TGO Challenge 2015 Day 3 Sun 10th May

Lochan (NN061983) to Faichimaird  30.9km - 573m ascent - 618m descent

I knew the forecast, so it was no surprise to be woken by rain hammering on the tent during the night. It was however dry when I woke and got the tent down in the dry. I took my time packing up, as I knew I'd was ahead of my schedule. The walking would be a lot easier today, down in the glens in the trees. I couldn't expect the expansive views of yesterday!

I hadn't even managed 1km before the rain came on firstly a dense drizzle then heavier more determined stuff. I'm always reluctant to get the camera out in such conditions....its rarely worth it.
This gorse gave some colour to a dull scene overlooking a widening of the River Kingie.

I took the opportunity of shelter under the forestry road across the River Kingie. Had I taken my FWA yesterday this would have been my camp spot..there were some good places to pitch.
After my snack I got back on the bridge to find that Martin Rye and Keith Willers were there. I knew our routes coincided here. We would walk together for the rest of the day.

This is the new bridge over the Allt Coire nan Saobhaidh, there is a new network of forestry roads some of them covering old tracks! What it does do is avoid dropping down to Garrygualach and back up. It saved us some time on the trek along Glen Garry

Keith and Martin on the new section of forest track, it had faired up for a short while. We never took our waterproofs off mind!

The view back West along Glen Garry, my guess is that this area must have been subjct to a forest fire at some point looking at the skeletons of the old Scots Pine trees hereabouts

Shortly before the Allt Ladadh we walked through a small herd of "Hairy Coo's". There were some very cute young calfs...mum was attentive but not aggressive. Might have been different had we had a dog with us tho! We stopped for a break in the old forest hut near the Allt Ladadh for a snack as the rain really came on increasing in intensity as we sat looking out from shelter.
From here to the campsite at Faicham the rain never let up at all if anything getting worse. It was good to be on a proper site under such conditions...I picked up my parcel (left by @ianwood2011 over the Easter Hol) I only put the fly up for a while to give more space for the inevitable sorting out!
The miles had passed easily today, really what I would describe as a transition day. The site had wi-fi so I was able to pick up a forecast and start thinking about the next day and beyond. The forecast was poor, even my FWA might not be suitable.