Wild camp by Sgurr Eilde Mor with Curlywurly

With some trepidation, Darren and I left the car at Kinlochleven and headed for this Munro, 7km east of our point of departure. Trepidation for me because I hadn't slept a wink last time out. However, on a balmy evening, we began the ascent taking a wrong turn or two initially but eventually finding the excellent stalkers path which took us up to the land rover track at 300m. Views back to Loch Leven were beautiful but it was bloody warm and the sweat was lashing down. Midges were biting too, the vampiric basas. Once we saw the excellent path wend up and over the shoulder of Sgurr Eilde Beag, we really began to enjoy the walk as it got cooler and while it wasn't quite an amazing sunset, it was good visibility which afforded views over to the Buachaille. Within 2 hours of leaving the car, we arrived at the loch below Sgurr Eilde Mor and found a suitable place to camp. Tents up, dinner down and the Ardbeg was proferred. It was a great spot, which had a nice view over to Binnein Beag as well as the vast space of Rannoch Moor opening up below us. We discussed many matters and I even got reception to phone Pumpy. I headed to bed at 2305 and got some SLEEP! Awoke at 0605, had a good breakfast and we began our Munro tally, heading up the steep shoulder of SEM by 0800. A small rock prow jutted off the summit and afforded a nice photo down to the loch. From here, we fairly pinged it down to the path which ultimately took us on to Binnein Beag. At 946m, it's almost 200m smaller than its bigger brother but its conical shape did confirm that small is beautiful. By 0930, we descended back down the path (Darren taking a small fall but no harm done) and picked up the heavy packs before the ascent of Binnein Mor. Had some bugger put rocks in our bags - they felt much heavier than before? As we climbed, we got stronger and we had this bad boy in the bag by 1110. With Na Gruigaichean on the homeward journey, we included this one too. However, the descent off this back to the car felt long and sustained and weary legs finally arrived back to the car, in sweltering conditions. Another fine trip ably sponsored by the wonderful Ardbeg.