Torridon

day 22 Tuesday 8 June

Torridon

The news this morning at Ratagan was a big issue in the ladies dormitories over snoring!  People changed rooms, slept on couches etc. to get away from it, and some had no sleep and complained!  Dick was in a room with eight men and there was no major problem! 

 Before we left Ratagan, we walked up on the hills behind the hostel.

view across Lochalsh from Ratagan

forestry track above Ratagan

 We had a short, scenic drive to Torridon stopping for a cup of tea at a lovely village, Shieldaig, on a sea loch where two men were slowly launching a sailing dinghy for a day out. 

We arrived at Torridon by 11, left the car at the hostel and started walking, having oatcakes and cheese for lunch in the remains of an old stone building by the loch.
After lunch we drove around to find a public path up the hills heading southeast from Torridon across to Coulags where we climbed for about 2 ½ hours. It was a lovely walk up into the heather. 

Torridon

We climbed about 300 metres up into the heather. We walked for about 2½ hours with great views and lovely weather.

climbing up the track, looking back at the hostel at the base of the scree

We looked across to a waterfall which may have been below Loch an Uilit-Bheithe, although we did not quite walk that far. We were looking across to Lochan Neimhe. The hill above us was 737 Beinn nah-Eaglaise

above Loch Torridon

Notes from maps - Ben-Damph forest

The dorm I was in was full of stuff and very cluttered with towels etc and only two spare bunks out of 8. Then the warden’s wife asked me for my key for the next lady as they had run out. She returned it not long after. When I went up to the room later I could hear voices and it was hard to open the door as the others had returned. They were a group of amateur geologists from Edinburgh, about my age, who apologized for the mess, being new at hostelling and having brought too much stuff. So we chatted and made friends and they lent me some of their reading matter. I don’t know how the other lady from Melbourne felt but it worked out well for me.

Tomorrow we start for home, heading south. Pitlochry is an unknown quantity, but we have to look out for a butcher at Inverness on the way to find a pie like the one the Melbourne people had for dinner. Looking forward to revisiting New Lanark.