Strawberry cottage is one of the most remote huts in Scotland. We had twelve Lomond members head to Glen Affric stay at the hut and explore the hills in the area. As only two vehicles are allowed down the road the Friday evening took a bit of coordination to gather people together. Everyone had arrived by 8.15 pm so we could load all our kit into the Bongo camper van of Stu and Emma. The camper plus Euan’s Ford Corsa were driven down the very rough road down to the hut, the campervan with its high suspension was certainly a better suited to the road conditions that the Corsa that made some funny scraping noises. The others joined shortly after having completed the 8 km walk to the hut. The Friday evening had the usual mixing and discussing of plans for the following day. The one late arrival was Callum, which arrived on his bike a little after midnight.
On the Saturday the group split with Miles, Euan, Christine, Maddie, Mike, Stu, Emma, Baptiste, Eilidh and Callum doing the big three hills around Carn Eighe. Ruth and Steve headed for the more remote hills of Sgurr non Ceathramhnan and Mullach na Dheiragain. The weather was fantastic with some rolling cloud that cleared for both groups at times to enable to majestic surrounding scenery to be viewed. With most of the country experiencing a heat wave most of the glen was warm but the summits were cool, giving the opportunity to enjoy the views before descending back into the heat. The routes for both groups took around nine hours a piece so there was a lot of relaxing once everyone returned. There were even some brave folk who swam in the River Affric to cool down, but other paddled in the decided the water was far to flippin’ cold for full submersion. The was some solid carb-loading with a massive pasta bake and garlic bread made by Steve, followed by some delicious brownies with raspberry coulis made by Maddie.
On Sunday the hut was tidied, and all the bags packed again into vehicles to get everyone back down to the car park. From the cars one group that braved the heat and climbed Tom a Choinich and Toll Creagach, whilst the others took a much more relaxed walk to Dog Falls and a lovely forest walk. A very enjoyable weekend with a great group of Lomonders.
