A Munro failure at our first attempt...sigh.
Posted: Thu May 24, 2012 7:26 pmA spectacular failure by these two intrepid walkers today, and we couldn't have chosen a worse day to have one. We've had planned for a while now that today was going to be the day that we bag our first Munro. After much deliberation, we settled on An Socach. We set the alarm for 5am with the intention of getting there by 8am to try beat the predicted heat. At 9am we rolled out of bed, annoyed for our late start, but decided that seeing as it stays light until late, that it wasn't an issue.
We had breakfast and finally set off at 1030am, and after a stop at Braemar, arrived at the plantation parking area just before midday. There were threatening clouds forming to the north, but the car said it was 24C and if felt it. A quick change of shoes and we were on our way. We went through the gate and followed the track along to a field with some horses roaming freely. Branching off to the left, we got a great view down the glen and stopped to admire our challenge for the day, quite excited about what we were about to achieve. We passed the old farmhouse and came to a small footbridge. This is where our day came crashing down.
The walk description on here says "Beyond the farmhouse the track soon crosses a bridge over the Baddoch burn and continues up the other side", so we crossed this little footbridge and then saw a path going up to a waterfall, so we followed it and then it came to a sudden end. Rick pulled out the printed out walk description to check the map he printed off with it, only problem being that the map he printed off was for Creag nan Gabhar. "Don't worry" said Rick, "I've got an OS map in my bag, we'll navigate off that" and with that, Rick opened his bag and to his horror, realised that it was still sitting on the sofa at home. We saw a fellow walker on the path below heading to where we assumed we should have gone and spent a few minutes watching him until he disappeared whilst trying to decide what to do. With a walk description, no maps and more clouds building up, we decided that we better play it safe and walked back to the car extremely disappointed with ourselves for not double checking our bags before we left. We did spot a deer on the walk back, temporarily taking our mind of what idiots we were. We realised once we got home and looked at our map that if we tried to push on, we would have ended up climbing Sgor Mor instead.
We got in the car and decided on the way home we would stop at Loch Kinord. This turned out to be a great decision as the weather in Dinnet was even nicer than in Braemar.
We arrived at the Burn o'Vat car park at 1:45pm and stopped at the picnic tables to have our celebratory lunch planned for An Socach. After a bit of a rest in the sun we set off on our walk around 2:15pm and followed the waymarked path along to the banks of Loch Kinord. It was baking hot along this part of the walk and there was no breeze. Finally though, we got to the Loch and the breeze picked up cooling us down slightly.
There wasn't much to see in terms of wildlife on the south side of the Loch, just a Mallard and his partner, so we carried on our way quite quickly to the northern side. Lots of gorse in full flower though.
We reached a gate with a sign that said the next 500m is a nesting bird zone and immediately saw Swans with their Cygnets. Passing a farm, we got startled by a Goose, who darted into the water, followed by its Gosling. It joined a much larger flock of geese in the middle of the loch. There were a dozen or so more geese sitting in a paddock just watching us from the long grass, so we assumed they were nesting there.
We finally made it to the Celtic Cross where Rick took some photos and then found a bench higher up where we did some sun bathing for a short while. This was a perfect spot as the breeze hit us directly and cooled us down.
The walk back was uneventful and we reached the car at 4:15pm. It started off disappointly with our Munro fail, but Loch Kinord more than made up for it.
We had breakfast and finally set off at 1030am, and after a stop at Braemar, arrived at the plantation parking area just before midday. There were threatening clouds forming to the north, but the car said it was 24C and if felt it. A quick change of shoes and we were on our way. We went through the gate and followed the track along to a field with some horses roaming freely. Branching off to the left, we got a great view down the glen and stopped to admire our challenge for the day, quite excited about what we were about to achieve. We passed the old farmhouse and came to a small footbridge. This is where our day came crashing down.
- We're on our way!!
- Old farm house
The walk description on here says "Beyond the farmhouse the track soon crosses a bridge over the Baddoch burn and continues up the other side", so we crossed this little footbridge and then saw a path going up to a waterfall, so we followed it and then it came to a sudden end. Rick pulled out the printed out walk description to check the map he printed off with it, only problem being that the map he printed off was for Creag nan Gabhar. "Don't worry" said Rick, "I've got an OS map in my bag, we'll navigate off that" and with that, Rick opened his bag and to his horror, realised that it was still sitting on the sofa at home. We saw a fellow walker on the path below heading to where we assumed we should have gone and spent a few minutes watching him until he disappeared whilst trying to decide what to do. With a walk description, no maps and more clouds building up, we decided that we better play it safe and walked back to the car extremely disappointed with ourselves for not double checking our bags before we left. We did spot a deer on the walk back, temporarily taking our mind of what idiots we were. We realised once we got home and looked at our map that if we tried to push on, we would have ended up climbing Sgor Mor instead.
- Old rickety bridge
We got in the car and decided on the way home we would stop at Loch Kinord. This turned out to be a great decision as the weather in Dinnet was even nicer than in Braemar.
We arrived at the Burn o'Vat car park at 1:45pm and stopped at the picnic tables to have our celebratory lunch planned for An Socach. After a bit of a rest in the sun we set off on our walk around 2:15pm and followed the waymarked path along to the banks of Loch Kinord. It was baking hot along this part of the walk and there was no breeze. Finally though, we got to the Loch and the breeze picked up cooling us down slightly.
- Reflections in the water
There wasn't much to see in terms of wildlife on the south side of the Loch, just a Mallard and his partner, so we carried on our way quite quickly to the northern side. Lots of gorse in full flower though.
- Gorse everywhere
We reached a gate with a sign that said the next 500m is a nesting bird zone and immediately saw Swans with their Cygnets. Passing a farm, we got startled by a Goose, who darted into the water, followed by its Gosling. It joined a much larger flock of geese in the middle of the loch. There were a dozen or so more geese sitting in a paddock just watching us from the long grass, so we assumed they were nesting there.
We finally made it to the Celtic Cross where Rick took some photos and then found a bench higher up where we did some sun bathing for a short while. This was a perfect spot as the breeze hit us directly and cooled us down.
- Loch Kinord
- Celtic Cross
- The bench and tree
The walk back was uneventful and we reached the car at 4:15pm. It started off disappointly with our Munro fail, but Loch Kinord more than made up for it.
