Overnight hiking near Loch Awe

I’m starting to think that this “blog” is turning into more of a route diary for dodgy bastards looking for quick and sleazy ways to get out and about north of England. Not very personal or bloggy, is it. In any case, here’s another overnight trip that can be taken on from Edinburgh.

I say overnight, but in reality it could very well be done as a daytrip if one owned a car or were wealthy enough to afford staying overnight at a local hotel/etc. It’s about 21km/1.4km ascent. If one were to do this in the colder months of Autumn/Spring, and were to travel light, I would say that it’d be doable in 8 hours.

You might need to budget a bit more to deal with the atrocious descent from Ba’B to the ridge (orange->red) up to Stob Diamh. I would not recommend this without hiking poles unless you’re going light. I would definitely not recommend this in extreme wind or rain.

Route map. Start at Loch Awe train station, up Beinn a’ Bhuiridh & head to Stob Daimh then down from Sron an Ísean. Camp up Ba’B for a great sunrise.

Now then, onto the pictures! ❤ I’ve taken the ones I like the most; of course you can find the full imgur album at the bottom of the page.

The only image I got of Loch Awe, at least at ground level. For some reason the 16-300 Tamron + D5300 enjoy the yellow-orange hues a bit too much, and no colour balancing (camera or post) will fix the predisposition that the D5300 has to force this. Anyway, sorry in advance.

Highland Cows. Fluffy as hell, cute as heck, and kinda scary with those horns!

That’s the River Orchy, passing under the rail and motor vehicle (right->left) bridges respectively.

Monadh Driseig, trig point included. Loch Awe on the left. You can see Ba’B, Stob Daimh and Sron an Isean if you’re keen eyed enough.

That’s as colour realistic as it’s going to get. Top of that is where I’ll camp >:P (Beinn a’ Bhuiridh)

The ridge on the right was the next days target. This area is often called the “Hollow Mountain,” due to this large bowl surrounded by ridges.

View post on imgur.com

Sunset tax, film style.

Short timelapse of a sunrise from Beinn a’ Bhuiridh, Western Highlands

Magnificent inversion going down into the Cruachan bowl.

Sketchy descent panorama. The photo really doesn’t do it justice…

Surreal picture of descending into the clouds c:

Thankfully the gradient had decreased; it was nice and brisk thanks to the misty atmosphere.

Jesus christ that was hella’ fun to go down. I would *not* do that in the rain… and definitely not in the snow, unless I had some mighty fine crampons and climbing axes xD

It’s worth saying that around this point my right knee and left shoulder were just about done begging for respite and stopped hurting (yay…?)

As of writing, they’re as bad as ever. Hopefully they’ll heal up by the time Uni starts up again (~3 weeks) so that I can get some more hiking in before astrophotography season is in full swing and my chair becomes my home.

Anyway, onward!