Sunday 27 September 2009

Little hill revisited

I went on the monthly girly walk yesterday, back to Ben Rinnes which I did earlier in the year with David. It was a bit silly really, so soon after an injury, but Alison wanted my company to bring up the rear, (we're both slow coaches!) and as there was only five in the group in total, I didn't think I would feel too bad about holding folk up. We are a particularly well gelled group.

We went up a different route, leaving from the Ben Rinnes distillery at Edinvillie. It's a long, gradual incline, a total of 2018ft over about 3.28 miles to the trig. After about one and a half miles, the track ends and we did a spot of heather bashing before we joined another track for the last mile.

We found a fabulous spot for lunch, under the crags to the south of the trig, well out of the wind, which was windy, again, but the skies were clear and the views to the west, the Grampians and south, to the Cairngorms, were tremendous.
A chap and his eight year old daughter joined us and we had a natter, whilst the rest of the traffic plodded past to the top and back down again. Turned out, we got a bit carried away and took a whole hour for lunch! The chap and his daughter left and went to the top and returned a while later, "I can see ladies really do know how to lunch!" he commented. Cheek.

We left the top and slipped and slithered our way down the path I'd used before. It's a purpose built path to save erosion, but the slippy gravel is dreadful. We took our time, particularly those who didn't want further injury! At the bottom, we took a left along the quiet road back to the distillery, but three of us decided to take a track that contoured along the bottom of the hill. I wasn't keen, the track was rough, very rutted, boggy and slightly uphill, which was beginning to pull my tendon. Alison happily joined me back on the road and we strolled back to the car, beating the trio by about ten minutes.

Despite the concern for my tendon and the exertion, (blimey, it's uphill alright!) we had an absolute ball. I haven't laughed so much in ages and was so pleased I changed my mind and joined them. My heel is tender today, but no more inflamed than it has been for the last week or so, so maybe I've been lucky and done no more damage, ahem. I have taken some photos, (of the views, not my ankle!) and I'll upload some to the post when I get round to downloading them, the camera is on the other side of the room, seems a long way away to me at the moment.

Next month, we're doing the Five Harbours walk, from Buckie to Portsoy. I don't do a lot of coastal walks, so this is a new one on me. I just hope we're not too close to the cliff edge. I'm not good with heights...
(Photographs added)

2 comments:

Alan Sloman said...

As Father Ted's Dougal would say; "Careful now"

Agree with the Pieman though - bodes well for the Chally.

Louise said...

Well, the giggle muscles are up to it, I guess I can cope with anything. Seven months time, I could be packing, and re-packing, my rucksack. Oo er!