Pat made his appearance at Inchnadamph rubbing his sore bits. Somehow David had managed to shoehorn Joe, Brian Pat and Robert along with bags, crates of Guinness and Pat's various devices of Irish entertainment into his car for the long drive north. It must have been fun! The boys stopped for a successful run up Ben Wyvis which was only marred by Pat's tumble on the way down.

Later on as Laurie and I were on the last stretch to Inchnadamph Adrian and Derek bombed past in the van heading for the hotel to quench the thirst they had worked up on their run over Ben More Coigach. Last time up the hotel ran out of Guinness - this time they weren't even open! Honest Derek - I did check the website ! To make matters worse we discovered later that the hostel wasn't even selling beer any more - back to the mint tea? Once everyone had arrived and after much deliberation we managed to come up with a cunning plan for tomorrow.

Main course

We awoke brighter eyed (less wrecked) than usual and after a decent breakfast piled into a few cars for the drive round to InverKirkaig. A very scenic and runable path took us up high above the River Kirkaig until we were able to drop down to view the spectacular falls of Kirkaig. Just beyond the falls we cut across onto a sketchy path where the going got a bit boggy. Soon we quit the loch for a direct but pathless route straight for the impressive looking but cloud capped Suilven. At one of the photostops David felt obliged to demo the 'full moon' rising over the bogs - not a pretty sight!

A grind took us up the steep grassy slopes to eventually disappear into the clouds and we eventually popped out on the surprisingly chilly narrow col. Cold feet (but we blamed the dogs!) decided us against the tricky east ridge. After passing through the gap in the substantial wall straddling the few feet of narrow ridge we all scrambled up to the main top with its remarkable gentle grassy slope. With a cold wild blowing and limited visibility we had a quick look at the non-existent view and then wandered back to the col where we parted company with Gordie, Adrian, Shaun and Fraser who headed down the north side for the run across to Canisp.

It was only when the rest of us were on our way back that I discovered that my hero 'Wolf' had opted to join the wimps - or it might have been the lure of a pub and some Guinness in Lochinver. This time we opted to head straight for the the loch-side path which turned out to a lot easier. Just to make us see what we had missed, Suilven soon loomed out of its cloudcap to give us some great views of this spectacular mountain. After a good deal of tiring bog-leaping we regained the good path down to the cars at Inverkirkaig.

A very pleasant interlude was spent in the spacious hotel bar (sadly empty of the thirsty local fishermen that must have have once filled it!) but the two delightful ladies at the bar kept us amused. Back at the hostel we discovered that the Canisp-four had beat us to it.

Dinner was postponed to let David and Robert watch some obscure Manchester footie match. We got the TV room to ourselves and luckily the result worked out the right way. The warden appeared a few times to check on us looking a bit nervous about the racket and the old trick of pretending there was a goal when David went to the loo was sussed out.  This years meal was worthy of masterchef - Alan's  leek and spud soup was given the thumbs up - John produced a superb salad and the pasta chefs got to work peeling and chopping a variety of veg while Laurie's masterstroke - the secret sausage got the chop. Pudding was a trifle tasty! (or a tasty trifle?)

Then - delight of delights - Pats quiz! Of course once the teams had been chosen the result was a foregone conclusion - last year was a fluke Derek! We managed to find a few beers to pass the rest of the evening very pleasantly before our usual custard and fruit.

Afters

I knew there had been something wrong with the night before when Pat appeared at breakfast looking half civilised. With most of us heading home later we were ready for 9 with the A team heading up to Quinag and David's crew off to do battle with Stac Polly. Poor Laurie declared himself unfit for action and then discovered he had a flat tyre! Luckily the warden produced an electric pump and Alan and him decided to join David down the Polly.

Alan

Down at Polly .....

5 recovering bodies made their way up the stepping ascent of the stac still bewildered by a mixture of quiz and soccer relief the previous evening - as the climb grew narrower and steeper so nook and cranny holds came to the 4 - once up, an almost impossible and impassable rock was somehow navigated by 3 of the intrepid bipeds  - joe and pat choosing not  to attempt cos a 900ft fall wouldn't have added to their good looks - lo and  behold alan joined us as laurie and rosie rambled some1000ft below - some great outlooks from many sides of the stac on a sunny sunday morning - a swift descent some 20 mins later rounded off 3 days of various terrain as we all headed 4 aviemore

Pat

More to come! 

Reports on Wyvis, Coigach, Quinag and anything else would be very welcome!