Knipe and Knipe's 2019 TGO Challenge - Kilts Up The Cairngorms

 

And now it was Time For The Best Bit - crossing Cairngorm to get close to the fleshpots of Braemar. We rose in time to wait for the Glenmore squirrelarium and café to open for another Full Scottish Cholesterolfest. Fab stuff - and sufficient calories for hours and hours of hillwalking fun.

 But first we had to get a bit lost on some paths which set off in the right direction from the right place but then stopped in some deep heather and bilberries and Scots Pine. Eventually, though, after metabolising 2 sausages and a fried egg, we emerged, blinking into the sunny Cairngorms. It's always sunny in the Cairngorms, obviously and, usually quite warm and today was no exception. We bashed our way upwards very very slowly, finally, after several hours and some metabolised bacon and several pieces of heavily buttered toast, we achieved a summit - the Munro Top they call Cnap Coire na Spreidhe 1150 metres which roughly translates into Knipe's Cwm of Marmalade, and which is not far from the summit of Cairngorm, at which we arrived a bit later. 1244 metres, our high point of the TGO

 After not hanging about much, we descended Coire Raibert to the fabulous Loch Avon (aka Loch A'an). The descent being characterised by several slabs which needed to be slid over and a strong updraft, neither of which did much for the  kilted modesty. It's a good job no girl guides were on their way up, that's all I can say.

 Having arrived by the shores of Loch Avon, we brewed briefly and crossed the Feith Bhuidhe, a substantial beck swollen by the melting snow and which required the removal of boots and quite a lot of gasping. It was refreshing in a brutal, vicious kind of way that is probably really good for the soul and athlete's foot.

 And so we climbed up the other side to Loch Etchachan (Gaelic translation refers obliquely to the midge infestations which apply here in late summer - The Loch of Itching) and then  a short descent to the Hutchinson Memorial Hut - a small bothy occupied by several Dutch people preparing proper vegetables for cooking. Various other challengers passed by - one in a kilt and several other Mancunians intent on making it all the way to Derry Lodge today -  and some camped on a squishy, slightly bouncy platform near the bothy (which was full anyway) alongside our tents. I'm not entirely sure they were TGO challengers because they didn't want to talk to us.

 And so, the superb weather had continued. We'd covered less than 10 miles today, but it was the best day's walking of the whole trip. It was absolutely perfect.

Nothing could be better than this. The weather had been settled for day after day of glorious blue skies. Obviously, as we were getting much closer to the end, it was pretty certain that the fabulous conditions would continue for the remaining time....   nothing could go wrong now.