DAY 90: Braemar to Ruigh-aiteachain Bothy

Tuesday 29th May 2007
(Posted from Kingussie)
Today: 21.9 miles
Total so far: 1302.9 miles
Percentage Completed: 78.0%

(Click map to enlarge)

The Weather: Today it rained to start with, then it increased it's tempo, easing slightly around four, then back up to medium rain to finish. Lovely!

I left Braemar around ten, having bought a new fluffy pair of socks (a man can never have too many socks) and stocked up in the shop with good old fashioned heavy real food to sustain me in the rain.

At the Linn of Dee, munching on a pie and leaning against an old pine tree sheltering from the cold wind and admiring the roaring Linn, I had a couple of experiences:

The first was when a coach party of the not too elderly arrived. In virtually the time it took for the coach to complete its five point turn in the car park, the entire contents of the coach disembarked, walked the fifty yards to the Linn and walked back again to re-board the coach. The coach paused on the bridge so more photographs could be taken and then it was off, to its next lightning destination. It was straight out of Marty Feldmann’s “Lightning Coach Tours” sketch!

The second was entirely charming: A father was walking through the pine wood with his six year old daughter (Lily) and explaining where all the water was coming from that made up the seething mass of water below. He pointed up to the sky and explained it all to her. They disappeared on their walk and I finished my late elevenses. As I was making my way out of the wood I bumped into them again and Lily spotted the logos on my jacket and rucksack and asked 'What is Sue Ryder?'

Her Dad explained and he gave her a pound coin to give to me for the charity.

I walked on all day into the wind and rain and thoroughly enjoyed my walk - it was strange walking it in this direction - the last four times I had always been heading for Braemar!

I suppose the highlight of today's walk, apart from Lily and her Dad, was the tremendous power of the waterfall beneath the Eidart Bridge; it never ceases to amaze - and today there was a lot of water roaring powerfully through the gorge.

The path up the Geldie and over to the Feshie has been improved a lot over the last few years and I wandered my lonely little way through the huge empty spaces of the watershed and and made the bothy for seven o’clock, despite the pretty nasty little landslides near the end of the day.

Glen Feshie is utterly beautiful, whatever the weather and today with the clouds down low the trees were more friendly than ever, giving me shelter from the wind and rain. The Feshie itself is full to the banks and quite magnificent.

There is a party of young lads from Batley in tonight at the bothy, on their Duke of Edinburgh jaunt from near Glenmore Lodge - a thoroughly good hearted bunch who donated one of the two bothy camp beds to me. The wood in the bothy is all soaking wet, and despite their best efforts the fire only lasted about half an hour but it was good while it lasted.

So, being a lot further on than I had planned, I shall have an easy morning tomorrow on my way to meet Derek & Marian at Kingussie.