The Highlands, Day 5

I'm feeling a bit concerned about today - twenty miles didn't seem too much when planning this, but now I worry I didn't really take the climb into account.  The plan is to get to the summit of Ben Avon, another Munro, and then camp somewhere the other side.  Well, no worries about getting to a campsite before the reception shuts at least.

Dangerous bridge.

The day does not start well.  Leaving Braemar I walk into woodland and pretty soon take a wrong turn, slogging uphill for twenty minutes or so before I realise.  Eventually I cross the Dee and things seem to be on the right track, although bridge issues arise again when I find one fenced off as dangerous.  It takes my weight alright, then there is an electric fence on the other side, and once over that I go the wrong way again.  Turns out the planned route is through a high gate with 'private' and 'danger of death' on it.  Well, I find an alternative route easily enough...

Waterfalls cascading down from Ben Avon.

From here it is straight up to Ben Avon, easily enough at first as I climb gently through woods and a pleasant glen.  But the hill just keeps coming, somehow this is much harder work than Cairn Gorm despite being slightly lower.  I reach the end of the glen and climb sharply to one side past an impressive series of waterfalls, only to find myself in another glen.  Finally I reach a plateau of sorts, an odd landscape of small hillocks and hollows, with 'paps' as the chap in the pub last night called them - piles of stones really - poking up here and there.  The biggest of them is the summit, and I make my way towards it, feeling rather woozy.

The summit

Well, a clamber up the summit for a photo, and a mars bar, and I feel a bit better.  Good thing as it is 6.30pm and I still have some miles to go.  The sun is setting and I find myself marching down steep, trackless heather-clad slopes in the gathering gloom, then actually climbing again to a lesser summit.  Then more steep descent, not good in the growing darkness, and when I find a little bit of grass amid some peat hags I consider calling it a day.  But I press on and soon find a proper gravel track to follow, leading down to a glen where after a mile or so I find my camp spot, at only 9.15pm.  Still time to cook up a big pot of noodles before a well deserved sleep.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.