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This was the the last day of our three day adventure and the plan was to go up Derry Cairngorm from Derry Lodge, come down again and cycle out to be home at Rudolph's parents' house in time for tea.
yesterday's walk report is here
http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=67646.
After another long relaxing night with nearly 14 hours of darkness to sleep in, we tidied up our camp and set off at about 9.20am. We hoped for another lovely sunny settled day like yesterday, and it looked initially like this might be the case, but the cloud gradually lowered and a cold wind got up.
- camp in the morning
There is a well made path goes straight up from the bridge across the Derry Burn near the Lodge, winding through the cliffs at Creag bad an t-Seabhaig and up onto flatter ground where there are scattered young pines establishing themselves even at the height of 650-700 metres.
- Creag bad an t-Seabhaig
- wee bit of morning mist hanging about across the glen
- regen rating woodland and that lovely orange grass again
- Pioneer pine up on the ridge above the crag
- a wee rowan way up about 700m
- a toadstool
- that's the top over there
- looking down into upper Glen Derry with oxbow lakes and bog in the glen and on the top of the ridge. A landslip is visible on the right.
- looking across the ridge of Carn Crom to Sron Riach
- from front to back, Carn Crom, Sron Riach, Carn a'Mhaim and Cairn Toul with Braeriach peeping out on the right. In real life we could see the falls of Dee but they don't really show on the picture
The path skirts Carn Crom to the East with a lower path right on the cliff edge and a slightly higher one which is straight forward. We met a man coming down who had stayed overnight in the Hutchison hut and been toasty warm. We were passed by a lady going up who went much faster than we did.
Beyond carn crom the landscape is more barren and you can see the top ahead of you. There's a short descent then a nice steady climb until the last bouldery bit.
- the top is coming closer now
- Beinn Mheadhoin and Bynack More
There are two cairns on the top. The first one has a shelter next to it and the second is the summit. We stopped and chatted to the lady who had beaten us to the top, who took our picture, and continued on her way North. We also chatted to a couple who had come from Coire Etchachan where they had camped. We discovered they live just the other side of the North York Moors from us! Unfortunately as well as people on the top there was a cloud which arrived about ten minutes before us, so we did not have any summit views. The cloud base had been gradually lowering all morning.
- Just managed to catch this pic of Lochan Uaine before it disappeared again :-(
- summit pic
We stopped in the shelter which was nicely out of the biting wind for a brew and our lunch. It was very cold and we put on all our spare warm clothes.
- in the shelter making a brew.
After eating we did not hang about but went straight down again, back to our camp, where we had a cuppa and packed up before cycling back out to Linn of Dee.
- coming downhill, looking towards Carn Crom again
- over to Carn a'Mhaim where you can see the slabs we skirted on Wednesday
- Lui Water glinting in the afternoon sun which seems to be avoiding us!
- back near camp, new life growing out of a fallen tree
- Rudolph demonstrating that the bridge is quite useful! He wasn't worried about keeping his socks dry any more as he would be able to have a nice shower in a couple of hours!
Cycling in was hard work, cycling out again was fab!!!