Day 13(7) : Glenmallie to Lairig Leacach

Thursday 17th May 33km 1100m ascent

A wet midgie morning with the washing drying, hopefully, on the back of the pack as I walked down a new track that has been bulldozed above the old boggy one past a very good bridge that seemed to go nowhere.

By the time I reached the new bridge above Inver Mallie the rain had stopped but the clouds remained low and threatening.
The track beside Loch Arkaig has some interesting old oak trees between the conifers and the shore and making a very nice walk into Achnacarry, the home of Donald Cameron of Locheil XXVII Chief of Clan Cameron.

As I was walking along the road past the tiny Post Office, the Clan Cameron museum and looking at Achnacarry house through the trees a car stopped beside me "Excuse me, are you Locheil?” "No, oh you look very much like him", obviously the XXVII Chief etc often walks around his estate with the washing hanging out to dry on his rucksack.

The 'Great Glen Way' path beside Loch Lochy again felt somehow 'antiseptic' although there were great views over the Loch and several groups of walkers heading for Inverness, I thought it would take them less than the nine days I had spent getting from there. I was hoping there would be a teashop at Gairlochy for an early lunch (11.30). There was, shut!

Suitably refreshed I headed for the Lairig Leacach suffering somewhat from the high temperature and humidity, that problem was resolved on reaching the bealach when the wind picked up with the arrival of the rain.

The Lairig Leacach Bothy had been recently refurbished, the removal of the sleeping loft leaving a lot of old timber that I spent some time breaking up, only to find that I couldn't get it to burn! Spent the evening reading a book that had been left there and waiting for someone else to arrive, no one did, before settling down to listen to the rain.