Day 7- The misty portage

To end the suspense (for those who care or remember) our decision regarding the ascent of Cul Mor was to portage to loch Veyatie and paddle down it on day 7 and on day 8 ascend Cul Mor as the route up was much more pleasant from that side.

Today we felt like Charon paddling dead souls through the misty gloom to the underworld; in less dramatic terms the clouds were exceptionally low and we could not see further than the other side of the loch in the morning. We packed up after I had a grumpy episode packing the bags rerolling the sleeping mats about 10 times and getting extremely frustrated that I just stood up in the drizzle to shove it all in and declared that Izzy was doing all of the packing from now on then I went and ate breakfast to recover from my tantrum. We pushed off and kept the shore in sight because as we came around back in Sionasgaig we the extent of our visibility didn’t reach very far. We paddled back to the area we had first came down in the loch and found our second portage stream and got into Lochan na Claise, paddled around this and located our exit stream.

Thankfully it was flatter than expected and we could tow the canoe through the stream for quite a way, there were a few parts we had to ferry the bags up and then the canoe as the land was flat then would go up then flatten again before another incline. We followed our progress along the map until it got to a squiggly part and the stream didn’t carry along as it did on the map so we scouted ahead with the bags and found a small loch/tarn and after heading up and over another lump we saw our end point. It was much sooner than I had thought!

It felt as if the most incline was saved for the last push at the end, it took about another hour to get the canoe and everything down to the loch, we were now back on loch Veyatie. We had already picked a spot on the map that looked flat and should be sheltered so we paddled into the loch and around the corner towards us scoping the banks for any other good spots; we parked up and scouted the land of our intended spot finally settling on a decent position for the tent. Then it was time to set up camp; I cooked pasta while Izzy took care of the tent furnishings and we retired into the tent as after all there really wasn’t a view to see other than the edge of the loch and the lumps on either side of us.

We had paddled and portaged for 6 hours and I definitely felt a little weary that day although bearing in mind it was the 7^th day I was quite happy it had taken until then to hit me slightly as I had been less chirpy and more fed up with the portage but the pasta and my sleeping bag really made things better.

The beginnings of the Ramblings of a Mad Blonde idea emerges…..