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After an 8 hour drive from Oxford to Aviemore, I met AJ in the pub. A big of food, including my first taste of haggis (lovely) and a few ales and then we went back to SYHA to sleep.
We got up late ish on the next day and decided to head down to the area that Benji had been lost in, near the Balsporran cottage. We kept an eye out for him all throughout the day, but sadly saw nothing.
We parked in a layby close to opposite of the cottage and put all our gear on, whilst getting sprayed by every passing lorry.
We went through the cottage and over the train track and then headed up on the path to the right of a gully. A short way up, there was a guy on a small digger rebuilding the path. We got up onto the ridge and then headed left on towards Geal Charn.
My first walk for a while and it was taking a while for my legs to get going. After some biting wind we made it up onto Geal Charn, which was my first Munro. A quick photo on the top of the cairn and then we headed of towards A'Marconaich.
Me on my first Munro! (right on top the summit cairn)We dropped down to the col and decided to ignore the path and go straight up the flank of the hill.
AJ rushed off ahead to leave me toilling up the steep slope. AJ is considerably more hill fit than I am and this dynamic continued throughout the day. Steep hills just kill my legs, as i'm from the flat Oxfordshire, so get no hill practice.
We made the summit and then headed off over to Beinn Udlamain, which luckily had very little drop and re-ascent. After 50 minutes we were at the large summit chairn, covered in rusty stakes. A quick bite to eat and a few photos from a little shelter and then we headed off.
A glimpse of Loch Garry, between A'Mharconaich and Beinn UdlamainOnto the last Munro of the day. We dropped right down to the col and tried to keep to more gentle inclines. It got a little steeper near the top and AJ raced away. I didn't see him for about 25 minutes and when I did he was about 900 metres away.
AJ taking a photo of me, trudging up very slowly behind himI finally caught him up at the summit trig point of Sgairneach Mhor.
We had a nice view back down to the A9 and a huge rainbow.
Rainbow from Sgairneach Mhor summitWe headed downwards, towards the road and decided to go up the Sow of Atholl as well. To be honest my legs were absolutely knackered and in hindsight I probably shouldn't have bothered.
I made it up there quite a time later than AJ. On the way up I had a little confrontation with a Grouse. Its babies flew off and he led me a merry dance up the hill, away from them. That raised my spirits a little.
After hitting the top, we dropped back down the way we came to the valley and follwed it back to the A9, after a dodgy jump over some fences to cross the train tracks.
The last 2.5 miles to the car, were not fun. My feet were aching like crazy!
I did a lot of swearing and spent a lot of time looking at all the rubbish on the side of the road.
We got back to the car in the end at 8:45pm. A good long walk, including my first Munro's and Corbetts.