Knipe and Knipe's 2019 TGO Challenge - Fleshpots: Mar Lodge, Braemar and Tarfside

 As I was saying: the superb  warm and sunny weather would now probably last all of the next few days and see us to the finish. This morning's raindrops would probably be just a temporary hiccup in The Big Drought of 2019 which had clearly started last Saturday. So, we fished out the waterproofs and marched off down Glen Derry to Mar Lodge where there was a strong rumour of tea and biccies.

 I'm not allowed biccies, obviously, but I did have a cuppa at Mar Lodge and we enjoyed a brief but entertaining bit of socialising before joining the procession into Braemar. Braemar provides almost everything a TGO challenger could possibly want: beds, music, drinks, meat, pies, more drinks, sweeties (I'm not allowed these) phone signal, campsite. And drinks.

 And , in the morning, having acquired a rather disappointing weather forecast which would surely see us taking a foul weather alternative from Callater, we decided to alter the route and head for Gelder Shiel and then the tiny, cold and draughty Shielin of Mark bothy from where we could access our original route, as recommended by Mr Grumpy,  our vetter and thus enter Tarfside from the correct direction without getting all wet on Lochnagar. We would in fact, walk around Lochnagar. We told control.

 And after a substantial Full Scottish breakfast in Braemar, we wandered through the forests of Balmoral and ended up, early afternoonish at Gelder Shiel Bothy which was occupied by challengers. We camped outside alongside several more challengers, one of whom played a penny whistle briefly. . I had a plink on the bothy guitar and the radio decided to play Jimmy Shand music which was, in fact Just The Thing for a relaxing evening's camping with a lovely view. I had replaced my depleted in-tent entertainment supply of cheap whisky with some more cheap whisky and my dinner was a lovely pie from the bijoux beef boutique (butcher shop)  in Braemar.

And in the morning, the glaur was back and clouds covered the hills, with the occasional severe wetting. We bashed on over the hill to Loch Muick where the visitor centre provided some brief shelter and some fairly unpleasant machine-produced "soup" (the inverted commas are important here).

Onwards to Shielin of Mark, where it brightened up a bit and, it still being early and us now well ahead of our schedule, we decided to rub it in and press on with part of Mr Grumpy's route. This involved crossing the moors to  the Water of Unich - a substantial river which we might cross and then camp. As we passed over Easter Balloch, and started to descend to the river, we disturbed  a White-Tailed Eagle which sailed out over the glen and flapped off into the distance. It was here that we felt the first few drops of a new rainstorm, so , having achieved the riverbank, we took the first reasonable camping spot just by a bend and on a little rise and settled in for a wet night.

At around midnight, The Lad expressed some concern that the river was getting a bit lively and that we might be in a vulnerable position. I had a look. He was right. At 2:00 am I had another look and it was worse. We packed up  for a quick getaway and sat in the tents till it started to come light. At 4:00 am (ish),  headlights on, we left, the river by this time  being in a very bad mood indeed and the rain continuing to do what rain does best. There was no way to cross the stream to continue with Mr Grumpy's route, and any attempt would probably entail a very quick  and bumpy journey towards the beach at Kinnaber Links,  so we followed the North bank down by the Falls of Unich (impressive!), passing Bernie's tent and turning up at Tarfside at 9:00 am, just in time for breakfast and lots of tea.

Tarfside has several attractions: the field, where it's possible to camp fer nowt, St Drostans, which is taken over by TGO challenge peeps and which provides some beds, tea, breakfast, evening meals and beer and the Mason's Arms which provides more beer and chats and is managed by locals. So we had a relaxed day's camping after breakfast, dinner at St Drostans and a Bit of a Do at the Masons, during which time it chucked it down outside. We were now just a day and a half's walking from the finish at Benholm Haughs.