Saturday March 22nd March 2008: Beinn Bhuidhe

According to the weather forecast I should have been in the middle of some of the worst weather for March. So I planned a walk which had a long lead in. My thinking being if it really was THAT bad I would have a good low level walk anyway.
As it turned out all the bad weather seemed to happen around the rest of the country but left the Arrochar Alps bright and sunny albeit bitterly cold: perfect for walking. The long walk in was beautiful and then I started climbing up a very steep frosted icy gorge: beautiful pools where on a warmer day I would have loved to take of my boots and dip my feet into the cooling water. Still no sign of my actual destination at this point. A real shy mountain. I followed the burn all the way up to its source which was difficult to spot as it was covered in snow. The views were stunning from this plateau. Then more climbing up one of the many gullies onto the ridge of Beinn Bhuidhe. And the views from here were even more spectacular. I met another walker on the plateau and I followed him to the summit. He and I walked back down together which was really helpful as blethering took my mind off the scary bits! Big sigh of relief as we reach the start of the long walk in again!
This lead in / out is along a private road and when we got back to the farm we met the farmer bottle feeding a one week old back faced lamb. She told us that the ewe hadn’t wanted anything to do with this lamb-one of twins. The farmer also asked how many Munros I had done. And she told us a story of a man whose last Munro was Beinn Buidhe and he phoned to ask if there was any possibility of taking a car up to where the path properly begins. Only under exceptional circumstances she told him as they wanted the road for free range children and animals. The walker said his 4 ½ years old niece wanted to do the Munro with him but the walk in would be too long. The farmer agreed to him taking his car to the top of the road. And the wee niece managed her first Munro. This walker had started walking Munros with his father (now 80 I think she said) and here he was inducting the next generation into hill walking.