Like the majority of Challengers in Clova Sue and I are heading for Tarfside. However having climbed up to Loch Brandy on two previous Challenges I had its neighbour Loch Warrall on my route. It seemed a good option on the map . . . .

Indeed a newly made path beside the road bodes well until it abandons us by a manmade loch with no obvious means of escape except over a barbed wire fence back onto the road. Still the road is quiet and the glen rather beautiful. We head up a faint path beside the Adeline plantation until it too abandons us amidst deep heather. There follows a frustrating half an hour in which we fight heather concealed ankle twisting rocks, a burn with the slipperiest mossiest rocks I have encountered and then more heather this time concealing bog. 

 

Approaching Loch Warrall

Eventually we hit an old landrover track taking us towards the loch. It remains frustratingly out of view until we gain the south west ridge of Ben Tirran. By now ominous black clouds are building and a cold wind is blowing. Sue scurries ahead and is sitting looking cold and sullen by the summit cairn when I arrive.

"This is officially one of my least favourite hills!" she announces. I concur. I'm sure our joint hangovers have something to do with it but the surroundings are rather bleak. 

"Now I know why everyone goes by Loch Brandy!" I add.

 

Sue on her 20th and least favorite summit

A few yards from the summit is a pile of fence posts and as we head north we come across rolls or wire and more posts. It appears a fence is soon to be erected though heaven knows what it will keep in or out. I gather similar fences are appearing all over the Angus Hills. 

The plateau is swarming with Challengers, well there were nine or ten but I'm sure that's more than it sees on an average Tuesday. Most were coming up from Loch Brandy. A few head off to Sheiling of Saughs but we follow the majority heading for Tarfside picking up the intermittent path over Muckle Cairn. 

Near Wester Skuiley we come across John Manning and Steph Hughes. Rather than descend two hundred metres and re-ascend with the path we opt to keep to the high ground aiming for Burnt Hill. This is major peat hag and deep heather country. Sue and Steph are going strongly but this is the sort of terrain my damaged ankle dislikes and it begins to throb more than my head. John seems to sense I'm struggling and drops back to walk with me. He regales me with tales of previous Challenges and of his desire to, on his demise, be cremated and his remains distributed in pepper pots at motorway service stations! That is until he sees the large cairns on Cairn Caidloch. None of us know what they signify though they appear manmade.

"I want one of them," announcing John on the assumption they are burial cairns. "That would take a huge amount of effort and when I go I don't want to make it easy for the lucky beggers left behind!"

 

The final trig point -  Cairn Caidloch

We pause by the trig point gazing at still distant Tarfside. This is the last high ground of our Challenge. My ankle isn't sorry. Even the landrover track is upsetting it. Steph and John go on ahead catching Bernie and Penny Roberts. Sue stays with me as I wince my way down hill. For once I am relieved to hit tarmac for the final two miles into Tarfside. 

The wonderful ladies at St Drostan's revive us with tea (alas the bacon sandwiches have run out). Challengers, old and new, drift through. Tales of their adventures lift our spirits further before we retire to the playing field. It is a sea of small tents with a predominance of Aktos and Lasers. The Mason's Arms is about to open giving a dilemma to those about to indulge.    How to identify one's tent?  Pete Varley comes up with a novel solution - an upturned Pringle carton on a planted walking pole.

      Neither Sue nor I are tempted. The excesses of Clova have laid us low all day. A signpost nearby tells us we have along walk tommorrow

 

Tommorrow's lunch and supper destinations

         We have a long way to go tomorrow but we'll have a comfortable bed at the end of it and the east coast almost in sight.

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