Day 11: Achfary - Kinlochbervie (21Km, 200m ascent)
Reading the last few posts, you could be forgiven for thinking that I wasn’t really enjoying too much of the trip. But I’m not sure enjoyment was ever really the aim. I always knew walking to Cape Wrath in midwinter was going to test me to the very limits and indeed that was one of the main reasons for doing it.
Bob and I had many discussions about the strange rhythms of the long distance trekker. The desire to seek out wilderness and by traversing it, living in it, surviving the worst that nature can dish out, somehow find out something deeper about yourself.
Out there camped on the shoulder of a remote Sutherland hill, the tents buried in four feet of overnight snow, I certainly felt that otherworldliness that I had been searching for. We were walking through the coldest winter in 30 years and surviving. And that felt good.
I somehow managed to force down a couple of flapjacks and pull on my gear and succeeded in pulling down the tent without losing a peg, nearly miraculous with frozen hands in the dark. Choosing the path junction as an overnight stop had been a good call as the deep overnight snow had obscured just about any landmarks apart from the shape of the hills themselves.
We set off into the dark, hacking up hill in knee deep snow on a bearing. This was tough going, but we were rewarded with a stunning sunrise from the shilling at the top of the hill. Undoubtedly one of the most arresting moments of the entire journey. As we wound down hill, Achfary forest looked like Narnia, complete with deer scampering across the path and strange mountain cat like paw prints in the snow.
At Achfary we saw our first fellow human beings for five days and prized open a frozen wheelie bin to deposit a week’s worth of trail trash. As we headed up the main road past Loch Stack, on whose shores we had originally intended to camp, I was already conscious of the time and the rough country we had ahead of us.
By the time we reached Lochstack Lodge, we had to make a decision. In our hearts we both wanted to take the “mountain route” but in our heads I think we both recognised the amount the last few days had taken out of us. Moving through deep, virgin snow with heavy packs is hugely energy sapping and time wasn’t with us.
It was therefore with reluctance that we chose to follow the main road via Laxford Bridge to Rhiconich. A longer route in terms of distance, but a straightforward plod for tired legs. Looking back I do regret not taking the off road route, but it was absolutely the right decision.
That didn’t make the road bound slog to Rhiconich any easier though, the only way to deal with it was to zone out and daydream about tropical beaches and the warm shower that awaited in Kinlochbervie. Although we were inching closer, I was struggling to imagine us ever reaching it. When we eventually reached Rhiconich, the hotel was open, but I think we both felt if we ventured into it’s warm confines, we’d never leave. So we took a bit of food on board and struck off again on the small B Road to Kinlochbervie that hugs the shores of Loch Inchard. The roads were almost fully iced over, not that that seemed to influence the driving style of the locals too much.
About the loch there were a series of straight buoyed lines. I pointed them out to Bob and suggested they were probably swimming lanes. The last few kilometres passed in a bit of a haze as darkness fell and temperatures plummeted. I know we stopped at the legendary London Stores in Inshegra, which must hold the world record for the amount of products packed into one tiny room.
And eventually we came into Kinlochbervie, and found our way to the hotel. Thus ended one of the most challenging week’s walking I’ve had in my life. We were now within striking distance of the Cape and had a rest day to look forward to…
Journal entry, Tuesday 22nd December - “I tried to read the paper today and found I couldn’t care less about all the petty politics that seem so important normally. Here is a much more primal existence. Keep warm. Stay dry.Get to the next place.”
