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.

Knipe and Knipe TGO Challenge 2019 - Some More Days

 In-tent entertainment supplies were now dangerously low and it was imperative that we get to Sainsbury's or Asda or whatever it is in Aviemore as a matter of supreme importance

We left Bernie, or Bernie left us, I can't remember which, on a bright blue morning which turned out to be even hotter than the previous day and we pushed up a track into the hills and cleverly chose a line of grouse butts to take us up on to a hill (the logic being that grouse shooters hate to walk anywhere and there'd likely be a track even though no such thing was marked on the map. This proved to be the case and we were soon through the rough bits and on to short montane stuff which is incredibly easy to walk on. Also, the contours had stopped, so it was pretty level too. This was almost more fun than a  midnight visit from Kylie, which, of course , never happens. (I should be so lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky)

 And so we passed easily over Carn Coire na h-Easgain and dropped down to the River Dulnain which we paddled across and settled down to brew up. We'd spotted Bernie taking a path a bit further North. Who knows where he was heading? Maybe we'd never see him again.....

 A bit later we chanced on the Feithlinn bothy - a lovely spot unmentioned in any guides to bothies as far as I can see. We got out of the sun for a bit then pressed on sweatily . eventually passing through the grounds of Leault Farm where we were interrogated about the provenance of our frocks  kilts. I declared mine to be Glen Ribblesdale. The dog assistant (for that's what he seemed to be, Leault being a place for showing off the skills of sheepdogs) - looked puzzled for a bit, clearly trying to work out which Hebridean Island had a Glen Ribblesdale.  We asked Control for the Gaelic for "teatowel" and, armed with this knowledge, we were ready for the next kilt-based demonstration of the Scots ability to be racist, as long as they're being racist with a Saxon. (I'm an Angle actually, a Right Angle)

 And so we passed through a tunnel into Kincraig, which appeared to be closed. So we booked ourselves in at an unmanned hotel and wandered off to Loch Insh where, on the way,  we discovered Bernie and went for dinner with him.

 In the morning we booked out of the unmanned hotel and, in yet more hoy weather, tramped off to Aviemore for a huge breakfast and some shopping, followed by a lovely, relaxed wander through Rothiemurchus Forest, stopping not very briefly at the Cairngorm Club Footbridge to consume pies, butties and bottles of beer. This TGO Challenge was certainly turning out to be hard work.

 And then we found Bernie yet again, brewing up by the burn before we left for Loch Morlich and the Glenmore campsite, which turned out to be noisy. People were shouting at a tent and being told by the tent to go away (words to that effect) This comes as a bit of a culture shock after all that wild camping, or even the more crowded camping in places where Challengers gather and snore the evening away.

 Glenmore does have a bar, though and a café with red squirrels doing squirrel stuff next to the café tables. And it's an easy plod into the Cairngorms from here - our destination for tomorrow. There's a radio signal too, but this is unnecessary because there's a bar, obviously.

Knipe's TGO Challenge 2019 - another few days

 OK So it isn't JJ's tenth Challenge next year. So, no snogs for JJ. then. Also - JJ's tenth was my excuse for completely discharging any involvement by me in route design or logistics, thereby distancing myself from anything at all which might go wrong. But clearly, JJ's revelation in the comments on the previous blog post mean that I might have to get more involved.  A light touch is probably called for though, as befits a veteran like me wot can just let the less experienced team members learn the lessons which require to be learned. Innit? [Koff] I'll be keeping an eye on things just for safety reasons, obviously.

 Meanwhile, back in Strathfarrar, The Lad had adopted quite a few new pets. Most of these were wandering about on his legs and , for some reason, they didn't like me at all. I was tickless, in fact. As well as dateless, clueless and trouserless. We progressed up over the hill into Glen Cannich , where, after a substantial and very warm trek we arrived in time for a late and substantial lunch at the pub, after which we wandered (read "staggered") over to the campsite where there were lots of challengers putting up tents.

 We returned later on for another go at the food and beer at the hotel and retired to bed tired but cheerful quite a bit later on. Tonight, I wasn't too bothered about the radio not working as I was too emotional to concentrate on trying to tune it in.
In the morning, we shopped, breakfasted at the campsite café and plodded off on a road walk up the A834 (not much fun), then forest roads to Drumnadrochit where the sun was hot and where there were multiple challengers sitting outside a pub and chip van. So we joined them. We had a few hours to go before we had to catch Mr Menzie's ferry to Inverfarigaig on the far side of Loch Ness.

 It had been the pattern so far on this walk to keep coming across the same TGO challengers. They just kept turning up. In particular, we seemed to be on the same routes as Bernie on his 23rd Challenge (I have checked this fact this time by the way) and Willem Fox on his 6th, along with his partners Hinne and a small fox.....  We camped several times very close to Bernie and it became hard to tell who was following whom - but the pattern continued almost to the end of the walk.

 After crossing Loch Ness we made for the steading at Allt na Goire, a couple of steamy miles up the road. Here was another large group of challengers in their tents. Some had booked a meal whereas we hadn't, being a few miles ahead of ourselves.  But we got copious tea on arrival and a warm welcome. And we had our own food supply, having shopped, beered and chipped at Drumnadrochit. My rum supply had been replaced by cheap whisky and thus, as the radio was not working at all, my in-tent entertainment was fixed for the night - a lovely, clear and starlit one as it happened.

 And in the morning; a hot morning which had to become hotter, we launched into the Monadhliath Mountains - getting a bit lost in the unmapped tracks of the wind farms. We lunched and brewed with Bernie and left him for a bit, only for him to catch up in the broad and beautiful dale of the River Findhorn, where we camped together near the river a mile or so down the glen. There was no radio signal here and instead of white noise, I listened to the burn nearby.

 So far we were still a bit ahead of where we were supposed to be according to our route plan and we were going at a rate of 17 or 18 miles a day, which was all very fine. The weather was getting hotter. This, I think was my longest spell of hot  and dry weather on a TGO challenge, out of the fourteen previous ones.  We were 72 miles and 5 days into the walk. That's quite a gentle pace as it happens. Sometimes on a TGO I worry a bit that we're not making enough progress. This sometimes makes me get up and set off walking stupidly early, which means finishing early or ahead of schedule after which I calm down a bit.  So far, it's always turned out right in the end. Each time I learn another lesson. 2019's lesson was that my radio was too heavy for this kind of thing and not much use unless I could speak Bulgarian or Cantonese on shortwave.