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Finally the day of the wee WH meet had arrived. Out the house at 4.30am
and on the road to begin the 3 hour journey to the start at Glen Muick. MWIS was not predicting great things, 10 % chance of cloud free summits and showers likely. A haar on the A1 and the Edinburgh city bypass was not encouraging either but as I got further north, it brightened up and the cloud base was much higher than anticipated. Could we about to pull a miracle out the bag, confound expectations and actually have a decent day on the hills? Of course not.
Still, spirits were high as I pulled up at the car park just after 7.30am, only to realise that despite reminding everyone to remember their £3 parking charge, I’d left my coins on the kitchen table.
Time to scrabble around in the car like a student on a sofa to try and pull together enough for a ticket. There was a sign up saying that an attendant checks the cars daily so it was lucky that I managed to find £2.80 in various compartments and with a 20p loan from Yellowbelly I was able to raise the correct funds. Only the ticket machine had other ideas. It refused to issue me with a ticket or refund the money I had put in
My natural instinct here was to give the machine a good kicking but looking about it was obvious that other WH members were in their cars and a first impression of the organiser lamping a ticket machine was probably not a good idea
. So I counted to ten and decided to write a wee note and leave it displayed on the dashboard. If I came back to find a ticket someone was for it.
Meanwhile, the WH members all introduced themselves when the few midges that were around suddenly multiplied at an alarming rate and we were engulfed. Daftly, I was wanting to keep the weight of my pack down and the avon cream had been one of the sacrificed items but luckily I had kept my midge net in. Everyone scrambled to get some protection, half the group had nets whilst the rest had makeshift scarves and caps. The resulting image to the onlooker was that a meet had been organised between football casuals and bankrobbers
. In the background others who weren’t with us began yelling and running for their lives
. A bizarre sight indeed. Proof though that the nets work, I escaped with a solitary bite, whilst tina_bonar and Yellowbelly were lunch and had the marks to prove it
With no sign of 2 of the supposed group of 10, 8 of us set off on the long climb up towards Lochnagar. It was bloody hot under the nets as the heart rates upped and some sacrificed their arms to the midges in order to keep cool. Finally we reached a height where the little barstewards left us and nets and scarves were finally removed. The clear tops that we had spied from the car park now disappeared and we entered the cloud base halfway up and that was the views gone for the rest of the day. Some great chat and banter saw us up to the summit of Lochnagar nigh on 2.5 hours after we left the cars, a slow pace but when we were up that was the hard climb of the day over. Reaching the top everyone stopped for a drink and some fuel when the heavens opened. The group decided to all don the waterproofs now rather than wait to see if it passed and spend the rest of the day soaked to the skin. Unfortunately this was no shower. It rained hard and it rained non-stop the entire time we were up there. It began to get a bit chilly underneath the downpour so we decided to push on to munro number 2. We had to backtrack along the path when we bumped into two guys who were the missing lads from our party, they had been 20 minutes late and had got a jog onto catch us up – good work. We agreed that we would continue on at a slow pace and they could catch up. The rain was shocking at this point and the cloud thick, we passed several people who decided to cancel their round and head back to their cars. I must admit at this point I envied them but we were all in fine if wet fettle and eventually we met the cairn which signalled the path off to the summit of Carn a'Choire Bhoidheach. Here we waited a while for the other 2 to catch up but after around 15 mins and no sign of them the decision was reached to move on as the group was cold and increasingly wetter. With no visability it was impossible to tell if anyone was coming so reluctantly we headed on. (later I found out we had probably missed them by just a few minutes and after reaching the second munro they had decided to call it a day like many others up there on Saturday.
) Ploughing on through the rain and clag we eventually reached number 3, Carn an t-Sagairt Mor. I had been taking a few photos up to this point but my phone couldn’t cope with the water levels in my pockets any longer and died. As I write there has been no resurrection and no photos
A few of the group set off into the mist to find the crash remains whilst the rest of us refuelled. No hanging about in the dreich and we were soon off again for the short walk to number 4, Cairn Bannoch. A quick stop there and we set off for the final munro of the day Broad Cairn. All 5 done, I think everyone was looking forward to getting out of the rain which finally stopped as we hit Sandy’s seat and had a final fuelstop. Here was a parked army landrover which if we could have hotwired we would of
Finally we began the long walk out but we chose to take the path alongside the Loch rather than the landrover track not least because at last the clag had lifted and we could see where we were for the first time that day! And what a sight. Although the walk back was brutal it was certainly beautiful. Luckily, with the rain abated some pics were captured. Thanks to yellowbelly for these final shots of the walk out.
- Waterfall at the head of the Loch
- Broad Cairn from the Loch
Arriving back at the car park I remembered about the ticket fiasco and was sure some jobsworth would have ticketed me. Sure enough something was stuffed under my windscreen wiper – a printed pay and display ticket with a compliments note saying “sorry about the ticket problems – hope you had an enjoyable day"
Despite the appaling conditions, it was proof that sometimes great company makes a great walk.
Cheers to everyone who came