09/06/14 - Loch Assynt and Quinnag - (me)

Set off from Glencoe pre-7am. Drove alongside Loch Ness through Inverness to Ullapool. Had a full Scottish Breakfast and bought postcards and presents. I then drove further north to Loch Assynt.

I parked on the A894 and started to walk to the Quinnag Corbetts. Realised after a while that I was going anti-clockwise rather than clockwise so I really struggled to get up the first hill - steep, steep heather. Had a bit of a scare with a deer about half way up. It was nestled into a rock and didn't want to budge - I go fairly close to it without realising it. Had to do quite a detour to get round it as it really didn't want to move.

After reaching the summit of Sail Gorm (where I encoutered my first grouse and then baby grouse), I started up Spidean Coinich but some really heavy sideways rain came in and I didn't feel that I could proceed. Shame. In hindsight I should have waited for a bit.

I was planning on camping next to the castle on Loch Assynt but it was chucking it down. I went for a nice steak and chips at a rather posh Lodge and then took a drive through rich, dense and almost prehistoric valleys and sea coves - it was like the land was still forming.

I ended up booking into a hotel in the Summer Isles. As I did the skys opened and it turned into quite a nice evening. I went for a walk down the road (past numerous dumped and rusted bits of farm machinery), on the very rugged coast, being watched all the time by seals. I wore a new pair of walking shoes and realised when I get back that I'd ripped a great hole in my heel!

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