The second weekend of July saw us off on our adventures again, but we had to wait rather last minute to decide where we were heading due to the fast changing weather forecast. Eventually plans were made to head south and have a go at three Munros west of the Glenshee ski centre and then maybe tick off a trig point the following day. I had a pitch in mind, but David wasn’t able to finish work as early as hoped, so we made our way south and stopped when ready, which happened to be the same layby we’d stayed on our very first evening together with Ellie, south of Corgarff and a very pleasant evening was had.
Unfortunately at breakfast we discovered we had run out of gas, disaster! Luckily, we were close to Ballater and I knew we would be able to sort a canister there. It was dreich first thing, I was happy not to be heading up a hill right away. The caravan site were out of Campingaz, but pointed in the direction of somewhere that could supply us. While we were there, and as we hadn’t yet had a hot drink, it seemed perfectly reasonable to visit The Bothy for coffee and a scone before making our way to Glenshee.
We parked in the spacious car park and decided to have lunch first rather than carrying it up three hills, but we did save a snack for later. We used the facilities at the centre, packed our day sacks and off we went, following the scar of a track leading up from the right hand side of the building. After half an hour, we were atop Carn Aosda.
Unfortunately at breakfast we discovered we had run out of gas, disaster! Luckily, we were close to Ballater and I knew we would be able to sort a canister there. It was dreich first thing, I was happy not to be heading up a hill right away. The caravan site were out of Campingaz, but pointed in the direction of somewhere that could supply us. While we were there, and as we hadn’t yet had a hot drink, it seemed perfectly reasonable to visit The Bothy for coffee and a scone before making our way to Glenshee.
We parked in the spacious car park and decided to have lunch first rather than carrying it up three hills, but we did save a snack for later. We used the facilities at the centre, packed our day sacks and off we went, following the scar of a track leading up from the right hand side of the building. After half an hour, we were atop Carn Aosda.
We made our way off the first Munro and headed in the direction of Loch Vrotachan, before heading SW towards Carn a’ Gheoidh, our second Munro of the day, an hour and ten minutes later.
Here, we took a break in the shelter and had our snack. We were joined by two young men and had a chat about the tennis (Wimbledon Women’s Singles Final) before we headed off again, this time for The Cairnwell. Another hour and a half saw us touching the cairn on this ugly hilltop, where we wasted little time before making our way off the hill.
We headed downhill and back to Ellie, arriving in the car park before 5 pm, very happy with my first multi hill day. There was plenty of time to return to Ballater and raid Co-op for something suitable for dinner, passing several ‘wild’ campers on the way (huge tents, just by the road side. Not my idea of wild!) Having pondered in the aisles, we purchased our choices and set off again to find a place to stop for the night. In the end, we returned to Our Layby and spent another very pleasant evening.
Roughly 7.93 miles and 2242 ft ascent
We had a plan to tick off a trig today that I’d thought about doing when I was that way on the Challenge this year, so off we went to climb Carn Leac Saighdeir. The track follows General Wade’s Military Road towards Corgarff and I decided to take David and show him where I had pitched a few weeks earlier on the Challenge which was just a short out and back. On returning to the track we headed up hill following the Delavine Burn before fording it and continuing sharply uphill towards the summit and the cairn. It was uphill. And it was steep. But at least there was a track all the way.
Carn Leac Saighdeir, our target
I pitched just to the right of this bridge on the Challenge in May
Roughly 5.83 miles and 1524 ft ascent
Another great weekend away!
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