Monday 12th -- Ben Lawers Reserve

Quite a short drive today -- but slow. And very enjoyable.

We drive out of Killin, along Loch Tay, then turn into Ben Lawers National Nature Reserve. Ben Lawers is... a ben. A mountain. The Reserve is a large area round the ben. We follow one road through the Reserve.

Our road follows what is, I think, a mountain pass. It's a very broad valley with mountains on either side. The road climbs up and up ... then goes down and down ... to Bridge of Balgie. That's as far as Deb has definitely planned. (I plan the trip, Deb plans the days.)

The road is narrow. Winding. Wide enough for one car, with frequent passing places. For a while the road cuts across a 45 degree hill slope. I'm a bit tense but there is very little traffic.

Scenery varies from pleasant to very nice to quite spectacular. It must be great country for hikers, we pass two full parking areas and see quite a few hikers. Day hikers? By the time we return, the cars are gone.

There are also geocaches. We are stopped for a cache, well off the road, when an enormous log truck trundles along the road. Like a cross between a tractor and a mining truck, towing a trailer, both parts fully loaded with pine trunks. I'm glad we are off the road when it passes.

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Just past Bridge of Balgie is a T junction, we turn right. There's a teashop, we stop for coffee and a delicious "nutty apple" cake.

There's a walk which starts just beside the teashop. So, of course, we walk the walk.

It starts off up a 45 degree hill. Steep, wet, with terrific views. We're looking over River Lyon in Glenlyon. Up, up, up... though we avoid the extra 40 minutes to walk to a war memorial and lookout. It may have been a reasonably level walk following contours, we find out later. Our walk is long enough.

After perhaps a km, the track levels out, then goes downhill again. We may be walking in birch forest. Then just above clear-felled pine plantation. Mud and water on the track, we are able to avoid most of it. Weather is good for walking, fine and cold. Not much wind, mostly sheltered by trees.

The tracks goes back down to the road, a km or so from where we started. We're at Innerwick: rough parking area, bridge, entry to an estate. And a dry-stone (but cemented) ww2 war memorial.

We start back along an "alternative trail to tearooms" but it soon becomes a trail of damp sludge. We walk back along the road. To have lunch (sandwich) at the tearooms.

Back in the car. We drive beside River Lyon, upstream along the glen. Another narrow winding road, with so little traffic that it is relatively stress free driving.

There is a fine white house -- which turns out to be a gatehouse, the driveway goes underneath. Two side roads have signs, Private road to castle and home farm. We glimpse what may be the castle, it's more of a mansion. From what little we can see.

Posters claim that Glenlyon is Scotland's loveliest and loneliest glen. I suspect that the owners are well up on Scotland's rich list.

There are dry-stone walls... some are kilometres long, parallel to the river. There are a couple of hydroelectric dams. Two streams come down the mountains in a series of spectacular rocky steps. There are plenty of cattle grids. With signs pointing to one side, Horse-drawn vehicles that side. Though I notice that the horse gates (with no cattle grid) have lots of grass and no sign of horse tracks.

There are caches all along this road, we find most of them. Each cache gets us out of the car -- into the very cold wind -- and we can enjoy the great outdoors and the views. It's all very peaceful, very pleasant.

We spend some time watching sheep being driven, on the other side of the glen. Hundreds of sheep, a couple of people, a car and a dog. We can hear the dog and sometimes see it.

We finally reach a cache above a large hydro dam. And decide it's time to head back. The road is a dead end, we are not sure just where it ends. The gps shows a cache 4km ahead. Maps (later) show the road ending at the dam. Hmmm. The cache may be on a road which branches to the other side of the dam.

We go back down the glen. With a detour to one side for a cache. The cache is called something like, Gorgeous views. And they are.

We stop just once more on that road, to photograph the gatehouse. And an enormous truck comes up from behind! I squeeze a bit further off the road. The truck squeezes by. I can hear small branches being snapped off on the other side of the truck. Oops...

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Deb is navigator. She says that it's now a bit late for her planned route home. So we return exactly the way we came, through the Ben Lawers pass. It's a lot easier knowing what to expect. Even passing another road-wide timber truck is easy.

And so... home again, by about 4:30. Rest, dinner, a short walk and that's it.

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Tomorrow we drive to Oban.

====    Dr Nick Lethbridge  /  Consulting Dexitroboper
             Agamedes Consulting / Problems? Solved.
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"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away." … Blazing Swan Survival Guide

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dying for you to read my blog: notdotdeaddotyet.blogspot.com.au :-)
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