Monday 25th May
Our final day in Scotland.
We only had about 6 miles to cover today but we were still up early and away by 9:00.
Most of the final day's walk was through the forest on easy tracks, so we made good progress.
Through the forest
Once across the Cairngorm footbridge; the paths started to open up and we had views to the mountains Southwest of Aviemore.
We walked up the Loch an Eilein and saw a little white house with people milling around it. Ah! a tea shop! but before the tea shop a quick walk around the loch to get a better look at the castle in the loch.
Castle on the Loch
After taking some pictures we made our way back to the tea shop. Disaster; the tea shop, is not a tea shop! but a RSPB visitor centre. They did have a tea/coffee machine in there but I set myself up for a bacon butty, so I ended up with a bag of crisps and a Fanta.
The route out was via the Car Park and there were a fair few cars parked up, it was strange starting to see big groups of people after the last few days of not seeing any.
We knew we were getting back to civilization, when we could hear cars and sirens coming from Avimore way.
Finally in Aviemore; we made our way up the high street to the mountain cafe, where we had a big all-day breakfast with unlimited tea/coffee.
After this we had a wander in and out of the tourist shops, we still had an eight hour wait for the night train back home.
We did find a little garden in the centre of Aviemore and chilled out there for most of the afternoon.
At one point we think we saw Chris Townsend walking up the high street to the local supermarket.
At 20:30 we made our way to the railway station to wait for the train. We got chatting to the station master, who informed us that he was retiring on the 30th May.
So happy retirement; Willie.
The last thing we saw and hear before boarding the train was a piper, which was a nice send off.
Piper at the Gates of Dawn?
That's the end. I did get to see Red Squirrel & the Red Deer but no Highland Coo's and no stag antlers.
A big thanks to Robin who original walked this route and I just picked his brain and copied the route.
I'm already looking at maps and see where & when the next trip to Scotland will be, and as for this; I think I'll forget about it for a while.
Sunday 25th May
Another day; another hole. It seems as my sleeping mat has developed a hole, although it must be a very small one as it takes about 6-7 hours for the mat to deflate even with me on it.
Today's route is over to Rothiemurchus Forest via the Liarig Ghru. The Liarig Ghru is one of the best known mountain passes not only in Scotland but in the U.K. I had heard a lot about it but still didn't know what to expect once up there.
We said our goodbyes to Duncan, and set off back down to the bridge crossing the River Dee, as the main path runs up the Eastern side of the Dee.
Again the paths were good to start with and we made steady progress. One of the first thing we were looking of today was the Clach nan Taillear. We think that the picture below is it; as it is on the right side of the path and close to where the path to Carn a`Mhaim goes up from the Liarig Ghru (this was to be Duncan's route for today).
Clach nan Tailler
From Clach nan Tailear the path climbed continuously and started to get a bit rougher, as we climbed the views across to Cairn Toul & up to Ben Macdui opened out. Yesterday we had spend the latter part of the day looking at the Devil's Point and to never seems to get closer; today we couldn't get far away from it.
Looking North
Back to the Devil's Point
One of Duncan's parting words were "watch out for the boulders" and just before the Pools of Dee; we hit them. These boulders are BIG, you have to be really careful where you place your feet as it could be so easy to misplace a step and break an ankle. A couple of times I got a pole struck in the gaps and it needed a good pull to retrieve it.
Boulders everywhere
We finally made it to the Pools of Dee and stopped there for lunch. while sitting there people started to arrived from the other direction (Aviemore) and pass by.
There was still some snow lying in the pass, and at some places it looked to be 6-8 inches deep. Shortly after the Pools of Dee; we hit a marked cairn, this turned out to be the height cairn of the Liarig Ghru, we were at the highest point 835 m (2733 ft). So everything from here was downhill.
Although all downhill; it wasn't easy, again the path seemed to disappear and then reappear somewhere else. It wasn't until we arrived near the start of Allt Druidh that the paths were more defined.
Allt Druidh
All the climbing over boulders and non-defined paths made for a bad day for the feet, by the time we reached the Rothiemurchus Forest my feet felt a bit bruised and battered, it was nice to be on smooth paths again.
Start/finish of the Liarig Ghru
We made our way to the clearing in the Forest and set up our final night's wild camp.
Camp in Rothiemurchus Forest
Saturday 24th May
Today was the start of a couple of big days; not in distance or high gained but in what we would hopeful get to see.
After yesterday's early start, we had a lie-in and didn't get started until 9:50. While packed up I noticed a small hole in the groundsheet of the tent, there didn't seem to be anything under the tent to cause this, so I don't know how it got there.
Again; the paths were the same as yesterday, easy to follow and easy of the feet.
As we started to climb, the views started to open out the show the higher peaks still with snow on them.
Snow covered peaks
On the way to Bynack Lodge; we realised that we had crossed the watershed as the Allt an t-Seilich was flowing Northwards, where yesterday the streams had flowed South.
As the weather was so good and there was no need to rush, we stopped at Bynack Lodge for elevenses.
Bynack Lodge
Now came the first test of our river crossing skills as the path we wanted was on the other side of a fairly wide stream. Keith seemed to bound across like a gazelle, leaving me to wondered where was the best place to cross. Eventually I made it across without any drama's and dry feet.
The path along here was pretty non-existence and we just headed in a Northerly direction occasionally following deer tracks, eventually we joined up with a Land rover track which lead us to the Geldie burn.
The Geldie burn crossing was the biggest river crossing we would encounter, it was also the thing I was worried about most. I'm not very confident when crossing rivers, even stepping stones can be a problem for me.
We did had a scout down the burn to see if there was a better place to cross but ended up back at the main crossing point. As I had been warned about this crossing I had come prepared. So it was off with the boots and on with crocs and sealskinz socks.
As usual Keith seemed to cross in a flash, and as usual I was more tentative. I was about 1/4 of the way across when a young lady came bounding through the burn only stopping to have a quick chat (she was in training for the Braemar to Aviemore marathon).
The rocks under the water had a green slime on them which made them quite slippery the water also seemed deeper than the height of the sealskinz and I expected the water to go over the tops.
Crossing the Geldie Burn
I finally made it across without to much trouble; the sealskinz worked a treat no wet feet.
One thing I did find out though; putting your boots around your neck isn't a great idea, as they tend to block the view downwards to where your feet are going.
From here it was only a short distance to White Bridge, along the way we saw a young deer pop out onto the track about 20 metres in front of us. To begin with it didn't know we were there but once it sensed us it was off like a rocket.
We got to White Bridge just on 13:00, so stopped for lunch. This seemed to be quite a busy junction, as there were many people passing by. We were due to meet up with AktoMan (Duncan) at some point during the day. So while eating lunch I kept an eye out incase he passed by.
Paraglider
We stayed at White Bridge until 14:00 then decided to start up Glen Dee, as we weren't to sure how long it would take to get to the bothy, plus we were hearing tales that there could be a lot of people camping up there.
We set off up Glen Dee and noticed a hiker coming towards us, just as he drew level I remembered that AktoMan had said that Big Galloot was walking in the area. "Are you Big Galloot, Big Kev?" I asked. "Yes" was the reply, we had a quick chat about the weather, scenery and general outdoorsy stuff. I asked Big Kev that if he bumped into Duncan, to let him know we were continuing up the Glen. We then set off again on our routes.
The track up Glen Dee starts out as an easy walk up to the Chest Of Dee, this early part follows along side the river.
Gradually the path start to move away for the river and climb up. We saw very few people on this part of the walk and although we could see the Devil's Point it never seem to get any closer. after climbing to around 550m we did finally meet someone coming the other way but still no sight of the bothy. They stopped to have a chat and said that the bothy was about a further hour walking. Although the walking hadn't been to bad, we had been walking for quite some time and it was demoralising to know we still had an hours walking ahead.
Corrour Bothy
We finally arrived at Corrour Bothy about 17:00. There were quite a few people milling around but no tents pitched yet, so while I chatted Keith looked around for a decent pitch. There was a couple of chaps already settled in the bothy and the rest of the people were only resting up after a day up on the tops.
While we were pitching up a few more people were coming of the mountains, there was an American couple who pitched up and other two chaps came down and pitched.
Shortly after this Duncan turned up. Once he was pitched we stood around chatting and watching the deer bounding pass.
Duncan had also bought along some treats, some sake and some of Darren's overflow food from his recent TGOC. Thanks to Duncan and Darren for these.
By now the sun had dropped below the mountains and it was getting chilly plus Duncan haven't eaten, so I disappeared into the tent to get some shut eye.
Friday 23rd May
Although we were on a sleeper; we didn't have a berth but instead were in the airline type seats. These seats were reasonably comfortable and Keith got his head down down fairly early, I was quite happy to watch the stations flashing by.
At Preston; I decided to try and get some sleep as it was about 23:45. From the time of leaving Euston, we were facing towards the direction of travel. When I awoke at Edinburgh we were travelling backwards, when you've just woken up this can be very disconcerting.
I dozed off again and woke at Perth, which meant we were getting closer to our destination.
The train finally arrived at out starting point; Blair Atholl at 6:30 and after sorting out out packs we were off and walking by 7:00.
As we had everything we needed for the trip we didn't go into the centre of the village but made our way straight out to Glen Tilt.
Some of things I was hoping to see on this trip were; Red squirrels, Red deer, Highland coo's and maybe find some stag antlers.
The early part of the walk through Glen Tilt is in woods, and this gave us a chance to see some red squirrels; although they are a lot more nervous than they grey cousins and don't hang about to long.
Glen Tilt slowly climb up and way from Blair Atholl and eventually opens out from woods to open fellside. This part of the walk felt like walking in the Howgills.
Glen Tilt
About 11:00 we stopped for breakfast, we found a nice spot down by the river just South of Clachghlas.
Most of the tracks were either Land rover tracks or good defined paths, so the walking was pretty easy.
Although it was overcast we had good views up & down the Glen and also on to the tops of Carn Torcaidh, Meall Gharren and Dun Beag.
By about 15:00 we arrived at the Falls of Tarf, this was one of the places I had earmarked as a possible wild camp but the areawasn't as flat as we hoped. We decided to have luch there and then move further up the Glen to find a pitch.
Falls of Tarf
As we left the Falls of Tarf, we started to climb again and also left the River Tilt behind, we then picked up the Allt Garbh Buidhe.
We finally camped about halfway along the Allt Garbh Buidhe after covering about 14 miles.
Thursday 22th May
As usual for me, stress levels were running high in the lead up to this trip and this meant a last minute repack of some equipment before setting off.
I arrived at Euston at 19:40 to catch the 21:15 night train, at is point there was no sign of Keith but that was O.K. as we had plenty of time.
Euston like most urban railway station's nowadays doesn't have to many places to sit, on the concourse; so it was either in the restaurants or the bars. As it was quite warm I decided to sit outside with the smokers *cough*.
About every 10 minutes or so; I would pop back into the station to look for Keith. By 20:15 I was starting to get worried because there was still no sign of him, a call to his mobile came back with the dreaded "the phone you are calling is switched off".
After some frantic calls to SWMBO to get Keith's home number. I phoned his house to be told that he didn't have his mobile with him and that he had left at 17:30 or so.
By now I was getting really stressed out, as it was about 20:40 and the train was already boarding. Another call to SWMBO to help calm my nerves, when all of a sudden I saw Keith walking across the concourse.
PHEW!!!
He had decided that instead of using the underground, he would walk from Victoria station to Euston but didn't reckon with all the crowds.
After this little panic the train journey was easy and relaxing.