Weather/Conditions: Sun and some high pressure cumulus. Would have been perfect weather had the summits not been absolutely blasted by wind. So much so, one of the waterfalls was being blasted vertically upwards by the wind.
Distance/Ascent/Time: 10km / 600m / 4h
Accompanying: Alex Williams

With Alex again on some bumps a little less significant than Nevis which we'd done previously. I left at 12 and picked Alex up. We arrived in Strathblane at 12.30, setting off after I had bought food and Alex had bought cigarettes.

Dumgoyne

We started walking on the road out of Strathblane, just talking about all sorts of things and going at a fairly slow pace too. We turned off and went up the grassy slopes, past the forest. The day was nice and the weather was only getting better. Alex stopped for a fag break, which is the first time I'd seen him smoke in two years of knowing him. Only after a patient wait we carried on. We took the path around the side of Dumfoyn, and soon the slope steepened and we went up the side of Dumgoyne - reached the top at 2.07pm.

We took some photographs and left after no more than thirty seconds at the top. We descended to the scree on the north side from where I still deemed it too steep to attempt going down - I never liked how cautious I was and did feel like I was stopping myself doing certain things but I couldn't shake off instinct and took the grassy route down the hill. By the time I was at the bottom Alex was still half way up so I climbed up and joined him half way down. I had a good scree-run down from there and once we were both down we continued onwards to the next tops.

Across the tops

We slogged up to the col beside Dumfoyn and from there went to the Dumfoyn summit - a simple and short walk over grass. We didn't spend much time there either, because standing on a grassy mound being blasted by wind isn't the most exhilarating of things to be doing. We descended down the east side to get some shelter. I sat on my jacket and got something to eat - never too windy, too hot or too cold but it was just right. Again we still talked about other various things and I was enjoying myself.



Leaving Dumfoyn, we went straight for Slackdhu, over the bumps and crossing rivers. We began ascending up the side and by this point Alex was getting a bit bored although by now we were surrounded by cliffs on the Strathblane side. I didn't want to bother finding a route back down and since we were almost at the top we just slogged onwards - shouldn't be terribly far to go anyways.

We carried on (diverting around the bulls!) and were on top of Slackdhu at 3.45pm. After enjoying watching on as the wind blasted a waterfall back upwards (see pics), we found a route down and descended. Mum phoned and said we'd meet her where she dropped us off. We went down through the river by which time Alex was shouting at the water and not in a great mood but it was the end of the walk so not too much of a bother - we climbed up the side of the river and were back in Strathblane by 4.30pm.