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KILLIN MEET – 16TH OCTOBER 2005 Is it because I am getting
old or because I am male or a combination of the two, but I am getting
worse at multitasking. Thus it was that, with a carload of beautiful
women to accompany me, my repartee was fantastic and my driving up to
its normal high standards, but my navigational skills were at rock
bottom. As a result, we reached Killin by way of John O’Groats and
Land’s End (or to be more accurate Loch Lomondside and Crianlarich)
rather than the more direct route through Callander. Amazingly, we
weren’t late and found that, unexpectedly, there were 12 of us,
considerably more than the 2 who had signed up for the meet a week
earlier. The uncertainty was "could we get any further north?" for the
bridge over the River Lochay was closed for repairs following a car
accident. However, a 5 kilometre detour was possible, albeit on a busy
single track road, so nobody was prevented from reaching their chosen
hill.
Hugh Bourhill, Jimmy Stevenson, Brian McDaid and David Reynolds went
off to climb Ben Lawers, the Thomsons went off to climb a Corbett, Sron
a’Choire Cnapanaich, from the Glen Lyon dam, while Jon Barnes, Ingrid
Parker, Anna Fochi, Caroline Thompson and Lorna Gillespie drove along
the south side of Loch Tay to Ardtalnaig and climbed the Corbett,
Creagan na Beinne. Mary Reynolds chose to do a low level walk in Glen
Lochay.
It is a shame that there were no incidents to give spice to this
account, but everything went very smoothly on a very pleasant autumn day
with plenty of sun and constantly changing patterns of clouds. At one
point we were convinced one of the clouds was an angel. And, glory be,
he spoke to us. And a very practical message he had too - that if we
were looking for a pub we should head down the valley and then travel
west! Otherwise (after all it is not every day that one is addressed by
an angel), it is worth reporting that the wildlife was pretty good too:
a red squirrel, a pair of golden eagles, 2 flocks of snow buntings,
several hairy caterpillars and lots of mountain hares, all just
beginning to turn white.
At the end of the day the various parties met (or failed to meet) at
the Killin Hotel for a drink before heading back to Glasgow.
Jon Barnes
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