free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
After an adventurous Hogmanay our next trip was to be a little easier. A bothy night away with David with a couple of hills the next day if we could be bothered. We were running late so David went up The Bochel without us, but then we waited around for anoter 20-30 minutes while he repacked his bag
Then, about 30 seconds down the track he had to stop and do it all again
David re-re-repacking his bag We had time for stupid photos…
Boooored What we had missed out on – maybe one for tomorrow?
The Bochel It was still plenty light to see but as we were a lot later than planned there was some nice evening light in the sky
Interesting light The boys carrying 20kg of coal between them
Too much coal? There’s a lot more walking around here than I’d imagined!
Smugglers Trail Looking ahead
Ahead - Cook's Cairn in the distance And then we were there
Home for the night A light at the window – we were definitely in the right place then! Our company for the night had been there for a couple of days (we think, although their recollection was a little hazy) but they were entertaining for the night, as was David’s disastrous Polish soup (should probably have translated the instructions), his M&S Prawn selection box (reduced, but didn’t give us food poisoning) and his rib-eye steak, cooked to perfection in real butter that he’d carried in. Time to raise our game
But we did have an appropriate malt for the night - a Glenlivet of course!
The following morning dawned bright and we decided that hills would be a good idea
Good morning! David cooked bacon for breakfast (fortunately he had some spare for us to nibble on
) before the spade got taken for a few strolls.
Having a look around in the daylight We left the bags at the bothy – we would be coming past on the way back anyway, and headed off across a very boggy field towards the track we’d come in on
Looking back across the bog This soon brought us to a big old house – looked to be largely in decent shape although it would take a bit of doing up
Ruins at Suie Farmer David
David trying to plough The next ruins really were ruins and looked like the next gust of wind would bring the roof down
Looking back 
Ben Avon We took the right fork where the path split – we would return on the other one. This path led us uphill, relatively gradually at first, towards the wind farm and Cook’s Cairn
Cook's Cairn and a metal tree David is a pedant of the worst order and became so upset at this sign that he attempted to scratch an apostrophe into the correct place
This way then Now we were up higher the light in the east was pretty good, despite the wind farm!
Wind Farm at Dorenell 
Looking East It was an easy stroll the rest of the way to Cook’s Cairn, and despite its lack of apostrophe it was a nice spot
Cook's Cairn summit Depending on conditions and injuries we were hoping to head here next…
Corryhabbie Hill & Ben Rinnes It’s windy but smile anyway
Smile.... From here we dropped straight down to the track – initially the ground wasn’t too bad but got worse and worse and the last bit was awful. Probably enough off-piste for the day as the knee was playing silly buggers
From here we had a quick pause for some scran before heading up the easy zig-zags up Corryhabbie
Looking down the glen from the ascent of Corryhabbie 
Malky and his big man legs leading the way It was an easy walk to the top and the views were good – far less sun than my last visit but decent enough
Ben Rinnes 
Corryhabbie Hill summit 
Cloud sitting on the Gorms 
Phone party and a weird metal thing 
Mounting the big metal thing David had to catch up on his online dating messages but soon we managed to tempt him down as it was freezing up there!! I was all for taking the zigzags back down to avoid aggravating my knee on any more off-piste but the boys decided that they couldn’t be arsed
Heading down 
Heather... The ground wasn’t as bad as the descent from Cook’s Cairn but it was still horrible so I was very relieved to reach the track
A beautiful afternoon back on the track 
Looking back to Corryhabbie We had been warned about a couple of awkward river crossings but they were actually both easy, even for me! Apparently there’s a big one with a thin plank across it, but we never worked out where that one was
A very shapely hill... 
Long ways to go... We got back to the bothy at about 1.30; our companions from the night before were up and awake and preparing to leave. We grabbed our packs and got on our way
David mounts the bridge 
Leading the way The sun was out and it was a beautiful afternoon
Looking back At this point we were still toying with the idea of going up The Bochel
The Bochel ahead 
Collecting water or panning for gold? But long before we reached the car we decided we’d had enough – the big bags and the wind had tired us out and we were looking forward to going home and having a bath!
Beautiful sky on the way home 