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What a fantastic day on the hill! Parked up at Callater, after rummaging for change for the meter, discovered it was broken .....at least we tried to pay!
Set off with three exuberant dogs, keen for their day out, at 9.15. Was very surprised to find only two other cars in the car park.
Within the hour we arrived at the Callater Bothy, banana stop! Met a couple of guys who had camped out at the bothy over the weekend.
We were surprised at the amount of snow out on the hill, but whilst it had been raining all week in rural Aberdeenshire, clearly it had snowed every day out on the hills!
We began to climb up to Tolmount, which was reasonably straightforward, although the path wasn't anywhere to be seen due to the snow coverage, one dog decided to disappear for a short while, Hares were a plenty! Don't think I have ever seen so many hares out on the hills, all in their spring coats, nature got the timing wrong, as they were very visible and a real tease to the dogs, who by this time had been reined in!
Got to the top at 13.08, settled down for lunch, and we're soon joined by Henry Iddon (photographer) and his mate, had interesting chat with the guys, and accompanied them back down to the burn before we began our ascent onto Tom Bhuide. Left our companions there as Henry wanted to record the noise from the burn to accompany the photos he was taking.
Hard walking by now as every other step we seemed to sink in, thigh high in snow! Frustrating to say the least! "walking like a Fairy" just wasn't working this week!
The views were spectacular to say the least, almost perfect. Blue blue skies, dazzled by white sparkling snow, only dirtied by Labradors rolling in it, rubbing off the peaty waters they had clinging to their fur.
Quick check of the map, and we decided to descend by the shoulders of Carn a Tuirc, no need to climb as bagged it several times.
However, we hadn't bargained on just how hard the descent would be, the walking was very slow, due to that "sinking feeling" every few steps, have to say I was more than a bit fed up of it by the time we left the snow line! Back aching with the constant jolting!
Had a lovely stop, at 4pm with the warm sunshine on our faces, almost surreal with the white stuff at our feet! Views over Ben Avon were second to none!
Finally found the Landrover track and out of the snow, picked up a bit so speed at last! Terra Firma!
Our peace was broken by the sound of the Search and Rescue helicopter hovering through the glen and our thoughts turned to some poor soul having come a cropper somewhere on the mountain, confirmed by a Braemar Mountain Rescue Landrover passing us by, and then a wonderful tracked ambulance, which certainly made the earth move! We watched a few minutes later as the helicopter landed beside the vehicles, and we were left to wonder, was it an exercise? Or had somebody indeed had an unfortunate accident!
Two weary, very happy ladies arrived back at their cars, two chocolate Labradors, one (sooky) golden retriever, very tired loped into the rear of the car, and curled up on top of each other! .....yeah that was the dogs who curled up, not us girlies!
Drove in auto-pilot to the Inver Hotel where a very welcome pint and venison burger was consumed!
Was hoping to post photos, but think I have to do that via laptop!
My nose now resembles Coco the Clown ....SPF next time!
