RLS interlude at fisherfield

 

Fisherfield hills

               On the return from the start of the RLS way, I emptied all that hiking gear and started airing the tent, as the very next day I had to start packing for the fisher field hills, the plan was one night in a tent and sleeping gear that can be left in bobs car, another backpack loaded ready to go for two overnight self-sufficient camps three days hiking, I’m not experienced enough with this and not done it regularly enough to know exactly what to take, some stuff was easy like the thermarest tent and sleeping bag, just carry my lightest of these, a great chance to try out my new elephants foot sleeping bag puffy jacket combo, food was tricky three days’ worth to carry, waterproof’s change of clothes hats gloves all took a lot of thinking time, I was basically still packing when bob arrived at six at night for our drive to Tim and T`s camp site near fisher field, the camp site was near the town of laid, the drive up was fine I took a beer for the road and there was a stunning rainbow and loads to talk about,

               We arrived at Tim’s camp site at ten and had a few beers together chatting while setting up the tent, then continued to chat and have a few beers until T gave us a row noisy boys! We left the site before nine AM, it wasn’t long before we were in a parking spot near the river where we would be setting of on mountain bikes, bob had brought Joyce’s bike for me (thanks Joyce) the cycle in was fun very exhilarating at times up 7km of undulating land rover track with two river crossings, legs out an go for it, we then hid the bikes locked together behind a clump, praying they would be there in three days’ time and set off through the heather

             

  This proposed hike was what was once called the fisherfield six as it was six Munroe’s that was before one got declassified by being too short by fifty centimeters! it’s now known as the fisher field five, but we were out to do the whole area justice and were planning ten peaks (that boabs an awfy man) one Graeme four Corbett’s five Munroe’s, after we decided where our first  main river crossing was to be we started ascending proper and were at the top of our first peak the only Graeme by midafternoon, I was chuffed as it had a trig point I’ve been ticking them off recently, there was also a cool piece of stone art a circle, I liked it and plenty photos were taken before we set off again, hoping to get one Munro done before sun down

              

We spent a fair bit of time picking a spot for our tents at a belach at height, a fair distance from any water what we had would have to do all night then until midday, bob had brought some excellent soup, both bob and Tim done much better with food supplies than me, the timing was perfect we finished eating just as the sun started to set, we had time to leave the camp site and get to the summit of our first Munro to watch the sunset, oh and bingo another trig point at sunset for me, wonderfull

             

  Once back at the tents bob got out his fancy camera, I got out my bottle of whisky and we sat enjoying the amazing scenery and wonderful night sky, having a dram and a good chat a perfect way to spend the evening, the midges were slightly out in the morning but it was ok for a morning coffee and some breakfast,

 setting off from the belach we didn’t have too far to go in the morning to reach our second Munro, we stopped to speak to a young Glasgow lad who was bivvy`ing at the summit eating a tin of beans out the can for breakfast, he had taken the bus from Glasgow up to do these hills, he was wondering the best way to get the bus back? Bob and tim gave him some advice I hadn’t a clue! After this peak it was a long descent (water found) then ascent up to the next peak with a bit of ridge walking and a slight scramble up and down over what’s called the tennis court (not that flat you would defo lose a few balls) onto a peak which in Gaelic means the maiden, once at the summit cairn,  we discovered someone had left a Tupperware tub with their mates ashes and some mementoes in the cairn,

     

it was a huge boulder field we trekked over to get to the next belach, we left our packs at a lochan to go up knowing we would have to come back that way, our final peak of the day was the declassified Munro, the panorama at the top of this hill at that time of night in that weather was simply breathtaking, we retrieved our packs then went looking for a spot to camp for the night, when on our way we passed another stone circle - stone art thing near a lochan I liked this one also it was cool, I took some photos;  later on perhaps a month later I was to get into a twitter bun fight with an environmentalist I admire, as he had deemed this stone art as vandalism and destructed that circle it now no longer exists! he had proudly posted a photo of before and after, it saddened me he could have done some sort of productive rewilding work or perhaps some path repair but no! destroy a thing of beauty taking a moral high ground when I bet he wore a wooly hat, had leather boots on and potentially using a gas stove to heat his meat supper!!! All of which are much worse for our countryside than a tiny well-built artistic stone circle, built in an unvegetated boulder field, however he has his right to destruct as whoever the mystery druid had to construct,

          

     We found our camp site right on the side of a lochan with a slight breeze keeping the midges away, after we all set up our camp site bob and Tim started cooking, I got stripped of and considered a swim but the boulders were to near the surface, I opted to just have a refreshing bird bath, before dinner, after dinner I still had half a bottle of whisky and bob and Tim had some in their hip flasks we settled down with a boulder at our backs feet out drams in hand to watch natures night show

              

We were not disappointed there was the percid meteor shower that night, the amount of shooting stars we seen was more than I had previously seen in my whole life, every couple of minutes there was another, the rest of the sky was like a tinsel blanket awash with stars where we could clearly see the satellites flying over seeming very close to earth, one horizon had the sun simmering down to a slight orange glow, the other had the moon appearing bringing a white glow with the dark sky in the middle awesome,

             

  The last days hiking involved the Corbett’s known collectively as the dreichs,(pronounced djereks!) we approached these excellent hills from an unusual angle very steep, it was a slog at times but well worth it, when we got into the Corry near the summits ridge we were rewarded with a beautiful scene and a perfect route to take round the peaks, our final peak of the trek number ten, we left our heavy packs ¾ of the way up as we would be taking our descent back that way, then on a route we just made up towards the river in the distance, on the opposite shore (yet another river crossing)from our bikes hidey hole, this peak is rarely walked so routes in and out are not well defined, had these peaks been anywhere except this remote location they would definitely receive a lot more attention! 

              

Once across the river we were glad to find our bikes untouched and had an absolutely wonderful cycle out very exhilarating back to the main road, it had been a while since I had done this sort of mountain biking, I had totally forgot how heart racing`ly thrilling it is to hurtle down a gravel track at speed knowing the consequences of a fall, then the sheer joy of a safe successful exhilarating descent,  changing out of dirty boots loading up the bikes and getting our packs in the boot of bob's car was horrendous due to the midge infestation around the vehicle, bob had promised we would be on time for a fish supper in Ullapool and he was true to his word, there was a big que for the fish and chips, I got me and Tim a beer from the shop, we ate our dinner on a picnic bench where the midges did find us, not as bad as earlier but not fun, Ullapool seemed very busy which is good

            

   By the time we were dropping Tim off at his campsite we had a decision to make (well bob did) a four hour drive down the road or squeeze into Tim’s tent? after a lot of to an fro we ended up camping up for a fourth night under canvas except this time we were in the awning part of a bigger tent hiding from midgies and drinking beer luxurious fun

               An all-round excellent few days in good company, well worth the interlude on the RLS trek which is also all good as I am really needing to do more research,