 Kyle to Inverness train. (Its a request stop no one got on or off, so we watched the train glide through) 

The day's quarry was Sgurr Rhuiadh; stuck between Maol Cheinn Dearg and Beinn Liath Mhor; both done in the fairly recent past; and Coire Lair is not somewhere I'd ever tire of visiting. 

Up through the woods; alongside the tumbling burn (in sort of spate; not good as I need to cross this further up the glen) and into the start of the majestic Coire Lair. As good a spot as any in this fine land we call home. I stopped a while and nattered with an octogenarian Amercian gentleman; he'd got the train down from Inverness just to walk up into the glen and just be there; no ambition to climb anything; just absorb the atmosphere of the place. 

Bearing left, I headed for the river; and with a small detour managed across without incident and continued on up a snaking path, through the mini lochans and peat hags and scarred rocky outcrops; gently climbing and heading inexorably towards the gap between the Corbett Fhuar Toll and Sgurr Rhuaidh. Despite a hideous forecast when I first checked on Monday, there had only been the briefest of squalls and by the time we approached the base of the gothic north face of Fhuar Toll we'd passed a couple who I knew would be the last folk we'd see until we got back; we had the place to ourselves.

Up onto the bealach; and a sharp right off the lovely path onto an altogether more faint track; picking a route through and over scree, rocks, and occasionally grass. 

Now, stop me if you've heard this one before- the cloud starting blowing over the summit as we arrived; not a full enveloping, but a constant reveal / conceal routine whereby Torridon (ah!) would be there and then not; Loch Carron came and went several times whilst we were on the summit, and Applecross was occasionally visible away off over in the distance.

With no real presure in terms of daylight, we turned and headed off; but before we got back to the bealach the rain had settled in; a good 40 minutes and poor Loki was cold and shivering; hampered by slow old me and my sore feet.

However, it did abate and the wind kept the worst of the midgies away as we headed off up the road in search of a layby to sort out some dinner and crash out.....

Main is Loki at the bealach between the Corbett and the Munro; looking towards Maol Cheinn Dearg; extra is Loki posing on an erratic with Sgurr Rhuaidh behind him