On holiday with Roy but on my own for these hills. A long drive from Pitlochry down Glen Lyon, much further than I had expected. Parked up at the dam in the middle of nowhere, with 3/4 cars already there. Quick chat with another walker who went ahead and we kept bumping into each other for the rest of the day. There is a prominent path up to the ridge above Coire Ban and it is just a long, slow drag to get there. Nice views of Loch an Daimh and Meall Buidhe though as you climb. Eventually when you reach the ridge it is a long but easy drag till you reach the summit. Nice views from the summit, a lovely day but still a bit hazy. The way down is just a reverse of the way up and a bit of a drag. Funny though how perspectives change and I was convinced on the way down that I had somehow missed the path. It seemed to go more steeply down direct towards the loch where I could see a number of folks fishing and I
I had found the walk down from Stuchd an Lochain quite tiring and wondered if I was really up to this hill. Still I felt I could not come all this way to the dam without doing both. A quick hello to a lady out strolling and off up the other side of the dam. One benefit of having the car between hills was that I could dump my fleece being pretty sure in the good weather I wouldn't need it. Meall Buidhe is a very easy hill to climb, up grassy slopes which are never all that steep. I was as usual very slow but always comfortable, taking my time and enjoying it. On the way up I met a lady and spouse, very posh and very enthusiastic about having climbed the hill. A very pleasant chat and off again to meet shortly the lad I kept bumping into on Stucht an Lochain. He was on his way down and told me that once on the ridge the walk to the summit was much easier than on Stuchd an Lochain. No trouble in route finding as there is a path all the way to the ridge. What surprised me though was that it was such a long climb only to get to the subsidiary top
was sure I was going to end up at the lochside much further up than where I had started. But no, the path eventually levelled out and I was clearly on the original path - strange. Near the bottom I met an elderly (probably younger than me) man with large hat, resting and sweating profusely. He told me he had walked in the Lake District but had not appreciated how much more difficult Scotland was. Back down at the car I had lunch, strange having Guinness and sandwiches in the car, with another munro still to do.
Meall a'Phuill. By the time I reached it I thought I had got to the summit of Meall Buidhe. However, there was still a walk, not difficult, but it meant a few hundred yards more than I had expected. Coming down was simple, a very easy descent, but somewhere or other I still managed to miss the path I had come up on. No problem, it just meant that I met the path by the loch a bit earlier than where I had started. Back at the car the lady I had spoken to earlier was still there sitting in her car and came over to me. She asked if I had seen her husband on the hill, who it turned out was the "elderly" man I had seen on Stuchd an Lochain. She was a bit worried he seemed to be taking a long time. She gave me his proposed timetable which meant he still had about an hour to go but it still seemed to me a long time for him to do just Stuchd an Lochain. I tried to reassure her he was still within his target time and hoped all was OK. She was just a bit worried as she could not contact him by phone, no reception. I left with just a little reservation though there was little I could do.
