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| 1st Dec 2006 - Carn Dearg Hut, Glen Clova Aah, Glen Clova. The hills are friendly, the hut is 'ahem' quaint(?) and the roadkill rabbits are aplenty! Oh and it rains, quite a lot................. The forecast for the Sunday was horrendous but Saturday was looking not too bad so Neil, Ronnie, Andy, Rab, Mike and myself made the short journey to Clova with the rain keeping us company most of the way there. On Saturday morning the cloud had lifted slightly but there was a cold wind blowing. But we're a hard club so once we managed to prise ourselves from our sleeping bags (after we slept in) myself and Andy headed up Glen Doll and over Jocks road to climb Tolmount and Tom Buidhe. These hills had been a long time coming for both of us, just a shame the views were non existent! It was my first time on Jocks road and hence first time seeing the shelter that was built after the five men died there in a blizzard in the late fifties(?). We met a bunch of Dundonians and a dog in said shelter (see pic), erm, so that was nice. Meanwhile Neil and Ronnie had headed into the gloom to try and find something called the 'Dun Hillocks' up on the plateau North West of Mayar. The summit (!?) is unmistakable, if you don't kick it over, as it comprises of four small stones apparently! No, I don't know why they went there either........ Rab and Mike had brought the bikes with them so they opted to cycle up to the head of Glen Clova (getting thoroughly drenched cycling through the streams I believe) where they dumped the bikes and climbed Broad Cairn. Two members of the Carn Dearg club turned up on Saturday night as did John Kay. The two blokes were apparently heading up to Dreish/Mayar to try and retrieve a rucksack that belonged to one of their future son in laws. We were assured he wasn't still attached to it and that in fact he had called a big yellow taxi a couple of weeks earlier when he had slid down a snow slope and got cragfast ! We didn't envy them, the weather was meant to get a lot worse. And it did get worse. The rain and fierce wind started about 6 pm Saturday night and it was still pissing it down by the time we left the hut at about 2 o'clock on Sunday afternoon. None of us had seen the glen so wet before. The river had risen lots and was flowing fast and only 15 feet from the door of the hut. Further down the glen it was lapping the road! Still a little thing like that isn't enough to stop Superjohn as he went for a run/swim up Glen Prosen, you really have to wonder about that man sometimes. CM
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