Outdoor Capital of the UK Blog
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Beinn Fhionnlaidh
Monday, July 30, 2007
View over to Ardnamurchan on the descent
Perched boulders are a feature of the descent.
The route takes you on a less travelled circuit - the upside being that we met hardly anyone until near the summit, but the downside that there were few paths. The bracken and grass were in verdant growth and we decided that bracken bashing was not unlike walking through powder snow i.e. hard work!
The weather came and went but we got great views most of the time, and views are one of the reasons to climb this hill. You get to see both out to Ardnamurchan and Mull but also into Glen Etive and through to Glencoe. Fabulous!
posted by ocuk @ 9:19 AM 0 comments 
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Ballachulish Sunset
On Saturday 28th, after a day of mixed weather we were rewarded with a dramatic sunset in Ballachulish....
For more info on the Ballachulish area in the Outdoor Capital go to:
posted by ocuk @ 8:59 AM 0 comments
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Fun evening out on the quad-bikes
Monday, July 23, 2007
The long, light summer evenings in the Highlands means there's plenty of time to get out and have some fun after work. Last week a group of front-line staff from Fort William's Tourist Information Centre took a well-earned break from helping out visitors to test-drive some of the fun you can have in the Outdoor Capital, trying out quad-biking with Tulloch Outdoor Activity Centre. Quad-biking is a great fun activity for groups of all ages, and of course the best bit is you can get out into the hills and enjoy the views without the hard work of walking all the way up there! Find more great things to do on the activities section of the OCUK website.
posted by ocuk @ 2:19 PM 0 comments
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The best of the weather is in the Outdoor Capital
Whilst the rest of the UK seems to suffer torrential rain, as I write this the Outdoor Capital has not had more than the odd shower for over week.
Just as well because on Wednesday 19th July a crew came up from Walk magazine, the magazine of the Ramblers Association. They were up to research and shoot a piece on great valley walks. One of the best (in our opinion anyway but perhaps we are biased) is the classic walk out from Corrour Station to Glen Nevis Corrour Station is one of the most isolated stations in the UK, and has no road leading to it. There is however a great cafe and B&B there and an eco-hostel run by the Scottish Youth Hostel Association.
The walk is low level but a good length - approximately 15 miles and some of it is on quite rough ground. You start on moorland then walk past Loch Treig, alongside the Abhain Rath, past several bothies including Meannanach where we stopped for lunch. The middle section is a boggy but as it had been quite dry in the preceeding days we didn't have too much trouble. Once over the watershed the views down into Steall, the waterfall and onto the back of Ben Nevis are spectacular.
I'd thoroughly recommend this walk if you have a reasonable level of fitness. We had clear weather and only used our compass to identify surrrounding mountains, however if the weather came in you would need to be able to navigate out as the path is not always distinct.
posted by ocuk @ 10:06 AM 0 comments
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Commuting in the Outdoor Capital
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
A recent move to Ballachulish from Fort William (approximately 16 miles south of Fort William) means that I can no longer walk to the office in Fort Bill- damn! Although the distance is cycle-able, the A82 up to Fort Bill gets narrow and twisty and takes all traffic from tourist coaches to logging lorries so the cycle isn't the most pleasant in the world. However a friend in Ballachulish came up with a cunning plan. Which is: put the bikes int the back on the car, drive to the Corran Ferry about 7 miles north of Ballachulish, park up and take the bike across on the ferry. Foot passengers and bikes go free on this small car ferry. There is then a very pleasant 10 mile cycle on the edge of Sunart up to Camusnagaul where there is a community ferry. As we arrived this morning Jeff, the ferryman, was fishing off the boat so I got a mackerel for my tea! Beats getting the tube in London .
The Camusnagaul Ferry also doubles as a cruise boat - for ferry times call 07766 138538.
I tend to do only do this commute when the weather is good - so check out the Outdoor Capital website for lots of weather links.
Anna
posted by ocuk @ 9:15 AM 0 comments
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