 May 16, 2010, Sunday, Glen Nevis & Glencoe
Today was like the other day. Sunny yet cloudy. So it would be going to rain. Anyway, our plan for the day was Glen Nevis and Glencoe, lots of hiking! Breakfast started at 8:30am as usual. We would not dine out that night so decided to stop by the Morrisons we saw at Fort William.
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 We arrived at Fort William at around 10:30am. Filled the tank and then picked up things for picnic lunch and dinner later. After a bit shopping, we arrived at Glen Nevis Visitor Center at around 11:30am. We went in and try to see what we should do with Ben Nevis (the highest mountain in the U.K.) or Glen Nevis (Glen means valley). The attendant there explained to me & Ju in very fine details what to expect and he scanned our gear and active wear and decided that we better do Glen Nevis. The climb to the summit of Ben Nevis is not going to be easy and he did not recommended us to do that. We took his expertise advise and started out to the walk to Steall Fall, the most beautiful valley and fall around.
The drive to the starting point took around 20 minutes. It went pass some beautiful small falls. The Lower Falls (below) are the first real show of power the river can offer and during wet periods these waterfalls are extremely impressive as they thunder below our feet under the bridge.
We further drove on and reached the end of the road and beginning of a foot path. We parked our car to a shaded space and then started our walking there.
 There were a lot of different foot paths and you could indeed walk the whole Scotland from South to North along the Great Valley. Just a few days walk only!
The walk to the fall was really pleasant passing through a natural wood of birch, hazel, oak, willow, and Scot's pine. 
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  It was just only a 30 minute walk over rocky ground the gorge opened up to reveal a hanging valley with Steall Falls, An Steall (the spout), the third highest falls in Scotland at 105 metres, pouring into the scene from high above. It was not as big as we had thought but nevertheless magnificent. The valley was long and hugh. To walk to the falls, you need to cross a wire bridge which is hung over the river. Watch the Video for Alan crossing it with bare hands.
An interesting fact, after we had come back and while I was researching for information to update update the album, I had come across this news: The wire bridge over the Water of Nevis at Steall, Glen Nevis, has been closed after one of its cables snapped on Wednesday 26 May. The bridge links the Glen Nevis property, owned by the John Muir Trust, with land owned by Rio Tinto Alcan. After the incident, the Trust’s Nevis Ranger acted quickly to close off both sides of the bridge and put up warning signs for walkers. Andrew Campbell, head of land management for the John Muir Trust said: “The wire bridge is a Glen Nevis landmark and many walkers enjoy crossing it. It receives a regular maintenance survey every two years and is kept in good repair, but it appears it may have been overloaded, causing the cable to snap. “We have closed off the bridge until further notice, and will be discussing the way forward with Rio Tinto Alcan and others in the Nevis Partnership and wider community.”
 So the bridge was broken 10 days after Mr Alan Wong had used it!
We hand around for quite some time then the rain came! It become really heavy that we had to use our umbrellas! Look at the rain behind us in the picture below! The sun came and gone and rain came and gone. The weather was so unpredictable and unstable within a very short period of time. We stayed for a bit   longer appreciating rocks and pebbles around. The ahead of us was another cluster of rains and we decided that it was time to leave.
We headed back to our car by the same route at around 2pm. We were hungry then but the car park was really hot and under the sun.We drove back to the Visitor Center and parked there to have our picnic lunch. You can see from the pictures on the right how nice & sumptuous our lunch was!
After lunch, we headed towards Glencoe. We decided to stop by the Visitor Center first liked we would always to. To get some directions and information. By the time we reached the center at 4:30pm, since it was a sunday, the center was closed! There was a tourist 3D map outside so we checked and determined where we should go.
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    There were at least 5-6 different hiking paths around. We took the one-hour trail and started behind the visitor center. The views were all liked pictures. Walking the trails had been super easy. Road signs were not as many as we have in HK yet they were very clear and you would not miss or get loss. We finished it in less than an hour and the we drove further into Glencoe to find other paths to walk. We just needed to walk!!
At around 5:30pm, we reached another famous short walk, Signal Rock and An Torr in Glencoe. The walk begins from the car park on a tarmac path, with great views of Clachaig Gully. The path soon leads to a bridge over the River Coe. Signal Rock was accessed through climbing via steps round the back. Historically, this was the place where the head of the Glencoe MacDonalds would address his clan, and according to legend it is also the place from where the signal was given to the Campbells to begin the Glencoe Massacre. Once it would have had extensive views across the glen, but the forests today mean only brief glimpses of the surrounding mountains are possible. We finished the walk in roughly an hour.
Signal Rock |
Beautiful path |
Wild deer |
Clachaig Gully |
At 6:30pm we continued driving along A82. Bidean nam Bian, lying to the south of Glen Coe, is the highest point in the former county of Argyll. It is a complex mountain, with many ridges and subsidiary peaks. The most noticeable features of Bidean nam Bian are the famous Three Sisters of Glen Coe, three steeply-sided ridges that extend north into the Glen. Two of the sisters, Gearr Aonach (Short Ridge) and Aonach Dubh (Black Ridge) converge at Stob Coire nan Lochan, a 1,115 m (3,658 feet) subsidiary peak of Bidean nam Bian that lies about 1 km to the northeast of the actual summit. The final, most easterly sister, Beinn Fhada (Long Hill), joins the Bidean nam Bian massif at the summit of Stob Coire Sgreamhach.
A82 |
Stopped for the breath-taking view |
3 Friends in front of The 3 Sisters |
@ The Three Sisters view point |
We stopped for 15 minutes and then drove further along A82. There were a lot of foot path entrance, in fact this is the foot trail to walk from Fort William to Stirling from West to East across Scotland. It was almost 7:30pm (thought still very bright with daylight), we decided to head back "home". We were not too tired. Had food in room with reds & whites again. Really enjoy the walks! Nice...
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