More More More!

Back from the Isle of Mull with our second official Munro peak bagged! Victory!!

Mull was absolutely beautiful; we went over on the ferry and stayed at a great cottage with Lewis’ family and even convinced his mum, Ruth, to come with us.

I was feeling quite nervous after two attempts at previous Munros being cut short by bad weather, however, we set off up Ben More in glorious sunshine with clear skies and a view that would knock your hiking socks off. Since Lewis and I were only on Mull from Saturday afternoon until Monday afternoon, Sunday was really our only shot and so we could all feel the pressure turn on as we walked along the side of the cascading waterfalls that snake from the beachfront up the Munro.

We have been following a combination of the walkhighlands website and a great book by Cameron McNeish, in order to plan the best route for each walk. However, on this occasion we are really glad we went up the Southern face of the mountain, as that meant that the wind was on our backs (possibly blowing us further up the mountain as we walked!)

Here is a (rather unflattering) picture of me, Lewis and Ben More photobombing us in the background:

(Ben More is the really far away one which is covered in snow…yep!)

Our hopes were almost as high as our mountain!

With blisters healing from the previous week and boots finally beginning to feel comfy we were making reasonable time and enjoying regular photo ops with one of the most breath-taking views I have ever seen…

-Pictures just don’t do it justice!

Unfortunately, with such a clear view all around us for the first time, I promptly discovered that I was kind of scared of heights…oops! 😛 Lewis found this absolutely hilarious as I basically tried to run up the final 100m of height in order to ‘just touch the trig point so I could run back down ASAP’. I think it may just have been a bit of shock that we were so close to making it to the top and the determination that we were all feeling to push up the final stretch.

I just kept repeating to myself, ‘On the way up I conquer the mountain, on the way down I conquer me’…Kind of silly in retrospect but there’s probably less oxygen up there so maybe I was just delirious! 😛 Whatever happened, we made it up to the top 😀 !!

And when we finally reached the top, oh what incredible joy was waiting for us!

Looking at God’s amazing creation from way up there was incredible and I can’t wait for our next Munro, by the time we’ve bagged our hundred maybe the fear will have subsided a little!

But the highlight of the whole day had to be the four golden eagles that soared around us just below the peak. We just stood and watched them in the freezing cold for ages, as the came close enough for us to see their golden feathers shimmering in the sun. Our day of climbing was definitely worth it for that!

Here are a few more pictures -evidently we took advantage of the blue skies!