ron-t climbing
02 October 2016 .............. Meall Odhar - almost
Another good day weatherwise, but it was a day that didn`t go according to plan, somewhat sadly.
The plan was that I would drive up to the A826 in Glen Cochill, then cycle up to have a look at the Calliacher wind farm - partly because I haven`t ever been up close to a wind farm like that, and partly because I wanted to see if I could work out where various tracks go, if you head east away from the road I was on a couple of weeks ago, above Glen Quaich.
I headed away from where I was parked, and something was wrong - something was rubbing hard that shouldn`t have been rubbing.
Sad to say, I found that the back wheel had a big kink in it, and the tyre was rubbing on the frame. A bit more digging, and I found a broken spoke.
That was the end of my cycle run.
However I didn`t want to waste my journey up to Glen Cochill, so I decided that I would walk up to the wind farm - it was a bit of a trek, and at this point I have done most of the climbing uphill, and on a bit of a flatter section round Loch Hoil.
I eventually got up to a summit above the wind farm - I wasn`t on the true summit of Meall Odhar, but near enough to get quite a good view away to the north and west. There didn`t seem to be a lot of point in crossing lots of heather and bog just to get to what I think was the true summit, I wasn`t going to gain any view.
I have to say that I was suitably impressed about how neatly the wind farm is laid out - it is a major intrusion into a hilltop environment, and could be a visual disaster. However it all seems to fit in quite nicely, although it isn`t one of the bigger wind farm sites.
This is looking away to the west across to the Ben Lawers group that were looking good - over on the left side of the picture the nearer darker summit is I think Meall a' Choire Chreagaich, the hill I was up a couple of weeks before.
Round a bit to the right, and the horseshoe of munros above Glen Lyon - Carn Gorm, Meall Garbh, Carn Mairg, and Meall na Aighean.
Round a bit more, and Schiehallion shows off its distinctive shape.
Away to the north and the two corbetts Meall Tairneachan and Farragon Hill -
Right round in the opposite direction, I think I was just seeing Ben Chonzie through a gap in the hills.
Over to the east, and the Griffin wind farm stands out rather starkly - it is a much bigger wind farm site than Calliacher wind farm, and I gather that it covers an area of ground as big as the city of Perth.
And so back down again, and it was very frustrating having to walk miles back down a super track when I could have been whizzing down it on my bike.
Once I was back home again later on, I found that there were three broken spokes, so a bit of a catastrophic failure - and it was fine when I was out the previous evening !
I guess I was pretty lucky it didn`t happen when I was miles from anywhere up some remote track.
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