WATER FALLS IN LOCHABER
Another trip to the west. This time we were on a mission to check out our accommodation and some potential walks for our Dinosaur walking group trip away in April 2023.
The plan is to stop for a walk on the way down from Inverness to our accommodation at the Old Pine Hotel just outside Spean Bridge. Our choice for that was the river walk at Invergarry, with an option to extend that depending on weather and how we feel at the time.
We stopped off at the Invergarry Forest Car Park, which was full to the brim!
Little did we know that the river here is a Mecca for canoeists and river rafters! Rather them than us, to be honest.
Anyway, it was dry to start with and we set off from the car park to try and find where the path met the public road on the south side of the river. It was not our intention to do the whole walk, but to find out where we would be going and to sort out any potential difficulties.
So, down the path we went, through the dappled woodland, accompanied by the constant rush of the river. It was actually quite warm in the sun, but it always felt as if the rain might not be very far away. nonetheless, it was very pleasant indeed.
Already, the leaves are beginning to fall.
We managed to find the public road quite easily, which meant we had met our first objective. That was good, given that our intention was to do the walk the other way round from the guide we had. The next step was to find where the path emerged on the other side of the river at the car park. We managed that easily. This was going really well.
On the way back to the car park, we spotted some daft rafters coming down the rapids.
Not something we fancy, although we did do it once in the Canadian Rockies, but we were a good deal younger and more foolish then. It was good to watch, though.
The next bit didn't quite go so well. We had to find where the road rejoined the path down to the river, which wasn't so easy when you are trying to follow the directions going back instead of forward. We had driven back up the public road and had not spotted our route. So back to the other side and then followed the path on the other side. Still we got confused from right to left, but eventually it clicked and this is what we were looking for.
Time for lunch, then. So, on we went down the A82 and we stopped, as planned at the Whispering Pine Lodge. This used to be the Letterfinlay Hotel, which was not so good, but we had heard that the new owners had lifted it out of mediocrity. The menu has a real Asian slant to it, which was just fine by us. We knew we were having a bigger meal in the evening, so we were just looking for a a couple of small plates to share.
We had a Tandoori chicken kebab with a nice mint and coriander sauce and onion and spicy tomato chutney. We also had a Mulmuly kebab, which was minced chicken and paneer, with the same accompaniments along with a very good, thin butter garlic naan.
It was exactly what we needed and all delightful, which is more than could be said for the weather, which had become truly ghastly - heavy rain and howling wind. So much so, that the glorious view from the dining room was completely obscured.
The weather did not improve, but we pressed on to at least look at the start of another walk along the shore of Loch Arkaig. This involved a very scenic drive through Achnacarry and up to the car park at Eas a' Chia-aig. The Gaelic meaning is very obscure. Eas is waterfall, but the Cia is unknown and aig could be derived from balg, meaning bulging, or beag, meaning small. Of course, this is very close to Loch Arkaig , with the Kaig being very similar to Chia-aig. Loch Arkaig is the loch of the small trout.
There certainly are no trout, or salmon getting up the falls, which are completely spectacular with the volume of water flowing over them, which, no doubt, has been boosted by the amount of water falling out of the sky!
Magnificent and well worth the visit on their own.
It was still raining heavily and there was no prospect of it letting up. We decided that there was no point in getting soaked, when the hotel was 15 minutes away and, no doubt warm and comfortable. So, the hotel it was!
Sure enough, it was warm and comfortable and the complimentary tea and very large scone that we had, overlooking the view to Ben Nevis was just excellent. Well, the view would have been excellent, but the weather had completely obliterated it. You can see why the hotel is called the Old Pines, though!
I would have to admit to a wee snooze in the afternoon, before it was time to get ready for dinner. Bruce and Irene were coming to join us which was nice.
The dinner itself was very good, indeed. I'm pretty sure the Dinosaurs will enjoy it.
We had drinks in the lounge and they brought us a little snack of beef tartare and a cheese croquette at the same time.
Once at our table, the next course arrived. It was a smoked Ayrshire potato veloute, with green apple and a spruce oil. The spruce oil was unusual, but but not unpleasant.
Bruce and I both had mackerel fried in oats, with a dill yoghurt and pickled tomatoes.
Irene and Sharon had a wild mushroom risotto with tarragon pesto and parmesan. Unfortunately I only took photos of my own food, so you can't see that.
Once again, Bruce and I went for the same thing - haunch of venison, celeriac, and roast pear. Very nice it was, too. Sharon had pan roasted cod, crab hash and caper butter. Irene went for curried cauliflower, new potatoes, apple and dill oil.
We all had a pre-dessert of raspberry frozen yoghurt on pistachios and a sort of raspberry jam. It was delightful.
I had a chocolate ganache, with raspberry, dark chocolate tuile, honey and hazelnuts.
Sharon had a blueberry and almond cake, with golden syrup and frozen yoghurt. Bruce had both as Irene selflessly ordered the ganache so that he could indulge his sweet tooth.
We had a nice Primitivo to go with that - Sharon had a glass of Grillo. Bruce and I had a nice wee malt to finish things off. All in all a pretty good meal.
Irene drove Bruce home on the torrential rain, while we crawled off to bed.
The next day started off reasonably nicely, with some sunshine. After some deliberation, we decided to go and do the Loch Arkaig walk and determine if it was one for next April.
The waterfall was just as spectacular today, but the sunshine gave us the added bonus of a little rainbow.
Leaving the waterfall behind we headed down to the access to the walk only to discover that the road was flooded and the loch had basically overflowed due to the rainfall. You can see the line of the road between the wall and the trees to the right of the photo.
It was more like a canal than a road.
It wasn't so deep as so deep as to prevent us getting to where we wanted to go with a little care and only a tiny bit of dampness in my boots!
There were some fine views up the loch, which is over 12 miles long and more than 300 feet deep. Tradition has it that there is a hoard of Jacobite gold, either in the loch or buried in the woodlands around it. We didn't find any gold, although some gold coins were found in the woods in 1850.
We spotted a Grey Wagtail on the top of a dead tree. These are really bonny birds. Now all we needed was the resident White Tailed Sea Eagle to make an appearance. It didn't oblige, however, and the wagtail was the only bird of note that we saw.
The weather was beginning to close in from the west.
Just where the faint rainbow lands is Eilean Columbkill, which contains the remains of an old chapel and graveyard along with the even earlier remains of a crannog. The chapel is said to have been the burial site for Clan Cameron chiefs, but there is little archaeological evidence for that. This part of the loch was also once important for salmon, but the construction of the Caledonian Canal apparently put a stop to that. I'm not sure why that would be, unless the canal involved the rerouting of the River Lochy, cutting off access for salmon into Loch Lochy.
We carried on along the track on the south side of the loch for over a mile. The rain had begun to fall and it was getting heavier. It also has to be said that the walk itself was not terribly exciting. Trees cut of most of the view of the loch and it was essentially a walk through the trees. Additionally, the walk was in and out - we would be coming back along the same track to get back to the cars. We decided it wasn't for us and we turned back.
By the time we got to the bridge across the River Arkaig, the rain had let up a bit. The bridge itself is quite attractive.
Here is Sharon on the bridge, with the lowering, black clouds behind.
This is me by the bridge, looking a little dispirited.
What now? We could just go home and perhaps make another trip. However, Bruce had been imploring us to consider the walk to Steall waterfall in Glen Nevis. Most of the literature suggested that this was quite a tricky walk, with some risky sections. We were wary that this might not be suitable for some of our group. Nonetheless, we thought there might be some walking in Glen Nevis, so that is where we headed.
We stopped at a couple of points and there does seem to be some potential to do more than one walk throughout the day we plan to be there. If that was suitable, we might leave the Steall walk to the last of the day and let people decide if they wished to take it on or not.
After looking at a few alternatives, we stopped at the new car park at the Lower Falls. There were some canoeists eying up the chance of getting into the river and going over the falls. Clearly they were insane and we didn't actually see them go into the water.
I mean, why would you?
To raise funds for the local Mountain Rescue Team, that's why. Every year, there is a race down the river on inflatables without sides, lilos, basically, except for the inflatable sharks or flamingoes, of course. They jump in at this point and some helpful guy throws their inflatable in after them and off they go.
Mad!
We didn't jump in, but drove to the end of the road and parked up. The sun was shining, so we decided we would do the walk through Steall Gorge.
This is the famous water slide, more properly known as Allt Coire Eoghainn. This is not something you go to the top of and jump into with that old tractor inner tube you got from your granddad. It is 350 metres long and there is nothing to stop you at the bottom. It has been the scene of many an accident and fatality over the years. It is pretty spectacular, though.
If you stand astride the stream and look uphill, it is a bit more of a raging torrent.
There were more like it. Not your usual Dinosaur path.
Below the "path", the river rages through some huge boulders that have fallen from higher up into the gorge. They have been sculpted and rounded through millennia of washing by the river.
By now the sunshine had gone and the rain was gushing down almost as ferociously as the river below us. I have to say it was getting a bit on the cold side as well. It really was not pleasant for walking in, although it was not slippy underfoot, which was good.
There were some fine views down the glen though the rain and the mist.
You also could get a good view of the water slide back at the car park.
Eventually, as we rounded a corner, we got our first sight of what we had come for - An Steall, The Spout. This is actually a classic example of a hanging valley. At one time there was no waterfall here, but there was a tributary of the River Nevis . The glacier that ran through the glen reduced the level of the River Nevis by about 230 metres, leaving the tributary hanging above the new valley floor once the ice melted back. The burn - the Allt Coire a' Mhail will eventually wear down the rock and the waterfall will disappear. What you can see at the moment is just over 10000 years of erosion, so there's a bit to go yet.
Once the glacier receded, it left behind a wide Alpine like meadow that really comes as some surprise after the confines of the gorge. We carried on a little more, but not as far as we might have done. It was very windy and wet by now.
An Steall, the waterfall, is usually listed as the second highest in the UK, falling some 120 metres in one go. It is certainly very impressive, indeed and well worth the scramble to get there. A nice sunny day would have been even better.
Time to get back to the car.
Although there were opportunities for some tricky photos.
It wasn't too long until we got back to the car park, where, of course, the sun came out. However, we had been really impressed and we would like to take the Dinosaurs there, if they are willing and able.
We, on the other hand, were now desperate to get home and get warm. A quick stop at Marks and Spencer for a ready meal and off we went, soon to jump into a hot bath.
We really enjoyed our couple of days despite the weather and we think we have the makings of a good trip, with good food and walks, in April next year.
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