Cape Wrath Trail – Kinlochewe to Inverlael

Day 4 – Kinlochewe to Shenavall Bothy – 29.3km

After a good night’s sleep in hotel beds, dinner and a hot breakfast we woke up and as if by magic we seemed to have found our rhythm and se fitness. The hot breakfast at the hotel meant we didn’t start walking until 9:20ish, but by midday we had smashed out the 12km of well made path to Lochan Fada so we stopped for lunch. We also had our first proper squalls of rain, but we with full rain gear and the wind coming from behind us they were kind of fun.

While have lunch and drinking my coffee the first of the two Martin’s we’d met on the trail and had dinner with the night before arrived and joined us. By the time I’d finished the second Martin had arrived and as we were all heading up to the bothy we decided we’d walk together.

Heading up to Bealach nan Croise the track quickly disappeared and having four sets of eyes to spot paths and cross reference maps made the going easier than previous trackless sections.

From the top of the Bealach the path reappeared and we had a fairly easy walk down Amhain Loch nan Nid to Shenavall. It was pretty full in the bothy that evening with a heap of people out for one or two nights us to bag some Munros and Corbetts, but we got to be early inside the bothy away from the wind, rain and midges.

Day 5 – Shenavall to Inverlael via Corrie Hallie – 21.2km

The day started straight up – literally heading up the gully behind the bothy for about 5km before descending to Corrie-hallie then taking some confusing turns and going straight up and up via the coffin route before steeply descending to Inverlael.

With so many of us in the bothy there turned out the be six people walking out to Corrie-hallie so we all walked together, chatting and hearing stories from the pair of Munro baggers who’d climbed a few of the peaks the day before. Many of the peaks seemed awfully steep and covered in loose rocks so a lot of discussion was had about whether it was appealing or safe to climb those peaks in various conditions.

Three of us headed through to Inverlael after a nice lunch break.

From Inverlael Rose’s grandad picked us up and we went into Ullapool for a big feed, a shower and weekend off to take stock and decide whether we would keep going with the trek!