Adventures with Ellie - S Cairngorms

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.

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!

Adventures with Ellie - West to Glenquoich Forest

Another opportunity presented itself for Adventures with Ellie, so preparations were made and come 5.30 pm on Friday night, we headed west with a vague plan for Saturday. I also had vague plans of where we could camp, having stopped at a reasonable good layby on  Day Two of the Challenge last year with Laura, Paula, Stephen, Liam, Paul and his son, but soon after we entered the glen, I thought we might need to stop sooner as it was getting late and we were hungry. Sure enough, a nice enough appeared shortly after Poulary, so we stopped. We got organised and set up without being bothered by midgies, but knew we wouldn't head out again before bed as they would most definitely be about. We had a lovely Thai Green Curry that I'd prepared earlier in the day and relaxed.

 Looking west

 Looking SE, Ben Tee on the left

Thai Green Chicken Curry

Saturday

After not a great night sleep (hot, damn hot) we had a fairly slow start to the day. Eventually we moved off and found a tent and car in the layby I'd thought about, we were glad we'd stopped where we had. We were soon at the parking place for our chosen walk, the Spidean Milach, Gleouraich circuit and after a small amount of faffing we were on our way. There was a chap setting off for a run by his car and another chap and his little dog just exiting our walk on to the road as we made our way towards our start, but we saw no one on the hill.

We made hot, steady progress uphill, there were views and there were flowers. We stopped for lunch at around 600m, the foot of our target hill and consulted the map (we had one!) and I became more unsure as to whether this was a good idea. Spidean Mealach looked fine, but I was not keen on the ridge linking to Gleouraich. I decided it was unlikely I would attempt it, my worst nightmare is to try something and get stuck, at that height, so I agreed the first peak was fine and that I would look at the ridge when we could see it, but I think I'd already decided I would not be trying it. Suitably refuelled, we headed onwards as Loch Fearna came into view, then more steeply upwards, following a fairly good path (according to Walkhighlands, there is none at this point...) directly to the summit. At one point I heard what I thought was thunder, and called out to David, "An airplane." was his confident reply. We walked on. I heard it again shortly after, this time I was certain, "Yes," he said when asked, "We'll walk on."

Right.

A shot time later, probably less than 100m from the summit, "Lightning! I saw that!" away over to the east of us. "We're nearly there!" says he. We scampered up to the summit (amazing what a good hit of adrenaline can do...) took the quickest summit pics ever, and did an about turn, straight back down again. "It's okay, it goes for the highest point" says he, as he virtually runs down ahead of me. Thanks.

We were down at the small bealach in good time and continued downhill, with just the odd few moments for a drink of water or to apply midge repellent, every so often we could hear not too distant thunder and saw lightning. When we returned to the car, there was another runner preparing to leave, the first not yet having returned. I was pleased to be off the hill, and having remembered I'd forgotten the pasta for dinner, we headed to Fort Augustus. It was evident there had been heavy rain in places as we drove and it was raining in Fort Augustus while we were there.

 Loch Cuaich

 Spotted Orchid

 Rock

 It was huge!

 Scampering to the summit

 So dark, the auto flash flashed!

 Down towards Loch Loyne

 The ridge, along which I would not have walked (quite happy for that decision be taken out of my hands!)

 Scampering down again!

A rock on the horizon

 Caledonian Canal

Fort Augustus

Shopping done, we made our way to the Loch Ness Campsite at Foyers as I did not fancy being in an exposed spot with all the storms around us and besides, a refreshing shower was required. This is a super little site I have stayed at before, again during a Challenge and we were soon installed, refreshed and preparing dinner. There was heavy rain accompanied by thunder and lightning during the evening, but we were safe and relaxed. It was very entertaining watching the antics of other campers, there were one or two domestics in other vans. Also some ignorance, I will return to this. We were looking forward to a better night sleep, tired from our walk, the lack of sleep from the previous night and a much better temperature.

 Looking west from B862

 Along Stratherrick

Total distance 5.43 miles and total ascent 2707 ft

Sunday

We really had no plan at all for today, so headed for Dores and popped in to the new Tesco at Holme for pastries to supplement our lunch. We then drove on to Nairn Links where we would stop for lunch before heading home.

 Bacon butty

 Nairn Links