Last year we spent our October week holiday in a lovely lodge on the Southern side of Loch Tay and enjoyed it so much we decided to go back again this year.
On our first full day we decided to go for a drive and a walk and to hopefully collect a few caches along the way. After a look at the maps we decided to head towards Loch Rannoch with the intention of getting all the way along to the remote Rannoch Station as seen in the film Train Spotting. As things usually turn out we never got anywhere near that far but we still had a great day.
First up were a few simple roadside park and grabs. None of these were particularly interesting, although at the GZ for the last (Jean's Figurine) we discovered where all the metal work sculptures which are common around the area are made.
Following these we headed North and eventually reached a junction where the road we were to follow turned East. Very near to here however was another cache
Tomphubil Lime Kiln and so we took a little detour to go and find it. Upon arrival at the GZ we were glad we'd come this way as the cache is hidden near a rather impressive stone Lime Kiln structure in a stunning setting overlooking Loch Kinardochy. A Favourite point was awarded.
Moving on we collected another cache at the entrance to a small car park which is located at the foot of the path up Schiehallion (the hill of the faeries!). We could have used a faerie today to fly over the squelchy boggy ground to retrieve the
Braes of Foss cache.
Our next cache was actually the reason why we'd headed in this direction, you see the 14th October 2012 was an Earthcache day and the next cache along the road was an Earthcache. The
Limestone Pavement cache is located at just that, a limestone pavement made from Dalradian Limestone and is around 500 million years old. There's no actually cache container at an earthcache, instead you are asked to answer a few questions and maybe take a photo as evidence you were actually there. Usually however the questions related to information provided at the site on information boards and such, however upon reaching the site and after a good look around there were none! As a result we were only able to make a guess at one of the answers (not knowing the first thing about geology) and we also uploaded a photo. The log entry hasn't been removed yet so hopefully this was enough!
Our final cache of the day was
McGregors Cave. This is supposed to have been a cave used by Rob Roy McGregor at some point in history, however it's actually just a victorian folly. After parking at the suggested spot and enjoying a spot of lunch we headed up the road a bit to a small cottage and down a private track. This was a lovely walk which led down to Dunalastair Water and the kids had fun collecting conkers on the way. Once at the water the scenery was simply stunning, breath taking! From here the path led us up into the forest and we had a great time pointing out things to the kids who had a ball. Eventually came to a stream... er river... but we managed to cross with care. Once at the "cave" we we're suitably impressed and the view from the spot in front is superb. From here the cache was just a bit further on but when we got there we were stumped. However, after widening the search we eventually found it. On our way back Mrs SCs feet we're killing her as her boots we're hurting but we made it.
On the way we had a chat with a lovely man who lives at the gate. We we're telling him about our walk and he told us that the cave is not the original but a Victorian Folly. The original is supposedly now under water since the level of the water has been raised by the dams.
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