Monday, October 10, 2011

Saturday Ramblings




Saturday, the day after the night before, saw Ed and I heading out for a night bothying in the cairngorms with plans to nip up a hill the following morning. With tales of a new bothy near to Beinn a' Bhuird / Ben Avon we set off cycling in after dark from Keiloch carpark with all our gear, but no idea where this new bothy was.




A suprising short cycle in found us ditching the bikes in the Glean an t-Slugain, and heading onwards on foot to spend a "pleasant" hour searching various nooks, crannies and hollows for anything resembling a bothy. Unfortunately our doss sense let us down and we beat a retreat to the established alternative eventually settling in just as the rain started to become a little more insistent in getting through out cycling togs.




A fine feast of oatcakes and cheese, a warming brew and a couple of more warming drams finished the evening.



Dragging ourselves out of our too comfy sleeping bags the following morning, the worst of the wind and rain was over so a quick wheech up Benn Avon gave us a pleasant if breezy on top day out.










Ed and Ben Avon Tor







On the way up, we decided to renew our search for the elusive bothy from the night before and by good chance stumbled upon it first try this time! Unfortunately it hadn't been advanced from the last set of photos we'd seen and was still lacking a roof and anywhere comfortable / large enough to lie down. It was however an impressive effort by someone and the dry stane walls looked well done. Maybe once the heat of publicity from the NEMT (and pesky bloggers) dies down the builders will be back and get to complete their doss.








New bothy to-be?



Free wheeling back from our stashed bikes (after a brief panic trying to find them) was a satisfyingly muddy experience and bar dodging the odd family in 4x4 out for a Sunday drive easy enough.





Ed heading vanwards




Back at the van, my dropped map and map case had unfortunately failed to materialise, even more unfortunately the gear shop in Ballater was still open when I stopped off for the post hill 'Bru and they were happy to lighten my pockets by the cost of replacement (though at least did offer a respectable discount!).



Stu

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