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This walk was dubbed ‘The Rehab walk.’ The route chosen by Gammy LW (dodgy ankle, leg & other parts) JockmacJock (man flu) Polly (deep water bends), Andy & I (dodgy backs). Had invited Fi as she had a dodgy arm & was the only body part we did not have a buggered one of. She politely declined.
As the day approached & the glorious cold & clear weather gave way to 65mph winds, rain & snow peoples ailments, reappeared, changed , got worse & generally scared them off.
Only Andy & I have the mental strength & balls to walk through the pain barrier. We were joined by my friend Harry(who had not been out since September) & the legend that is the Quoman (he'd been chucked the previous day by Alec & Bryan) Not forgetting Kaiser & Millie.
Suited & booted at the Linn of Dee ice rink that should be a car park followed by a nervous-ish walk skeet along the track to Derry lodge. Walking directly into the strong wind & at this point driving rain. Just past there the Aberdeen Mountain rescue where hiding in their hut, not wanting to venture out in the foul weather. Handy to know they were about . I thought about knocking on the door to ask them if they remembered Scoob!
Continued on our way eventually coming to what was meant to be the ford across the river. Nae danger, so up the side of the river on the deteriorating path until we reached the beauty that is the bridge. Gotta love a bridge.
On the other side the ground is pretty boggy as we walked back on ourselves to gain the ridge were it was less steep. By now the rain had stopped & the sun put in an appearance the wind unfortunately had not abated & we were still walking directly into it.
We soon reached the snow line & the steepest part of the walk with the snow zapping the energy as we took turns at the front Some sections thigh deep and in a couple of places we needed to crawl.
Once of the steep ground the wind really took over, the weather above us looked ok but the wind was blasting us with icy snow it was picking up all the way to the summit which we eventually arrived at after four & a half hours with visibility being reduced to feck all. One minute I could see Andy & Wullie in front of me then like a dynamo trick they were gone. Some quick photos & of down we went.
We came to a great sliding opportunity & Andy was the first to give it a go. Never one to be outdone I took my pack off & whipped out my sledge. Hay ho lets go. Much fun at every available snowy slope, occasionally disappearing in deep snow. When we reached the steepest part, which had taken us about an hour to get up we were down in minutes. My gps showing that we peaked at 26kph. At this point our speedy descent was brought to an abrupt halt by Kaiser. Who being a kick ass German Shepard had this err that’s too steep I’m scared look on his face. For all Andy’s shouting, calling coaching gently he was having none of it. To the sound of ‘Kaiser yea fecking poof for feck sake’ we laughed & laughed as Andy had to re-ascend. Even when he reached Kaiser the only way he would come down was sitting on Andy’s lap.
Once below the snow line we took a more direct route to the bridge before the 9k trek back to the car of which the last hour was by head torch.
In spite the weathers best brutal attempt it was a day filled with great banter & lots of laughs.
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- Main track from the first bridge
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- Derry Lodge
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- Scoobs pals
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- River from the bridge
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- Carn A'Mhaim
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- Summit
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- Brother Wolf
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- Sister Moon
