The forecast for the day was for rain, and indeed it rained for most of the day, clearing only later in the evening.
We tried walking a path that cut through from Glen Coe to the south bank of Loch Leven, then walking back along the road a bit until we found a forest track from which an unmarked path led us to the Glencoe Village Forest Walks circuit. After having some sandwiches for lunch, we tried taking an unmarked (new mountain bike?) path, and came across an area apparently filled with Chanterelle mushrooms. We picked a selection of the cleaner ones, taking them back to the campsite. After checking all the relevant information we had with us, and photographing them just in case we fell ill from eating them, we tried a little bit each. Some hours later, as we seemed to be fine, we had some more.
The next morning, with another poor weather forecast, we were not in a hurry to get going. We finished off the mushrooms for breakfast, and had some muesli to supplement this. We drove the short way to Achnambeithach, where we sat looking at the weather for a bit. Once the rain had abated, we headed up from Achnambeithach up to the col between Stob Coire nan Lochan and Bidean nam Bian. From the col, we turned left (north) to to up to the top of Stob Coire nan Lochan, which we had been near but not gone up before, and then we went back through the same col to the opposite (south) side to the top of Bidean nam Bian, to which we had been from its east ridge on a previous occasion (see entry on The Lost Valley, Stob Coire Sgreamhach, & Bidean nam Bian, Glen Coe – September). From there, we continued along the ridge to Stob Coire nam Beith and An t-Sròn, which we did not take in last time.
As the weather was turning windy and wet again, we decided to retrace our steps rather than descend an unfamiliar steep way off the ridge. We stopped off at the village shop on the way back to the campsite, and ate a lot once we parked up for the evening.
The forecast was still not good for the following day. We had a lie-in, then a nice omelette made with (bought) dried mushrooms. We drove to Kinlochleven, where we went to the Ice Factor to try some indoor climbing. We took a taster course, as we had not done indoor climbing before (I had been once to an indoor bouldering centre in London). After the instruction, we carried on by ourselves until our arms were too tired from the unfamiliar feeling of clutching onto synthetic holds (without chalk!). It was good to be ‘shown the ropes’ in that unfamiliar environment, but it was good to learn that we already had all the basic skills required – tying your harness on to the rope, tying a figure of 8 knot, and of course, belaying a climbing partner.
The day after that, it was raining again from the morning. B walked off in the rain to go and collect more chanterelle mushrooms for breakfast. Later we drove to Fort William, and did some recce of parking/starting points for going up Ben Nevis: we drove up a bumpy track to the North Face car park, then went to the Achintree Farm car park, after which we got some fish and chips in Fort William (interestingly, from a shop staffed that day by an Asian man and three Russian ladies).
Later, we made plans for the next day(s).
