Scotland Trip
We were up fairly early despite our late night. I must admit, I was quite excited about our change of destination and woke up before the alarm. After another mountain of homemade bread and some croissants we packed up, said our goodbyes, and got on the road.
We thoroughly enjoyed our day and a bit with Phil and Anne. Hopefully they did too. It was nice to do a big walk with someone else, and I don't think we'd have been confident enough to do a walk so big and snowy on our own. I also really appreciated two nights in a proper bed, as I had been waking up with backache, which is now gone (until tomorrow morning?).
The Cairngorms were quite dull and cloudy as we drove past, but the further North West we got, the better the weather got. Just like the weather forecast said! We had a nice drive along what we thought was the coast but was actually an inland loch in Inverpolly, and arrived at a car park at the foot of Stac Pollaidh at about 2pm. Stac Pollaidh (pronounced Stack Polly) is another hill on the infamous Trail 100 list, and ever since it had first appeared in view and I'd realised how easy it was to get to, I'd been thinking maybe we could just nip up it and tick it off. It was such a nice day it seemed rude not to.
Claire obviously hadn't eaten as much bread as me for breakfast, as she was starving and unwilling to discuss unplanned hill walks until she'd eaten. So while she was having a sandwich and some other stuff, I made a flask of coffee and got the scones out, which pretty much decided the matter. It was a bit like the Fairy Pools situation on Skye a couple of years ago, but with reversed roles and no cold water or midges.
The sun was still out and there were no clouds to be seen when we set off up the steep climb to the top. Stack Polly, along with a lot of the other hills round here, is not a massive hill, but rises up from sea level almost impossibly steeply. A lot of people think it is an extinct volcano but it isn't. It is actually made of quite crumbly sandstone. Our route took us round the back (East), where we would ascend the last bit from. As we rounded the corner to the east side, tomorrow's hill, Suilven, came into view. I had seen it hundreds of times in photos and magazines, but it was amazing to finally see the real thing right there in front of me, surrounded by small lochs and lots of open, bumpy ground. It did not look like an easy approach or ascent at all, and I think our legs are going to be aching by the end of tomorrow.
We scrambled over the stacks of Stack Polly, then had our scones and coffee looking west. It was still lovely and sunny but the wind had a real chill to it so we didn't stay too long. We jogged half the way down to get warm, and were soon back in George, doing some list ticking.
We've parked up for the night in the car park at the start of tomorrow's much anticipated walk, to try and make things as easy as possible for us in the morning! There is one other Campervan here and some sheep ambling round, but apart from the wind it is very peaceful.
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