I really am making the best of my current situation - living in Scotland with plenty of time on my hands. Somehow, I had persuaded Katharina to come visit me again and for some reason she kept extending the duration of her planned stay, so that I didn’t know anymore how to fill the time with Edinburgh sightseeing and day trips and therefore suggested a trip to the highlands instead. She arrived on a Saturday and, after six hours on trains already, was willing to go on two more right away to travel via Glasgow to Corrour. In Glasgow, after less than three hours in the country, Kat already had had her IrnBru, pink Guinness, and Haggis, while we were catching up with Paul in a pub. We then set off to the highlands on a grand three hour train ride along firths and lochs, passing a few towns we had walked through on the West Highland Way two years ago (link), reminiscing.
On our arrival in Corrour it was dark and the prospect of the one-mile-long walk to the hostel daunting, but the path turned out to be an easily visible dirt road, and the only one around, as Corrour, which consists of a rail station building and a restaurant, is only accessible by train. We didn’t get lost, and after a few bends we saw the illuminated window of our hostel.
The hostel (link) had two dorms with a washroom each, a common room with fireplace and kitchen, composting toilets outside, no showers, but Loch Ossian on its front steps. We got a first glimpse of it when waking up to blinding sunshine through the windows and a great view over the loch. Today would be the day where I started my munroist career - walking up two of them, Carn Dearg and Sgor Gaibhre, in one go.
View from the ladies’ dorm window over Loch Ossian.
Loch Ossian Youth Hostel.
Loch Ossian.
Climbing up Carn Dearg and looking back south to what we would climb the following day.
View over Loch Ossian from the north east.
The first top.
Lovely bog cotton.
The last heather of the season.
Walking back to the hostel.
Sunset over Loch Ossian.
Sunset over Loch Ossian.
Sunset over Loch Ossian.
Sunset over Loch Ossian.
Sunset over Loch Ossian.
Can’t get enough of this sunset.
Yep, there is a tea pot nailed to the tree. For birds I suppose.
After a fine and tiring walk on day one which I only half enjoyed since I was suspecting a UTI coming my way (which luckily never materialised) we had lentil soup and red wine for dinner, socialised with the other guests for quite a bit, and went to bed to wake up late to a misty morning the next day. In no rush to leave the hostel we had a long breakfast with müsli and pancakes, waiting for a breeze to come up and clear the fog and blow away the midges. This day’s walk would go around a nice horseshoe ridge to the south of Corrour station. There was a path to follow for a bit and once it dissappeared the plan was just to make for the ridge. The path disappeared much earlier than anticipated but to the ridge we made it eventually. Resting up there after a tiring climb through heather and bog we then realised that there was an easy forestry track leading up which we hadn’t seen, and which could have saved us lots of effort and time. We laughed it off and continued our walk, enjoying the greatest views and the nicest long breaks. A few hours later, back at the hostel, we had tea and biscuits, then dinner, a wee dram of whisky liqueur, and off to bed we went, having to catch an early train the next morning.
Loch Ossian in the early morning mist.
Sun and fog at the same time!
Taking these pictures was worth getting eaten by nasty midges.
Cairn on top of Leum Ulleim - not a munro, but offering great views all around.
Loch Ossian, Corrour station in the bottom left corner.
Strong tree.
Cold drinks waiting at Corrour Station House, a restaurant which cannot be reached by car.
Leaving Loch Ossian on another misty morning.
Loch Ossian is a great place to spend a few days, and I will definitely come back here again. I didn’t mind the absence of showers as the washrooms had hot water and were quite sufficient for a few days. Everyone we met here was really friendly, the setting encourages socialising, and the restaurant at the station has a bar in case there is need for more booze. I got badly sunburnt wearing a V-neck top two sunny days in a row without putting sunscreen on my neckline, and the midges got me on our walk to the train station despite wearing a headnet, but it was totally worth it.
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Stunning pictures!! Will you hand them in to the Guardian?? - Kat
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