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This was my second walk with a hillwalking group and it was very enjoyable. I had been staying up at Glenmore Forest in a campervan with my family so it was a good end to a great weekend up in the Cairngorms to finish with a nice hill walk & also double my Munro tally to boot : ) After last weeks hill walk i was really looking forward to this one as on paper it should have been a fair bit easier going...and it was: )
The drive from Glenmore was a tad more than i was expecting to be honest, took us just under 2 hours in the camper van, so my family were up early with me for the drive to Glenshee Ski Centre to meet up with the rest of the walking group for a 10am start. It was an enjoyable drive though so no complaints. Wildlife sightings on the drive included, deer, pair of ravens, buzzards, curlew, some grouse and there was also at least 3 dozen road kill rabbits! some very fresh : (
Got to the ski centre with plenty of time and met up with the group. Mostly all new faces since it was only my second outing with them. There was loads of us but thankfully no messing about and off up the hill we went. In what seemed like no time at all we were at the summit of our first Munro of the day, Carn Aosda. I really couldn't believe it. It was a steep ascent up the rocky, stony path and I suppose it felt even quicker and time passed more freely since we were in a big group and plenty of chatting going on as we got to know each other. We didn't hang about long at the summit as the wind got up and also the rain started. Luckily it was just a quick shower however the wind was to stay a bit longer.
So off we headed to The Cairnwell. This was a bit more of a trek but still not quite 'mountainy' feeling due to all the ski apparatus. We followed the obvious rocky track and again it was quite a quick short walk to the summit and Munro number 2 of the day. Even though I had read many of the previous user reports of this walk, i had it in my head that a mountain top is a mountain top and i wouldn't let the ski stuff & buildings, masts etc. spoil that feeling. Wrong. The only saving grace was the views as long as you had your back to all things metallic. Also the view over to Carn a'Gheoidih was good and I was looking forward to the next section of the walk.
After lunch off we set for Munro number 3 of the day. This section proved to be a much more enjoyable walk and it was starting to sink in that I was hillwalking in the Cairngorms, bagging Munros. Superb. After last week (Beinn Narnain & Ime) I was really enjoying this comparatively easy walking. When we got to the summit of Carn a'Gheoidh it was extremely windy. Given there was so many of us the wee windbreak was soon full, but we stopped for a quick bite to eat. It looked as if rain was on the way so we didn't stay long though. The leader told us we could be back down in less than an hour if we didn't hang about and maybe avoid the rain...we didn't need telling twice, it had been such a great day so far so we wanted to avoid any rain literally dampening our spirits.
Sure enough less than an hour later and we were heading down the road next to the chair lifts, and we successfully avoided any soaking. My wife had spotted us coming down the hill from the camper van and had popped an early dinner on the stove, happy days (I was easy to spot coming down the hill with my wee red wooly pom-pommed bunnet - bought at the opening day of the 'Build a Statue of Tom Weir at Loch Lomond Campaign).
So a great end to a great weekend, good times : )
Link to photos below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/talkingdolphin/sets/72157635141045737/