Along the Divide by Chris Townsend

Author:Chris Townsend
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781912240234
Publisher: Sandstone Press
Published: 2018-07-23T16:00:00+00:00

5

RAIN & SUNSHINE, DEER & BROCKEN SPECTRES

From the Great Glen the Watershed runs west for some 45 km all the way to Sgurr na Ciche in Knoydart before turning northwards again. This is rough, challenging terrain, much of which I knew well. In stormy weather it could be unpleasant and difficult. I was thinking of that as I walked back down the glen in heavy rain and strong winds to the Great Glen Hostel. If the wind was this powerful here, only a little above sea level, what would it be like on the hills?

I dripped into the hostel, my waterproofs as wet as they’d been at any time on the walk. Inside, I was damp with perspiration and condensation. I was glad to be indoors. The warden, Kirsty, was welcoming and helpful. Over lunch I discussed my plans and considered the weather. The forecast was awful – torrential rain and storm-force winds. Kirsty told me that the previous summer Colin Lock, who was running the Watershed, had called in. The forecast being similar he’d taken a lower route, paralleling the Watershed on forest tracks. This seemed a wise approach.

A saying much over-used in outdoors writing and marketing goes: ‘there’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing’, or words to that effect. There are several variants. The saying is attributed to various people, including the famous Lake District guidebook writer Alfred Wainwright, polar explorer Ranulph Fiennes and comedian Billy Connolly, and also said to be a Scottish or Scandinavian proverb (with both Norway and Sweden claiming to have thought of it first). Whoever came up with it doesn’t matter. It’s rubbish. The suggestion that with the right clothing you can deal with any weather is laughable. No clothing will keep you on your feet in winds strong enough to blow you over, or stop you getting exhausted trying to walk. In prolonged heavy rain you’ll get damp even in the best clothing. I knew this. I had the best clothing. No clothing could make navigation in dense mist easier either, or less tedious after hours of seeing nothing. This saying really needs to be relegated to the wastepaper basket.

Looking out at the wind and rain I decided to follow Colin Lock’s example and head through the woods along Loch Garry to the north of the Watershed. In the trees I’d have some protection from the weather. I might see something too.

The woods proved more interesting than I expected. I’d feared the day might be spent in endless conifer plantations. Thirty years earlier that would have been the case as from the 1920s to the late 1970s the Forestry Commission planted the area with straight lines of closely packed Sitka spruce, lodgepole pine and other conifers, and felled many of the remaining Scots pines that had previously dominated the woodland here. Then a complete reversal of this policy took place and in 1985 the Commission began removing the non-native conifers and trying to undo the damage of the previous sixty years.

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