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So having spent the last few months reading the winter walk reports and chomping at the bit to get out again once the weather improved, this weekend offered me my first opportunity for a decent walk. Having done Bennachie last year it made sense to complete the pairing and do it's paired hill to the south of Aberdeenshire (and conveniently close to home), Clachnaben. It's a small hill but a good starter for the year and there's plenty of time to get fired into the big stuff yet, but it makes a good subject for my first walk report.
Off we popped after picking up some lunch and checking where the car park was on google maps. Unfortunately once we got there it seemed the fine weather had given lots of people the same idea and we had to wait for a space to appear:
Nevermind, once parked we sorted out our stuff and headed off through the trees. We emerged out of the woods to get our first glimpse of Clachnaben and it's granite summit:
Pressing on for a bit we re-entered woodland and found a nice spot beside a stream to eat our lunch. This also had the added bonus of letting a bit of a gap develop between ourselves and the 2 or 3 groups ahead of us. Not that I'm unsociable but I find it irritating to be constantly passing and being passed by the same people on a walk.
Pretty soon it was time to head off again and the impressive summit was getting larger.
After a short while trudging through tree roots and avoiding bogs we started the climb up Clachnaben itself. The sun was out (mostly, there were some clouds bothering it from time to time) and the walk was pretty easy so we were both enjoying ourselves. That was until we came upon a narrow section of steep path with a drop on one side and completely covered in snow. On it's own this wouldn't have been so bad but before we could walk up it two walkers had to come down it ahead of us. One of whom was very, very unhappy about it. Eventually she made it only to slip and scream a few metres further down on a relatively mundane section of the track. All this did my girlfriend's confidence no good. But taking it slowly we got over this minor obstacle and continued up the track towards the top.
The walk itself wasn't too hard but as it's the first one of the year we (she) had to take it easy and stop for plenty of rests to ease the legs and take on water. This just gave me plenty of time to admire the views over towards Scolty/Banchory/Home and the Cairn O'Mount. I was also admiring the boundless energy of some of the dogs out on the walk. One Cocker Spaniel had great disregard for the concept of a marked track and you could just see this black and white tail wagging excitedly over the top of the heather as it made it's way down.
Once we made it to the windy top and donned jumpers and fleeces we were able to appreciate some fantastic views out towards the Cairngorms and north to Bennachie. There was also a fire of some kind over the hill beyond the trig point. Not sure what that was about.
Once we'd had enough of the brilliant views we headed back down the route to a much emptier car park before heading home for some well earned food, wine and a sleep on the sofa (this last one was unintentional).
It was a great afternoon walk but I'm obviously in need of more practice as my calves are so tight and my legs have nothing left today. Tried going for a run this morning (training for the Balmoral 10k) and it was a disaster. Just need to start planning more walks to get the legs up to speed I think!
