BEACHES AND RUGGED CLIFFS
OUR TRIP had not started well. We were on top of Jacobs Ladder … or at least that was what the sign said … when we were close enough to see it!
We could have been anywhere, I guess, as the to just a few metres. Occasionally a wind gust would blow in thick cloud that swirled around us limited visibility a thinner patch of heavenly moisture and we would catch a glimpse of craggy rock faces above us, or the beginnings of a rugged valley below. Then all would vanish in another billow of grey matter and we were back to wondering where the vehicle was that we had just walked away from. We waited for some time for the view to improve before giving up and headed back down through the switchbacks that the ‘Ladder’ is so wellknown for.
Originally the only access to the top of the Ben Lomond Plateau was via a rough walking trail from the south, and while other walking routes followed the one and only road to the top of the mountain was cut up the near sheer cliffs in 1963. Today the route remains narrow, unsealed and
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