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The first outing of the new year, and not a brilliant forecast
but clearly everyone was keen to get going. Some gathered
at Acharacle and others waited at Kinecarra and in the end
we had fourteen explorers: Adrian, Alexander, Alexandria,
Allan, Benjamin, Carol-Anne, Jamie, Katie, Lucy, Peter William,
Sarah and Thomas, with four helpers: Ann Marie, Pamela, Peter
and Philippa plus Bruce the dog.
We set off from Kinacarra and stopped to look at the mill
stones outside the old mill. Then we quickly walked on to
the cave where the tramp called 'Wat the Wanderer' used to
stay. An excerpt from a book was read out and the explorers
heard about the tramp, almost certainly not Wat, who used
to stay in the cave in the 1960s.
Then back to the road and up the old path, rather slippery
after a lot of rain. Some of the explorers found a possible
well next to the path, but we pushed on until the march wall
just before the Devil's Staircase. There we left the path
and climbed the steep hill through the wood until we reached
a lovely open place with a fine recessed platform and the
remains of several houses, it must have been a settlement
at some time. We had a short break before continuing.
Leaving the settlement we carefully crossed the burn at a
safe place and scrambled up the slope to a pass where we got
a good view of Castle Tioram and the road far below us.
The next part was a strenuous scramble through the birch wood
westwards along the hill. The original plan was to reach a
sheiling high on the hill but we couldn't find a safe route
so we kept to the top of the wood and eventually found an
even better recessed platform which, after a short search
yielded a piece of birch charcoal. This was voted as a good
site for another break.
The next part of the walk was a scramble down the hill into
the oak wood. When we got to the path we were fairly close
to a stream which was in spate and the explorers stood on
the bridge watching the water thunder by.
Then it was time to head back and we all marched back along
the path and down the Devil's Staircase, where the explorers
heard how the route used to be used by the 6-Day Trials.
It started pouring as soon as we reached the Pantry and it
didn't stop for days.
John
Dye
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