Wigtwizzle - Norman Smith's Travel Blog.: buachaille etive mor

Showing posts with label buachaille etive mor. Show all posts

Glen Etive

I had a free window before the start of my radiotherapy so headed off to the Highlands for a few days. I managed to get a room at The Moorings Hotel at Banavie which is situated right next to Neptune's Staircase on The Caledonian Canal. It's not cheap but I can afford it so why not?

The Staircase raises the canal by 19m (62ft) over a quarter of a mile of continuous masonry and takes around 90 minutes for a boat to travel up or down the locks. It was built by Thomas Telford between 1803 and 1822 and is the longest staircase lock in Scotland. It is a great location to enjoy ‘gongoozling’ the boats as they travel up and down the lock flight! Fortunately my room overlooked the locks so I got a grandstand seat.

I made good progress travelling up so I decided to have a drive down Glen Etive as I hadn't been down there for years. It is a long road, which goes on for some 14 miles, so I limited myself to going just as far as the first, unsightly hydro-electric works. They are under construction at the moment and planning permission has been given for seven in total. I stopped at the first one which was being built across the Allt a Chaorainn and the land surrounding it has been totally decimated. The constructors had made an utter mess of this once beautiful glen.

I took quite a lot of photos of the many cascades and waterfalls in the glen and also of the surrounding hills and woodlands. Due to recent dry weather, I even managed to get to the falls on the River Coupall and take a shot of the classic, much photographer Buachaille Etive Mor which normally would have been a mud bath. The usually glutinous peat was pretty dry albeit a bit spongy.

My drive through Glen Coe was very busy so I didn't stop. The sunny weather had brought all the visitors out and all the car parks looked to be full. I arrived at the hotel about four o'clock unpacked and had a nice cool lager sat outside, just watching the world go by.

River Coupall

Buachaille Etive Mor

River Coupall

River Coupall Falls

River Etive

Glen Etive

River Etive

Glen Etive

River Etive

Glen Etive

River Etive

Glen Etive

River Etive

Glen Etive

A Highland Winter Wonderland

My weekend away all too quickly came to an end but what an end it turned out to be. I awoke to clear blue skies so got packed, had my breakfast and checked out of the hotel as quickly as I could. First stop was Glen Nevis. Once the sun has risen above the head of the Glen it us useless for photography so I knew I only had about an hour. GI managed to get some nice shots of the River Nevis and also some good wintry close-up shots of the morning sun hitting the tops of The Mamores before having to move on.

Then it was back in to Fort William and to Glen Coe. I stopped off at the Visitor Centre for a coffee and then rose up through the Glen. Once again the sun was directky in front of me so no photos were taken in the Glen itself. It was only after I'd strarted to drive across Rannoch Moor that I noticed the fabulous view behind me. Pulling in to the first laybe I crossed the road to the edge of the moor and took some spectacular photos back towards the Three Sisters and The Buachaille Etive Mor hills.

The sun was beginning to melt the overnight snow so I quickly carried on to The Black Mount area of the moor. Climbed up to the viewpoint over Loch Bà for some photos and then walked along the road to the edge of Lochan nà Stainge with its fantastic views over The Black Mount. I sat there for ages waiting for the ripples to die down on the Lochan so that I could get a reflection of the hills and lochside tree. I was eventually rewarded with some of the best photos I've taken in this area.

Within a few miles the ground level snow had all but disappeared so I decided not to waste any more of my time and just carried on back to Cumbria, only stopping on the way for a couple of coffee breaks.

Little did I realise on my drive back that in the space of a couple of weeks, I would be iscolated in my own home due to the Covid-19 virus. In fact, if Britain had followed the rest of the world (which it should have done), I would not have been able to make this trip.

As I write this blog at the beginning of May, nearly 30,000 people have died from it in the UK and there is no sign of the lockdown easing anytime soon. I have also had to cancel my two week holiday in Somerset and rearrange it for next year. I have a week booked in Wales in July and I'm not very confident on going there. I don't think this blog is the place for my thoughts on the so-called governmeny of ours and the useless waste of space of the man who is supposidly our Prime Minister, hopefully they will all be held to account one day.

These are strange times we are living in.

Ben Nevis

The Mamores from Glen Nevis

Lower falls, Glen Nevis

The Mamores from Glen Nevis

River Nevis

Glen Coe

Glen Coe hills

Buachaille Etive Mor

The Black Mount

Loch Bà

Lochan na Stainge

Glen Nevis and Rannoch Moor

My last day and I woke up to a very cold and frosty morning so, rather than just setting off back home, I decided to make the most of the conditions by paying Glen Nevis a visit. I drove along the glen as far as the lower falls, taking photos of anything which took my fancy until the sun rose above the hillside and began to thaw out the valley.

I was as pleased as Punch with the weather conditions as they just got better and better the farther south I travelled. I first stopped off at Glen Etive to get a shot of the River Coupall waterfall with The Buachaille Etive Mor behind. It was a good job that the weather was so cold and the ground frozen because the place would have been a quagmire if not and all caused by people like me. That will be the last time I stop off there. It's a pity they can't block the area off so that the ground can recover.

Rannoch Moor really was a winter wonderland. Parts of the moor were still frosted over and the clouds were just starting to beak to reveal the snow capped hills of The Black Mount. Moments like that are very few and far between and I just didn't want to leave but leave I must as time was getting on.

Looking back over my three day break, the weather was mainly very kind to me. I did have a wet drive back from Mallaig on my first day but it didn't really spoil my day overall. Ardnamurchan had been a great day but my journey back home had been the icing on the cake.