Braemar to to Glas-allt-Shiel
(19.6 miles/1,237 metres ascent)
After that I began to pack my things together, but as usual I was last out and I still had to nip back to the village for a supply of ciggies to see me through to the next shop. Bob and Rose waited for me, which was kind of them, and eventually we set off with Lee for Lochallater Lodge, to meet Stan and Bill.
The first part of the walk took us along a road. The view ahead was as lovely as ever...
...and Rose and I went on in front as Bob and Lee chattered away behind us, as blokes do ;)
I took advantage of the flat walking to ring home to check that all was well, and while I was on the phone we passed a lapwing with babies in the grass not far away. I managed to get a piccy of the lapwing, but not of the babies :-(
We came eventually to the point where the track to Lochallater Lodge left the road, and set off up it along the side of a stream. The weather changed again and we stopped to adjust our layers...
...but we soon went on again.
As we continued we spotted a large herd of deer watching us from the side of the hill...
...and when we stopped to look at them we noticed a couple of familiar forms stalking up the path behind us :)
We all went on together, and just before 12 noon we arrived at Lochallater Lodge...
...and went inside to meet Stan, Bill and the Challengers already ensconsed by the fire.
Lochallater Lodge turned out to be just as brilliant as I'd heard - we were barely through the door before Stan and Bill were offering us mugs of tea or coffee, and pointing us towards the boxes of biscuits in the corner :) It was a really lovely welcome :)
After taking a look around inside, I went outside to smoke a cigarette and look at the map again.
The weather was still quite fine, and it seemed unlikely that I was going to encounter the white-out predicted for us in the previous day's forecast. Bob and I were discussing the possiblity of going up Lochnagar and then descending to a camp on the other side when Steve said that he and Lorraine were planning to do a bunch of Munros and stay the night in Davies Burach, and asked if I'd like to go along. I was immediately excited at the prospect of sleeping there, because it was one of the interesting places we'd discussed in our "haunted bothy" conversation at the Forge in Inveray on the first day of the trip :) I was a bit concerned that I wouldn't be able to keep up, but they said they weren't in any hurry and so I happily accepted, despite learning that Davies Burach is a small, damp shelter half buried in the ground, with insufficient room to stand up and with a floor verging on wet even in the driest of weather!
We stood around a little while longer, having a snack and drinking our tea, but soon it was time to pack up and get ready to make a move.
Bill and Stan `came out to say goodbye...
...and I watched a bit of wood chopping just before we left.
Soon we were off, though, and just as soon we left Lochallater Lodge far below us.
Intriguingly, we came across a gate in the middle of the open hill side, and Steve very chivalrously opened it so that Lorraine and I could walk through :)
For some reason that I can no longer remember I was moved to take a picture of my Roclites, so I've included it here. Very nice they are too, although I now see what the podiatrist meant when he talked about the rather strange angle at which my resting feet sit!
The early sun had faded by now, and it was cold and looked as though snow might in fact be on the way. Lorraine and Steve's Munro plan needed some alteration in view of the change in the weather, but we went up Carn an Sagairt Mor first...
...where there was a fine view from the top, and then descended to a col where we left our packs before setting up for the top of Carn a Choire Bhoidheach (or White Mounth), where I stuck my camera on a convenient rock and we took a quick summit picture :)
After that we dropped to the col again, and it was decided that we'd better alter our plans for Davies Burach as by now there was wet snow falling quite heavily, and the prospect of paddling through puddles on the floor on our sleeping mattresses was pretty unattractive. Steve and Lorraine settled on the bothy at Glas-allt-Shiel, beside Loch Muick, and so we set off towards Cairn Bannoch for our third Munro of the day.
The climb up was steady and fairly easy, and it was noticeable how much less demanding some of these more easterly Munros were in comparison with those we'd climbed in Knoydart. By now the snow was coming down fast, and we progressed in a line, me with my eyes locked to the backs of Steve's boots from under the brim of my baseball cap.
Before too long we were at the top of Cairn Bannoch, and after that it wasn't too much of a pull over to the top of Broad Cairn. The way down turned out to be much harder than the way up had been, though, as we encountered a series of treacherous boulder fields. Each time I thought we'd finished with one we encountered another, and by the time we left them behind I was a fair way back from Steve and Lorraine. I'm not too good at descending even in the best of conditions, but in snow over slippery boulders I was testing every step.
As I reached the bottom of the boulder fields, though, the mist began to lift, and for the firt time in many hours it was possible to get a view of more than the ground immediately ahead of us. Steve and Lorraine were heading for a small shelter at the foot of Sandy Hillock, and as the ground began to level out a view of the western edge of Loch Muick began to appear through the mist in front of them.
The shelter turned out to be a wooden shed sort of affair, divided into a sheep pen on one side and a small, doored enclosure on the other. By now I was cold and very hungry, and a shelter has rarely seemed so welcoming! I left my pack on a boulder outside, and we all went in to sit down and eat something. Once again I was enormously grateful for my little T-Rest sit mat, which managed to make my bum feel warm despite the cold, damp conditions around us. I remembered my cheese and onion pasties and ate one, ravenously. It was absolutely delicious :)
We sat for a while, but although I was cold I didn't want to take off my waterproof and Fuera to put on my down smock, because I didn't want to disturb what warm air I'd managed to trap beneath my clothing. We moved on before long, and aimed for a steep path down the side of the hill towards the loch. Although it was steep it was quite superb - easy underfoot, with spectacular views - and we learned later that evening that it's known locally as the Streak of Lightning.
In hardly any time at all we were at the bottom, and then we made our way round the western shore of the loch towards the bothy.
I'd seen a lot of beautiful sights by that stage in the walk, but the sight of the sun setting on the loch and gleaming on the tall grasses growing in the shallow waters struck me as the most lovely thing I'd seen by far, and that beauty combined with the sound of small waves breaking gently onto the pebbles underfoot transformed that little walk into an experience I'll never forget. Although I was tired I stopped to take a photograph, but it doesn't even come close to capturing the loveliness of the moment.
There was a short path along the more northerly side of the loch...
...and then the way continued through trees towards the bothy. There was a most enticing smell of barbecuing sausages as we approached, and I began to feel even more hungry than I had before!
Eventually the (most impressive!) building came into sight...
...but relief was soon superseded by consternation when, despite a careful inspection of what seemed to be all of the doors, we couldn't find a way in. A couple of campers had already pitched tents outside, and we were wondering whether we might be forced to do the same when Lorraine found what we had previously missed, which was an open door along a narrow passage between the two sides of the building.
As we went in we discovered the source of the alluring sausage smell - a young couple were barbecuing a whole range of delicious looking things in the passageway. We said hello in passing, and then dumped our packs inside to go upstairs and take a look at the sleeping quarters. It was luxurious up there - there were even Velux windows! - and we began to put up our mattresses and shake out our sleeping bags and bivvies in readiness for later on. Then we went back down and started boiling some water to make something hot to eat.
Lorraine and Steve settled on pasta, and I started with a mug of tomato soup, but just as we were getting on with things the young man came in with 3 bacon and sausage barms and offered them to us, telling us they had more than they could possibly eat. What incredible kindness! We thanked him profusely, and just as we were tucking into our unexpected feast the young woman came in with a bottle of red wine and asked whether we'd like a drink, saying they had more than enough! It was absolutely brilliant, and we could hardly believe our good fortune!
We were barely finished with the barms when the young man came back and offered us even more. They had steak, pork sausages, venison sausages, mushrooms cooked with peppers and new potatoes steamed in their skins (with rosemary!!!). Kevin - as he turned out to be - filled our plates, and all 5 of us went back inside to sit down and eat.
Steve had lit a fire when we first arrived...
...and while Lorraine had been starting on the pasta he'd been outside attempting to saw a chunk off a large tree trunk lying in the passage. It was too thick, though, and so Steve and Kevin now carried it in and we balanced one end on the window ledge and put the other end in the fire, where quite quickly it began to burn.
Kevin and Ali were car camping there for the night, and over the next few hours we chatted about all sorts of things and somehow got through the rest of the wine, the best part of two bottles of whisky and some brandy too, as well as the rum truffles, some Toblerone and a fantastic packet of sun-dried tomato and chili oatcakes, most of the feast provided by Kev and Ali. It was truly one of the most memorable nights of my entire life, and when in the small hours it was eventually time to go to bed I was sad that it was over.
If by any chance you ever read this, Kev and Ali, a thousand thanks for your kind generosity to three cold, wet backpackers in need of a square meal :-)
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