NW Van Trip

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 Ullapool is a place I’ve visited many times over the years. It’s a great base for climbing many superb hills and has a very good campsite. We haven’t been for over 6 years so it was time to put that right, especially as it’s now only 3 hours from home. On  Tuesday 14 May we headed north in our VW camper for a 4 night visit.



Ullapool from the hill above town.


On checking into the campsite it was immediately obvious that things have changed. Areas we used to camp in are now totally given over to camper vans - a sign of their growing popularity and the popularity of the North Coast 500 which passes through Ullapool.
Once we’d found a pitch and settled in we decided on a local walk and chose to climb Ullapool hill - something we’ve never done before. It gave excellent views !!!






Views from Ullapool Hill.


Wednesday dawned bright and dry, as forecast, so we headed off to climb Cul Mor and its two tops. This Corbett is one of the iconic mountains of Wester Ross. I’d climbed it previously but it would be a first ascent for Susan and Culter. We met few people on a hard but superb hill day - hard because of the heat and often trackless rough going. The pictures give a flavour of the day - the views were superb.














Views on a stunning day on Cul Mor.


One of the great things about the Ullapool campsite are the sunset views and they didn’t disappoint.





Thursday was another beautiful day, although it was cool when we left for Cul Beag another stunning Corbett. The out and back route was, again, largely trackless giving us another hard but quiet day on the hill. Needless to say the views were outstanding as shown below:











Another stunning sunset back at the campsite.



On Friday we woke to cloudy skies but given a good forecast we headed out early to climb the iconic Stac Polly. At the car park we encountered our first midges of the year so we were desperate to get going. We climbed the well constructed path as quickly as possible and eventually we were above the clouds - stunning!! 
I climbed to the true summit in the 1980’s but it involves a tricky exposed scramble so we were happy to settle for the east top and a circuit of the hill.
Before heading back to Ullapool Susan had a swim in the loch below the car park.












On Saturday thick cloud filled the sky making it easier to pack up and head down the road for home. It had been an excellent few days and a great reminder of what a stunning area Wester Ross is. We’ll be back.


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