Munro Madness : 4

Munros this section :

Braeriach

Sgor an Lochain Uaine

Cairn Toul

The Devils Point

Beinn Bhrotain (two ascents!)

Monadh Mor

Carn a' Mhaim

Ben MacDui

Cairn Gorm

Bynack More

Beinn Mheadhoin

Derry Cairngorm

Beinn a' Chaorainn (Glen Derry)

Beinn Bhreac (Glen Derry)

Beinn a' Bhuird

Leabaidh an Daimh Bhuide (Ben Avon)

The Devils Point.

I've not done a great job of planning this next section - a hundred and sixty kilometres in five days, fine on flat terrain, but with many huge hills to climb, plus the need to find somewhere sheltered at a lower altitude to camp, it seems impossible.  But perhaps I can find some shortcuts, we'll see.  Things start OK at least, a long ascent of Braeriach, well over four thousand feet, then three more Munros, all in cloud except the last, the Devils Point.  Warm enough and dry though, and if I don't reach camp until eight, so what, still plenty of daylight left.  Lots of people here, both camped and in a small stone hut or 'bothy' - it even has a toilet!

Ben MacDui - second highest point in Britain!

Day two out of Aviemore, beautiful blue skies, it is actually hot and I need to filter water - well, not hard to find up here.  I manage the planned two Munros, ascending one of them twice in fact - still better than my original route which had me backtracking from the Devils Point over two big hills.  But, I'm only at the fifty kilometre point at the end of the day, I need to pick up the pace.

Day three, the glorious weather continues and I keep walking, four more Munros including mighty Ben MacDui and the iconic Cairn Gorm.  A long day, I walk from 8am to 8pm, but with a few cunning shortcuts I get to a nice campsite by Loch Avon, some ninety-three kilometres into the route, this is better.

Derry Cairngorm.

It doesn't get any easier, I walk a twelve hour day with four Munros, tough, but really, the more time out in this amazing landscape on another lovely day the better.  Pity about the hour or so tramping through bog to finish mind.  Then, an easy enough day with just a couple of Munros and a lot of gentle trail gets me to Braemar.  I still need to find a shortcut, this one involves a thigh deep wade of the river Dee, worth it to get to the pub in good time.



Photos to go with this post can be found here.