Day 46 - Drumochter East

16 June

Another three Munros bite the dust; as does Drumocher as a whole! I'd done the western Drumochter hills a couple days ago and I only had these three left, all of which are quite isolated from one another. The solution: do them as two trips in the same day, although I'd considered linking them all in one.

I started up the first two, A' Bhuidheanach Bheag and Carn na Caim. I good summer conditions all in; cloudy and warm, and ideal for walking in. I climbed the path up to the quarry on the plateau and did each hill in turn.

I first climbed these Munros a couple of winters ago, in proper white out stuff. I always remember finding them really hard hills, endless plodding with nothing to see. (Well, it was a whiteout...) Today I was happy to actually find them quite easy, despite the round of two being 17km. These Munros get a lot of stick for being boring hills, or something like that, but being my first time on them in clear weather, I really enjoyed them.

It's true that down by the noisy A9, they aren't the most attractive mountains, but get up onto the plateau and all that sound disappears. All you're left with, are the distant mountains and big skies. I was really glad to have made it here. Good tracks allowed fast progress, and I got around the two in four hours.

I was back down mid-afternoon, and headed off to Meall Chuaich. This is another simple Drumochter hill, and I felt as if I was climbing it for the sake of it. But it must be done, that's the challenge. Last time I climbed it, I used a bike for the bottom, but now I did the hours' walk in before getting onto the hill itself. A monumental shower passed by the hill and I stayed in the clear, which meant I also got my first summit panorama from this hill, I'd done it in the mist the first time. (This is a recurring theme of my Munro Round)

Meall Chuaich rounded off the Drumochter section, and I was glad to make it through this part. It knocks a chunk out of the Central Highlands and puts me a step closer to the Great Glen.

After the hills, I headed up to Aviemore for a drink with James and Ailsa, where we hatched plans for a scramble the next morning... more of that in the next blog post!