CWT – day 4
30.4.2023 Sunday
Morvich – Craig
46 km – 1636 m ↑ – 169 km total
First night in the tent. A shower wakes me before six in the morning and I can’t get back to sleep. There’s condensation in the tent, I try wiping it down but don’t have much luck. I pack up and set off toward Falls of Glomach without breakfast. Not raining yet. After about an hour I reach the falls. The trail’s decent so far, the falls are fairly popular with tourists. Around eight I already hear the roar of water and reach the falls. Amazing — biggest I’ve ever seen! Water drops 120 m into a gorge. I stop here a while, soaking it in.
I spot more black mountain goats on the opposite hill. The descent is properly steep over rocks — would be unpleasant in rain, but it only starts raining once I’m down. I cross a bridge over the Elchaig river and turn northeast toward Iron Lodge and Maol Bhuide bothy.
The route has several variants and I pick one of the easier ones. At ten I have breakfast under a tree by the road, and at eleven it starts raining, or rather, just a light drizzle. Around Iron Lodge I climb steeply on a decent 4×4 track to a small pass and then descend gently down to the bothy. It rains the whole way and my feet are wet again, even the track starts looking more like a stream, which I have to hop across several times. Around half past 12 I reach Maol Bhuide bothy, a magical spot in the middle of nowhere, nothing but silence. If I weren’t in a hurry I’d sleep here.
But I still have at least 20 km to go. A short distance from the bothy, I have my first proper wade across the River Ling, but my boots are already wet, so it doesn’t matter. On the other side, I lose the path almost immediately and find myself in a maze of deep peat bogs and stinking marshes. I test the depth with my walking sticks, but I certainly wouldn’t want to fall in there. I walk carefully, going round whenever I can.
I need to climb a bit higher, but it’s far from easy. 2 km takes me about 40 minutes. I finally manage to get out of there and find my way to Loch Calavie. Around the loch it’s back to a nice 4×4 track, though it keeps raining. Past Loch Calavie I again choose the northern route variant, turning toward Bhealach Bhearnais pass (600 m). The path climbs slowly, Bearnais bothy visible on my left. It clears up a bit and in the distance I spot 2 hikers heading toward it. The trail switches again from track to a shepherd’s path along the right side of the slope.
After about an hour of climbing a cloud full of rain and wind suddenly rolls right over me. I’m at 400 m with another 200 to go to the pass. The trail gradually vanishes again, even worse in the fog. There are these huge piles of rock here, probably glacier-formed, all looking identical. I’m slowly losing track of up and down. I have to use navigation and mapy.cz to know which direction to hold. I reach the pass and I’ve had quite enough for today. It’s half past 4, I have got nowhere to sleep, and I don’t feel like pitching a tent in the rain. I push on until I figure something out. On the way down the trail’s clear again and pretty steep. I cross the Allt a’Chonaris stream over a rope bridge.
You can camp here, one tent’s already pitched. I check the map. Craig should be just 10 km along a good track from here. I happen to notice I’ve got signal, so I call Danka and the kids, and the walk passes much faster after that 🙂 I knock on Garry’s hostel door in Craig around half past 7. Gary opens up and stares at me a while, deciding whether to even let me in. Odd guy, but he takes me in. He’s got a drying room, a shower and a soft bed. Strict rules for everything. I shower, eat, and plan tomorrow. My feet feel a lot better, but I’ve got the feeling my knee’s starting to play up a bit – we’ll see in the morning.
