After a stressful week at work, Paul and I decided to take in an overnighter in the Cairngorms. He picked me up at 1230 on Friday 2nd, loaded the bike and rucksack and we started the long drive to Linn of Dee. We had picked a day of decent weather and although some stormy clouds were starting to gather, the forecast looked ok.
We arrived at Linn of Dee car park, got ourselves prepared and were on the bikes and heading up the Lui water at 1530. It was sunny, bright and dry. The road was easy enough until after Derry Lodge, where it became a bit more challenging, and I even fell off, not used to cycling with the weight on my back.
We made it as far as the ford just south of the Luibeg bridge at 1620, and reset ourselves for walking on foot. From there it was a broad circle around Carn a' Mhaim, then a wee break to check out Corrour Bothy. On the way, we met a very knowledgeable chap from Dundee who told us some great tales about bivvy experiences in the Cairngorms.
From Corrour bothy, it's a decent path up to the Devil's Point, which has some magnificent views of Ben Macdui.
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| Ben Macdui from The Devil's Point |
We made the summit at 1830 and stopped for a while to enjoy the views. Despite being over 1000m, The Devil's Point is towered over by the other Munros in the area.
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| View from The Devil's Point |
We dropped back to the bealach, then carried on our climb up the slopes of Stob Coire an t-Saighdeir, then to another bealach and onto Cairn Toul, our second Munro of the day. We arrived there at 1935.
From here we could see the last Munro for today, Sgor an Lochan Uaine
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| Sgor an Lochan Uaine |
Legs were getting a bit tired by this point, so a short descent and re-ascent seemed to take a while, but we made it nonetheless, arriving on Sgor an Lochan Uaine for 2045, with lots of stops for photos of the lochan which seemed to be electric blue in the evening light.
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| Lochan Uaine |
From there, we headed around the crest of Garbh Coire Mhor and found a nice flat piece of ground between Carn Na Criche and the Wells of Dee for our bivvy.
The midges weren't too bad, so we had some well-earned food, then sat for a good while reminiscing as the stars came out. We hit the hay about midnight.
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| Sunset over Braeriach |
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| Stars above the Cairngorms |
When I awoke, Paul was already up, and it was only 0430. 4 hours kip can sometimes just about do the job however and in fairly short order I was out of the bivvy bag and packing my rucksack so we could try and catch sunrise on Braeriach.
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| Sunrise over Braeriach |
We arrived there at 0530 and the sun was starting to light the rocks in a really beautiful way.
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| Toezi Breakfast |
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| View from Braeriach |
We had a small breakfast, then made our way to Coire Ruadh, just to the south east of Sron na Lairige. It was a steep descent, but we made our way down until the path petered out. On the way we came across the engine of a crashed plane, possibly the
Blenheim that crashed in 1943.
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| Engine |
We descended into the Lairig Ghru and crossed the burn to meet the main path. Stopping would mean midges, so we kept going at a good pace. We passed by Corrour Bothy at 0830 on our way back to the bikes.
We reached the ford over the Lui at 0935 and jumped back on the bikes, which managed to get us back to the car park at 1015. The early rise was worth it!
We nipped into the ski centre for a slap-up breakfast and were back down the road absolutely shattered just after 2pm.
Walking distance: 18.34kn
Cycling distance: 15.55km
Munros completed now: 159
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