Log No 97. Wed 31st Jul 2013 - Sourlies Bothy to Loch Morar, 9 miles (1511 miles walked)

While we were packing our rucsacs one of the German lads discovered that his loaf of bread had been eaten into and that the mouse had been in his rucsac. We all had a good laugh.

The tide was out when we set off at 08.30 so we cut across the end of Loch Nevis, the River Finiskaig runs into the loch and as there was no dry way to get across it we waded through. Wet feet right at the start of the walk.

With no path here we hoped to pick up deer trails to make the going a bit easier.

There were some trails but the terrain made it very slow progress.

We started close to the shore but soon found that we had to move inland a bit and climb the slopes to get round the rocky outcrops.

This was the pattern of the walk and there were a lot of high ferns to wade through too.

The day had started dry but overcast and it wasn't long before light showers came.

Occasionally we climbed some of the crags but a lot of the rock was wet and slippery.

Barry came along by us, paddling his way back to Tarbet. We were trying to stay close to the shore but Barry said we would need to climb high to get round the next section.

It was painfully slow work, literally so for Mick with his knee, and after climbing again just before we reached the second ruin along the shore I decided to head inland.

I reckoned we were going to have to climb high to get round the final headland anyway so we might as well stay high.

I chose a route to get up onto the top of the ridge, follow 4 small lochs and then descend alongside a stream to come down near to Tarbert.

This only involved a gentle climb but the rough ground still made it slow.

Once we attained the top the going improved.

Constantly having to watch were you placed your feet meant we saw lots of frogs and crickets hopping about.

The final descent was difficult, after getting over the deer fence the way down by the stream was initially quite treacherous but we safely managed to get down and pick up the footpath into Tarbet.

It had taken us almost 7 hours to do 6 miles but now we were back on a decent footpath we should speed up.

There's only a couple of houses at Tarbet but there is a very small ferry service linking it with Inverie and Mallaig.

The coastline from Tarbet to Mallaig was too tough to try to walk so we went south to Loch Morar to use the footpath.

The time was wearing on and by 17.30 I decided to stop at the first suitable pitch otherwise I would never get the log done tonight.

We soon came across a good site with super views up Loch Morar.

9 slow but scenic miles.

As expected there was no phone signal.