As the weekend approached and with a high pressure sitting over the UK it looked as though the Highlands of Scotland was going to be one of the few areas to experience clears skies instead of cloud and fog! Plans were made to make the most of the potential good weather and I decided to take the mountain bike down Glen Strathfarrar. The glen is north of Glen Affric and appeared to be renown for its remoteness and beauty - confirmed by photos I found on the Internet.
A private single lane tarmac track runs the length of the glen, open all year to hikers and cyclists. The track passes Loch Beannacharan around the 5 mile mark until it finally reaches the very long Loch Monar - around 14 miles from the starting point. The mountain bike seemed the most efficient way to experience the lochs, rather than the many more hours it would take to trek the route.
On the Friday night I headed out in the car to check the parking facilities only to encounter fog and low cloud on route which didn’t bode well for the following morning. Sure enough the next morning the whole area was shrouded in low cloud and mist - not quite what I envisaged for the trip. I headed off anyway, the first use of the bike roof rack to take my mountain bike and Willow coming along for the exercise as well.
As a photography outing my plans for vast mountain landscapes in clear skies had to be shelved for another day as I wasn’t sure what sort of opportunities would present themselves.
On route we encountered large numbers of deer at various points. Willow giving me the heads up about them when I noticed her lifting her head and picking up some new scent as she ran along beside me:
The foggy weather added to the atmosphere!
There was too much of a breeze for any real reflections by the time we reached the loch and the surrounding mountainside was cloaked in mist:
Unfortunately it was impossible to get a full appreciation of the vastness of the landscape with such low cloud. Along some of the route the lower hills poked through the mist.
After passing the second loch we headed onwards towards Loch Monar, but decided due to the weather to leave that experience for another day and turned around to head back.
On the route back in the distance the low winter sun was trying its best to break through the mist with some evidence of lightening skies.
It then seemed like all of a sudden the sun punched a hole through the mist, resulting in the only bit of real sunlight I saw on the whole ride:
We took the opportunity to take a break from the ride to get a number of photos, although the temperature seemed to be dropping with Willow getting cold as well as me! It was time to get back.
The ride ended up a total round trip of 21.34 miles according to Garmin. I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to do a repeat trip when the weather is perfect for seeing the full scale of the mountain scenery that I know was there but hidden on this visit.
