Some Photo's from Ben Chonzie Walk this Weekend!

This weekend we've been walking up Ben Chonzie in Crieff.  I'll be posting a full blog tomorrow however in the meantime please do check out some of the amazing pictures that we got! :)

Walking Ben Chonzie this Weekend!

Tomorrow Roy and I are walking Ben Chonzie, highest point of the heathery moorlands to the north of Crieff.  It has an Altitude of 931 m (3054 ft).  The weather to be cold and possible light snow showers, but we will be prepared. The distance is about 12 miles, should be a good walk.  Then a night staying in a B&B in Crieff just to chill out, go for a meal etc, sounds good doesn't it!?!

Walk 15th January through Glen Doll!

Well Sun 15th Jan and it's a lovely clear day with temperature sitting at -5 c, slight breeze. Roy and I decide it's a good day for a walk, 17.1km, starting at the rangers center in Glen Doll. 

It's a long walk through woodlands before we reach the gate to head up Jock's Rd. (if keep going on this path and you get to Braemar)  We are not going that far but will head off to join another path after passing Davy's Bourach (mountain shelter).

After leaving the Jock's Road path, we headed over to Bachnagairn.  According to the Walking World website, this is a strenuous walk.  We didn't find this to be particularly strenuous, more just a little awkward due to the amount of hard packed snow and ice on the path.  As you can see from the picture below. 

You can also see just how cold it was by the massive icicles caught in dripping motion off the rocks!

Thankfully we had our sticks with us, that eased the pressure of walking on such hard ice a little, but it was still a challenge, as I'm sure you could imagine! :)

These kinds of awkward challenges are just what we need though, I mean let's face it, if it was a simple stroll through the mountains then it just wouldn't count as training would it!?!  And when you think about it, the time it took the Hobbits to walk from The Shire to Mordor, that was kind of like training, you know, starting off nice and simple, then getting harder and harder!  Okay, maybe the Hobbit's had it a little worse off, but they had Aragorn and Treebeard and Gandalf and stuff with them to help.  Haha.  Anyhoo, getting off track with Hobbit's...

We left the Bourach path and headed up the side of Cairn Lunkard.  This takes you up to Loch Esk.  The path isn't essetially a path, however if you know where you're going it's not too bad.  Or, if like us you followed the footprints in the snow, you know you're gonna end up somewhere.  Not only was there a persons footprints, you had a dogs and a birds too.  Who's out walking...HAGRID from Harry Potter!?!!! ;)

Below, a very snowey and frozen Loch Esk!

Stopping for lunch just up from Bachnagairn. :)  The sun was nice and warm, which was a bonus as it had been rather cold during the walk due to the bitter winds.

After lunch we pretty much headed back down following the river, and back down the 3 mile route that is basically a very stoney landrover track, and is a horrible walk...this however then leads back to the carpark.  The total ascent/descent of this walk was 574.1m.  Which is nothing near the Everest Base Camp but at least it's a start, haha! :)  The walk took us around 5 hours.  Had it not been for the hard packed ice on the path that time would have been a lot shorter!

Pictured below, the view looking down through the forest, as we were heading up towards Davy's Bourach. 

And lastly, a nice picture of a deer that we saw on the way up! 

In the Springtime we're actually hoping to do the full walk to Braemar and then stay the night and come back again to the car the next day.  At the moment there's obviously not enough daylight time for such a walk.  It would just be silly to undertake that right now.  It is the kind of walk that we're gonna have to do though in training, plus we've never actually done it before.  A lot of people who do this do the walk to Braemar but get someone from their party to drive there so they can get picked up.  Doing the walk and then staying the night though, that's gonna be like the kind of stuff we'll be doing on Everest Base Camp trek.  Plus, it's a route that everyone has to do at some point! :)