Beinn a`Mhanaich and Ardmore Point.

Thank God for le dodgy Froggy electrics :) Normal service was resumed today on the hills..!

I drove over to Bob`s early to give him a socket set to change his battery.Like all modern cars nothing is simple and in this case,to change the battery,he needed a right angle socket extension.The deed done it started no problem but to be safe we set off in mine.

The vast majority of folk drive past the Luss Hills on their way further north,something of which I too was guilty of in the past.I wandered over them in my late teens when the winter bus timetables prevented day trips to Glencoe.Because they weren`t "real hills" I never kept any written records of which tops I visited so decided to do them all again a few years back.Nowadays I tend to do only do one hill a day to give time for other diversions later on in the day and to enjoy them all the more.Well,that plus my knees are knackered..!


The morning had been full of promise as I drove over to Bob`s...the River Clyde at Bothwell was shrouded in early morning mist with blue skies above.So it continued as we left Bob`s along by Dumbarton and up to Loch Lomond.The boy was desperate to stop for photos of the inversion over Loch Lomond.Must admit,it was quite nice as the wooded tops of the islands pierced the bed of low lying cloud.The hills beckoned though......for me at least :)

A non stop string of superlatives gushed from the Capn`s mouth as we turned left and gained height on the Glen Fruin road above Loch Lomond.Fortunately there was no place to pull over to indulge his passion :) We eventually pulled off the road at NS 275 904 where there is room for three or four cars at the entrance to the glen between Beinn Chaorach and Beinn a`Mhanaich.

In November 2008 everyone else had gone up the Cobbler whilst I fancied something different.I had set off up Beinn Chaorach in limited visibility and eventually broke through the cloud and had a fantastic day in the snow ,the only downside being I had to break trail all day through the snow myself.

Inversion over the Clyde with Ben Bowie sticking up on the left......


Taken by self timer on the trig point...



No chance of a repeat of that day again as we were now in clear crispy autumn weather.We set off up the south ridge of Beinn A`Mhanaich in t-shirts.Now Bob and I had been hillwalking and rock climbing for 25 years together before deciding to bow out gracefully and concentrate on the smaller hills and see different areas of Scotland.Rock climbing is fairly safe nowadays with modern protection but the general public still perceive it to be "dangerous". On the other hand most folk would think that bagging smaller hills,Marilyns for example,would be a fitting day out for two guys of our advanced years :) Not so..! On Hill of Garvock in Angus last year we had an encounter with a herd of demented cows with murderous intentions and no escape route.We`ve been electrocuted by fences and last Sunday coming to a complete halt on the outside lane of the A77 with no power for the hazard lights was up there at the top of the list.We hadn`t as of yet been shot at though.......

Nothing was going to deny us a summit today however....



You can hear the pop of the rifles in this video clip.Faslane below.



We contemplated exchanging the red flag for a white t-shirt but the summit urge was overwhelming.... well,for one of us at least :) Bob then phoned them up and told them they had no right to kill us as we were legitimate baggers going about our lawful business and, that if they really wanted to riddle us with bullets, then could they please postpone until after we had ticked the summit :)


That seemed to do the trick and they probably went away to tattoo each other with snakes and daggers or have a cuppa or something.

That little problem behind us we proceeded up the long easy angled ridge towards the summit.The views were opening up although a bank of cloud covered Islay and Jura.Arran was a bit hazy which was a pity because it looks spectacular from here.A grandstand view of the new Mark bothy over Loch Long....


The junction of Loch Goil and Loch Long....


The gnarly wee Steeple with Beinn Bheula behind...


Over to Beinn Ime and the Brack...



We wandered over to the summit and dropped down to the north to find a sheltered spot for lunch..



Back down the ridge we went into the sun and back to the car.

Knowing that we had a shortish hill day in prospect we had decided beforehand to round it off with a visit to Ardmore Point near Cardross and see what it had to show in the way of birds.On a previous visit there had been all sorts of waders and hundreds of shelduck and the like.It also had a trig point I had neglected to bag on that occasion as I had a proper life back in they days :) I suspect that most of the winter migrants haven`t arrived as yet and it was the wrong time of day anyway.They were probably dining out on Friday night`s regurgitated pizza and kebab across the other side of the Clyde.Couple of lazy herons and a flock of whimbrel was about it.There were good views across to Helensburgh however....



...oh aye,and an alpaca in a nearby field.They always seem to mince along in a manner that makes me smile, it`s as if they are trying out high heels for the first time..



Was lucky to bag the trig point as it was well hidden....


One of the numerous small beaches at Ardmore....



We then headed up and over the Carmen Muir road to see if we could get a good view of Loch Lomond but couldn`t find a safe place to park.Bob was a litle bit frustrated as he had only taken a few hundred photos so far."Head to Bowling Harbour..!" he commanded.We did and he got his quota of "arty" shots" there which, he assures me, will see this blog top the Google rankings for "brilliant photographs" :-)

I should point out before anybody complains that we were quite within our rights in accessing the hill and the firing was coming from further down on the range....just having some fun :)