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Just after Christmas and not much of a day, we got rain and
snow. Only four stalwart explorers turned up this time: Allan,
Alexandria, Benjamin and Thomas, with Pamela and Philippa
to help and Bruce to keep the wolves away.
We started from the school and went up the hill, noting the
old school water tank as we went. Surprisingly, the explorers
still knew the track as the dump road although that function
ceased long before they were born. The real expedition started
when we reached the track across the bog. The weather had
been very wet and the road was badly flooded in parts - wet
boots for some. We stopped to look at an old section of railway
line which was once used to take timber across the moss, and
the remains of an old truck which was abandoned there at least
fifty years ago.
Then we took the left turn and climbed the hill towards the
old settlement of Arivegaig - it was marked on a map of the
1730s. We didn't look at any houses, but had a good look at
the old fank with its earth hummocks for shearing the sheep.
At about this point we saw three stags run across the path
behind us, going towards Acharacle.
We carried on up the hill until we arrived at the water supply.
There were two large tanks and some machinery with a small
wind powered generator and some photovoltaic cells to drive
it. The explorers spent some time looking at it and Benjamin
later did a fairly good picture. There was a heap of sand
to the right of the gate which I later realised must be the
filter material.
Time was getting on, so we left the path and climbed to the
top of the hill for our Tunnocks wafer break. While we were
up there the sun came out, but we could see that it was snowing
in Kinlochmoidart and there was a shower heading for us. We
quickly went down and the snow didn't catch us until we were
well out on the moss again. When we got near the school, Benjamin
and Thomas found a badger sett on the hill.John Dye
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