Cuillin the gang

[tomyboy73]

About time I got to writing a report on our big day out at the Walkhighlands Spring Meet 2018.
It was my turn to organise this meet and I chose the Braemar Youth Hostel as the place to be.
With everything to organise I wasn`t really bothered about what Munros to do on the meet and was planning on jumping in on someone else`s plans.
Fortunately Jim picked the epic route from Inverey to include Beinn Iutharn Mhor and Carn Bhac, even more fortunately he brought me a bike, a free bike but a bike nontheless!
All we needed now was some good weather.
So there was myself, Jim, Michelle and two newbies to the Meets, Amanda & Alice and of course her super wee mountain dog, Cuillin.

We were to set off early, well earlier than we did. A few too many beers the night before and i couldn`t really be bothered getting up !
When i eventually did get up, everyone else was ready to go, super organised but i needed breakfast , coffee....more time
And I still had to make my lunch....

We started off well by driving past the road to Inverey and headed east towards Balmoral Castle.
When we realised, stopped and turned around, the girls must have been worried about their "guides" for the day!

Once at the car park at Inverey all the fancy bikes were unloaded and assembled and I was given my (t)rusty steed for the day. It was here that I realised my lunch was still sitting in the kitchen!

Alice, not having had a ride in years, got a crash course on working through the gears by Michelle and we were off and running, the wind flowing through our hair as we glided along into Glen Ey until we hit the first hill.
Then we were all off the bikes again, puffing and panting as we pushed them up the short but steep incline.
Once over this the others powered on ahead whereas I hung back to make sure Alice was ok, nothing to do with blowing out my arse already
I tried to help explain how the gears worked and then thought I`d be better having a wee shot to show her. So we swapped bikes and oh what a smooth bike she had, I could keep this I thought , and quickly worked through the gears and waved adios to her ! "See you at the bottom of the hill !", I cried

If only. We swapped back again and followed on after the rest, with wee Cuillin ably keeping up beside us and occasionally running off through the heather and splashing through the bog.

Alice & Cuillin looking down Glen Ey

I stopped for a comfort break, my bum was getting sore already, and let them go ahead.

Beinn Iutharn Mhor in the distance

zoomed in

The sun was out and it looked like it was going to be a glorious day , I stripped down to my T-shirt and put some tunes on as I cycled along the beautiful Glen on my own.
It seemed fairly flat with only couple of small hills to climb and was mindful of others comments who`d did this, that it was much easier on the way out.
So after 32 mins and 39 seconds we had cycled 6.8km (strava stats) to reach the ruins of Altanour lodge where we would leave our bikes for the day.
The other were tucking into some grub, and as i didn`t have any Michelle gave me a roll to eat, she`s always got hunners of food.

me, checking the path ahead...

So we got to walking and chatting to our new friends. Alice and I discovered we were near neighbours for years, but had never met before, she even knew my mother in law !

We headed up towards the unremarkable lump that is Carn bhac with wee Cuillin amusing himself by chasing Mountain Hares everywhere ! Whatever distance we did, he must surely have done double !

He would chase one out of sight and then come trotting back with his tongue hanging out, before sniffing out another one and away he would charge off again.

The path looks like it goes on for ever but soon enough e were on the flat plateau like summit of Munro no 1 for the day.