Caley

It has been a slightly dreich day but Caley has managed two decent walks without a soaking.

While it isn’t in the end my chosen blip image subject, we look out from Roy Bridge on to the foot slopes of the Grey Corries. The lower half of this mini mountain range is dominated by the more elevated “coups” of Leanachan Forest. There is some serious wood cutting going on just now and a new harvest road has been built to accommodate the timber extraction. The road is a savage scar on the landscape and it isn’t any bonnier close up. Caley and I had a tramp up to its (current) termination point.
It is a substantial and impressive bit of engineering and tens of thousands of cubic metres of rock have been shifted in its formation. To fulfil its purpose it does not have to be beautiful. It needs to have strength and durability, withstand the effects of mountain water run off with well formed ditches and culverts and crucially climb at a gradient that big road going wood lorries can manage. The workmen who have built it have done so with skill and the benefit of their experience.
There is a crazy anomaly in planning regulations that allow such major bits of land engineering to go ahead without any control if the use (as here) is for agriculture. Although it was murky I could still see hills 10 miles distant and the scar which I was standing on would be clearly visible from those far away horizons.
This is Caley on Maol Ruadh on walk one having fun with his ball. You can see the track I am moaning about here