Walking 1000 miles from Lands end to John O'Groats in aid of The Air Ambulance (starts april 7th 2024)

Friday 4 June 2010

Blair Athol to Chest of Dee 3/6

Having been pushing it for the last few days to get to the Cairngorms while the forcast good weather held (nearly made up a days walk!) Our efforts have paid off! Perfect blue skys sunny and a cool wind, a bit too hot at 28 deg C ! But so nice!
The walk starts on the trail thru Blairauchdar wood with signs warning of a precipitous drop to our right, as warned the path rises and the river Tilt disapears into the woods below us, we soon meet the river again as we head up the gently sloping Glenn Tilt.
Passing a house called Marble Lodge the glen opens up before us to reveal a staggering sheer sided valley rising up to 2500 feet (approx) on either side! As we sit and marvel another incredible sight meets us as a Euro Fighter jet thunders down the valley and over our heads! The first of four jets to do so today, the trail becomes a footpath under the towering flanks of Dun Beag and in the midday heat we find to our left the lovely falls of Tarf (pic to follow) Alfie's straight in for a cooling paddle and I dip my feet into the freezing river, so nice! The path winds up and down the steep sides of Alt Garbh Buidhe and around the edge of a boggy area of water catchment from the surrounding hillsides, after fording some large streams we get to Geldie Burn now in wetter times this would cause huge problems crossing but for me it was on with the gaiters and start wading it still came up to just below my knee ,and even so I only got one wet foot, happy with that!.
With gobsmacking views of Cairn Toul and Ben Macdui to our left both snow capped, we set up camp at the Chest of Dee (by white bridge) , the path tomorrow goes between these two mountains via the Lairig Ghru sadly a hill in front obscures this so tomorrows callenge still remains a mystery!

1 comment:

  1. Sounds a lovely, lovely day Andy :)

    Well done you, you're making great progress.

    Don't fancy swapping places do you? I'm in the middle of writing school reports, and have lots of lesson planning and other school stuff to do.. such a waste of beautiful weather, while I'm stuck to a laptop :(

    You've made such a good choice, bro!

    Love to you both,

    J x x x

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