Sun, sweat and bruises on Ben Wyvis

Janet and Rob decided that they would leave the sanctuary of the Lakes and head North on the maiden voyage of 'The Bongo' their new camper van. Before they arrived in the Highlands they had a few challenging weather days in the Trossachs and I heard a rumour that they threw the awning in the bin after the first night! It wasn't all bad as they still managed to climb a couple of munro's.

Proud of 'The Bongo'

After the wild weather week we were very lucky to have a great forecast for the weekend and the plan was hatched to climb Ben Wyvis, our local Munro (that we hadn't been up yet). Loz had said it was quite boring and suggested it was saved until winter, so I wasn't expecting much....

There she blows

There was a first light frost on the ground when we set off (lateish) from the packed carpark. Interestingly there were 3 Bongo camper vans in the car park so it looked like some kind of Bongo convention.

Gaining height

le top

The sky was clear and sunny, and it was a nice walk up through the forest until it breaks out into open ground and eventually the well made path starts to get steep. Dramatic views unfolded west to the Ullapool/Torridon hills and up to the far Northern munro's.

After a slog we got to An Cabor and headed across Glas Leathad Mor to the Ben Wyvis summit. I was very impressed with the 360 degree views over to the Cromarty Firth and down to Inverness.

At the last SE corrie before the top we could hear stags calling as its the start of the rutting season. The deep throated sounds carried in on the breeze from far below in the corrie and this added great atmosphere.

As we headed down a few showers came and went, but this just added great light, atmosphere and rainbows. All went well apart from Abi intimately inspecting a large boulder with her right cheek bone after a slip and head butt! We all agreed that it had been a fantastic walk, and far from boring (sorry Loz)!