We started walking again just after 9:30am and I was glad of the long lie, as I was quite stiff from the yesterday. Steve told me that it was my task to make a plan for getting us across the river and up to the top of Meall Odhar. The Abhainn Chai-aig was right in front of us and was wide, deep and rather fast-flowing. I also saw that there was a huge deer fence on the other side that we would also have to negotiate. There was no other option but to head upstream and look for a place to cross. We followed the river for what seemed like an eternity until we found a suitable narrowing through some boulders and a steep bank on the other side. Once safely across I headed downstream towards a gate that I had spotted almost directly opposite last night's campsite. On reaching the gate we found it padlocked; there was no option but to climb it. Once over safely, I started heading steadily up and around the West slopes that lead to the top of Meall Odhar.
It was another cracking day - a good few degrees warmer than yesterday. At first, the steep slopes were covering in heather so our progress was quite slow. But as we climbed to around 600 metres, the heather ceased and there was only bright scorched grass in front of us. We were soon at the top and admiring the view North into Coire Odhar Mor. Our route continued on to Meall na Teanga; each taking it in turns to lead. We had some amazing views over Coire Odhar Beag on such a clear day.
We started the descent down to the bealach between Meall Dubh and the South slopes of Sron a' Choire Ghairbh. On reaching the bealach, Steve suggested that we take a rest for around an hour and a half and take some time to chill out; maybe have some food. We all got a brew going while we hung out our tents and sleeping bags to air and dry a little. We had an amazing view of the sun going down through Gleann Cia-aig. As the sun disappeared, Steve said that we were to push on.
After packing up, we headed off again with Mike leading the way up the zigzags. It seemed to get dark very quickly and as I looked around I realised that it was a combination of the sun going down and the thick cloud that was surrounding us. Mike was too busy chatting and had a bit of a faff taking us to the col above the end of the path in the thick mist. With our head torches now on I took us to the summit of Sron a' Choire Ghairbh. We didn't hang around here; James then set off heading along the Eastern spur, retracing our steps at first and then continuing on to bealach between Sean Mheall. The mist was now very thick and the rain had also started. This meant that I had to rely heavily on my pacing - I had to concentrate hard. After the bealach, Darren tried to find the small lochan that was on the plateaux just to the West of the summit of Sean Mheall, but all that we could find was bog where it should have been. We then pressed on to the top and took a breather, as Steve planned my next mission.
Steve came over and asked me to take us to the other small lochan that was slightly less than a kilometre directly East of the summit. I took a moment to study the map and I told him that the only way I had a chance of finding it was to take a bearing directly to it. He nodded in agreement so I took a bearing and set off down the steep slope. What I found, soon after leaving the summit cairn, was that we were now entering a large boulder field that seemed to be quite gnarly. It meant that the going was slow, as I had to look at my compass and choose a fixed point that I could see in front of me that was in line with the bearing, navigate around the boulders and arrive at the fixed point, then repeat the process. This was slow but made sure that I didn't deviate from the original bearing. The boulder field ended and the ground turned into peat hag with many ups and downs, but I could see that the overall lie of the land was much flatter; I knew we were getting close. I came across a large section of peat bog that was more or less where I expected the lochan to be but I wasn't certain. Was this it? Was I even still on the right bearing? The only thing I knew was that I hadn't gone too far and overshot the lochan yet so I pushed on through the bog and up the steep bank on the other side. As I went up over the small mound, I could see the water rippling in the moonlight - we were there!
The others led a few short legs to the ring contours to the Northeast of the lochan before Steve said that we would head North down the slope towards the Allt a' Choire Ghlais. On reaching the river we followed it East down to the trees around the Kilfinnan Fall. Here, we set up camp under some trees. Steve left us and headed to his tent after telling us that we didn't have to leave until 9:30am tomorrow morning. I thought this was great news because it was now after 2am and I really wanted to get my head down. I chatted with James a little as we had a brew and cooked some food but I soon started to shiver and I knew I was tired, so I headed for bed; too tired to even reflect on the day that had just passed.
