We could have stayed to do another walk in Torridon the next day, but reasoning that we might as well aim next to get near the remaining mountain at the top of our wishlist, An Teallach, we set off for Dundonnell. We stopped off at Gairloch, where we bought some groceries, and then sat in the sunshine outside an alternative-feel cafe with coffee and cakes to plan our activities for the rest of the day and the next one.
We had decided to walk in to Fisherfield Forest to stay overnight at Shenavall bothy, with a view to attempting to visit Beinn Dearg Mor the next day, if the rivers were passable. B had often talked about trying a stay at Shenavall bothy, and it seemed like a good opportunity to do this. Then we drove to Dundonnell, and parked up at Corrie Hallie, preparing for the overnighter (it took ages!). We set off around 5pm, reaching Shenavall a couple of hours later as the sun was going down. Walking into the sun had made it difficult to see where we were stepping, and as we got nearer to our destination the ground had become increasingly boggy.
The bothy was surprisingly large: it is a very popular one, and a lot of work had been done by the Mountain Bothies Associaton to improve the place. However, perhaps because of the bad smell that hit our nostrils as we opened the outside door (like the smell of a dead rodent), and perhaps because it was alreday getting dark when we arrived, the place felt a bit creepy. We looked around, and thought that one or more people might arrive that evening, judging from the things that had been left in the place. We had some food, and B made a fire. B had carried in wood for this purpose, but as there was wood already stacked up in the fireplace, so used what was there, putting what he had brought by the side to replace it.
The fire helped to cheer us (me?), and I perused the most recent visitors’ book. It seemed that a lot of people use the bothy as a base to do a round of the Fisherfield 6 (now 5 Munros + 1 Corbett, as one has been downgraded); some people seemed to get back to the bothy very late, one party as late as midnight, so I decided to keep this in mind, preparing myself for late night activity in the building. As B swept out the fireplace before going to bed, he found several pieces of strange-looking shiny woven material left in the ashes: this was worrying, as we started worrying if it might be asbestos. Later (next morning?), finding sections of a fishing rod left in the entranceway, B deduced that the unknown material was probably fibreglass remnants from the same fishing rod, that someone had foolishly put in the fireplace where it was hidden at the bottom so that we did not see them until later. This put a bit of a downer on the night.
Bedding down about midnight, I thought I heard a noise around half an hour later, which made me think someone had arrived – but no further sound. I listened intently in the quiet of the night, and could not relax. Just when I would start thinking I might be able finally to get to sleep, I would hear another sound, and I would be completely tensed up again. Hearing the scuttling behind my head did not help (it sounded like a mouse). B awoke around 4.30am, and as we were talking, we both heard a noise like a door creaking open. That was it: we got up, got dressed, and went back through to the main room with the fireplace to investigate. The door from that room to the extension, which B had closed in the evening, was open by about a foot. With no wind in the place, and with no possibility of larger animals having come through three closed doors from the outside, B conluded that it must have been a rat to have been able to push the door open that far.
We had some coffee and something to eat. Contrary to the reasonable forecast I had read the day before, mist and fine rain kept coming in after one very brief respite, and soon we could not see much of the nearby hills. So we set off back out from Fisherfield around 9am in fine rain and heavy mist. In the white atmosphrere and severely lacking sleep, I felt like I was in a dream. Visibility improved as we came out, and I started feeling a bit more attached to reality. We passed a group of four young people, two guys and two girls, one carrying an umbrella (!) and not much else carried (heading for An Teallach, but we were not sure if they had any map or directions). Later, at the Badrallach campsite, we talked to two guys who mentioned that they had seen what sounded like the same group of people asking around about how to go up An Teallach.
We got back to van around 11.20, got changed and ate, then drove to Badrallach campsite along the single track road in low-lying mist. As I was very sleepy, and there was no-one in the “Bothy” bunkhouse, I slept for a bit on the comfortable sofa while B sat at the table. A couple of hours later, two guys arrived, so we went back to van to give them some space. After food, I went back in with books and map. The guys came back in and we ended up talking. B joined us after a while, and we stayed and chatted until about 10pm.
