The next day Dorothy dropped me off at the car park at Inverlael, where she'd picked me up and we said our goodbyes until Thursday week. There was a little bit of drizzle at first but not enough to make it worth putting my waterproof jacket on and it brightened up later. was heading for Gleann Douchary on a forest track but then on pathless terrain.
Waterfall in Glen Douchary
I followed the Northern shore of Loch an Daimh to arrive at Knockdamph Bothy, where I had planned to spend the night but as it was only 2pm I decided to press on for another hour and a half to the Schoolhouse Bothy that has two desks and a blackboard to recreate the atmosphere. Nice touch.
Schoolhouse Bothy
I was sharing the Bothy with 3 other independent Cape Wrath Trail followers: John, who walked from Lands End to John o' Groats last year, Ryan who has left his 'normal' job and does outdoor work now e.g. managing husky teams in Alaska and Peter who is from the Netherlands and is booked into Inchnadamph and Richonich Hotels on the same nights as me.
The next day I carried on to Oykel Bridge then alongside the River Oykel to camp just beyond Loch Ailsh.
Lovely weather yet again but almost the whole day was walking on 4x4 tracks, which was a bit monotonous.
I stopped to chat to a farming couple who were giving their herd of cows some sort of anti parasite treatment. I said how good it was to see cattle back on the hills as it was more sustainable than the sheep and then deer that followed the Highland Clearances. He said that as those people lived on such squalor with low life expectancy it was the best thing for them. I pointed out that he was making a comparison with today rather than with what life was like in industrial cities like Manchester at the time (early 19th Century). How did I end up having a political argument with a farmer?
John, Ryan, Peter and I camped in the same area, surrounded by bunches of Wild Primroses.
Now we enter the area of the Moine Thrust. This is composed of metamorphic gneisses and schists on top of a series of younger sedimentary rocks. For many years geologists claimed that these rocks had to be in stratigraphic order. However, at the end of the 19th century, two field geologists, Benjamin Peach and John Horne led an expedition through the Scottish Highlands. They suggested that the metamorphic rocks were at one time deep in the Earth and through forces that they were yet to fully understand, these rocks were thrust on top of the younger sedimentary rocks. It was this that led to the theory of thrust tectonics that has held true even until today.
After crossing over the windy col below Conival, which has a Norse name, I followed the Bealach Traligill Fault down into Inchnadamph. By making a small diversion, I visited the Traligill Caves. Traligill means “The valley of the Trolls” in Norse. Limestone is uncommon in Scotland so this area of exposed Limestone and Limestone Caves is very unusual.
The south side of the valley is a cliff of dark grey limestone but the North side is a gently sloping slab of pale grey limestone. The slope is the thrust plane and the older darker rock has been pushed over the younger paler rock. The river follows the thrust plane, often underground.
Lewisian Gneiss overlaying younger Limestone.
Below ground there is an extensive cave system including Uamh an Claonaite, Scotland’s longest cave with over 3km of passages. For a detailed analysis of the cave system go to http://www.snh.org.uk/pdfs/publications/commissioned_reports/F02AC105.pdf
One of the Tralligil caves.
Husky teams in Alaska now there's a retirement plan.
ReplyDeleteCorrection: It was Lapland not Alaska
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