Walk up Lochnagar and Carn a'Choire Bhoidheach - Saturday 18th August 2012.

Well first week back at work is over, it's Friday and we are heading for Aboyne on Royal Deeside for the night.  We are staying in the Huntly Arms where the room is basic but clean.  That in itself was a trek to get too...up different stairs and along lengthy corridors where staff were friendly enough.

Saturday morning looked grey when we got up but it was saying 18°C, and it was very muggy.  After a cooked breakfast we packed the car and headed along to Ballater, then up to Loch Muick where we park the car (£3 this goes towards path restoration).  After changing into boots the rain starts blowing through, so jackets go on straight away, which also keeps the wind off too.  All sorted, we head off on our way, stopping at the information board first.

We continue along the track toward the Spittal of Glen Muick, passing toilets and a wooden visitor centre which is worth a look around.

We are taking the Lochnagar Path that crosses over the flat floor of Glen Muick and cross over the river Muick by a wooden bridge. We continue along path heading towards woodland, and Allt-na-guibhsaich which we need to cross.  That was a laugh, I did not know which foot to use first, good job boots are waterproof.

We continue on our way, it's a steady ascent, and the path is good, lots of heather in bloom, but cloud coming in.

We pass above the minor gorge of Clais Rathadan, and continue around to the right until we come to a fork.  Stopping to look at the map, and my map on viewranger on the phone, we know we are to take the path on the left.

As you can see it has brightened up and jackets had to come off, it's too warm.

We follow the well defined path with parts with good stone pitching, and towards Meikle Pap.

You can go to the top of this to get best views of Lochnagar, it's not much of an ascent, but we decide to give it a miss.

We stop on the path for a drink and a chocolate bar, and I change socks (they are rubbing on the heel).  With our rest over, we continue up a slope known as the ladder.  This is a boulder field, not good you would think, but there is a path right through using huge flat boulders and it was great.  This slope is notorious for avalanches in the winter, so I'm glad we are doing it in the summer months.

At the top of the "ladder" we reach a plateau, the cloud has come in again and the wind is picking up with strong gusts, so on goes the jackets.  On good days you can peer down the gullies to the lochlan below, I went as close to the edge as I felt comfortable to get this pict, but did not stay long, don't want blown off!  :)

We have another ascent where we come across a cairn on a boulder at Cac Carn Mor, this is often mistaken for the summit of Lochnagar.

But we have to go further down a slope then up again to reach the true summit of Lochnagar (Cac Carn Beag).  Standing at a height of 1156m it is a brilliant viewpoint of Deeside and the Cairngorn mountain range.

Queen Victoria climbed Lochnagar and said that "it was cold, wet and cheerless and the wind was blowing a hurricane".  Well as you can see I agree, though rain was off at the moment!

After looking around, we decide to seek shelter from the wind behind the huge boulders and have our lunch. It's nice to sit with a sandwich and a cup of cappachinno with such views around and below us. There are a lot of people out walking today, hope they are enjoying it as much as us.

After lunch we retraced our steps back to Cac Carn Mor where there is another path to the right, we follow this path down green open area for a short distance.

Soon we turn to our left and follow a narrow path up the green hill until we reach the top.

This is Carn a' Choire Bhoidheach ( 1110m). It has a small cairn and because of the rainfall lately it had a moat around it.



Looking back to Lochnagar from where we had just came.  



Checking map and Viewranger, we looked to see how to get back to the circuit path to lead us back to the car, without retacing our steps. We follow a line across this slightly boggy area crossing little streams until reaching the busy mountain footpath.

This path takes us eventually to Loch Muick and back to car, it is steep in places with a lot of pitching and a very good path to follow.



We follow the path close to a stream as the glen opens out onto a flat 'alp'. The flat does not last long as just beyond the stream tumbles down a very steep slope to make the Glas Allt falls. 



We continue down until we meet a small woodland, that takes us to the Royal Lodge of Glas Allt Sheil, much loved by Queen Victoria and recently Prince Charles. (Jen pips in - Is this not where he wrote the Old Man of Lochnagar??)

We turn left here and follow along the shores of the Loch Muick.

At the foot of the loch there is a boat house and a small beach where boots come off and a paddle is in order, that cooled the feet down quick!

Then time for another sandwich and coffee and enjoy the sun before continuing the short distance to the Spittal of Glenmuik and the car.

It has been a good walk today, mixed weather but we have covered 15 miles (25km).

Our Training Week in Yorkshire, Shrewsbury and Leicestershire Has Come to an End!

It has been a good week, ok we did get wet a few times (but thats why we have waterproofs), but the sun also shined on us a plenty.  We have walked 61.6 miles (99.2 km) and a total elevation of 12,339 ft ( 3,761m ).  This was a test to see how we would cope with walking a lot of days.  Ok we did have days in between, but they were spent walking around exploring where we were.  In York we must have covered several miles, our hotel was 1.5 miles to the centre itself.

I hope you enjoy reading the blogs, and will continue to do so.  Please leave a comment when you have read them, so I can read your responses.  :)

It is only 7 weeks before we head on our big adventure to Everest Base Camp in Nepal, and we are beginning to get all our gear sorted.  There is a lot to prepare and we have our weekends that are occupied with trips etc, also we are taking a family group (yes Team Cooper mascot Alistair McAlistair is coming :D) up Ben Nevis (highest mountain in the UK) on the 8th of Sept.

As we have said in the beginning, we are funding this adventure ourselves but want to raise money for two charities, the British Heart Foundation and Afasic Scotland.  You can see the links on the right, please, please donate a pound or two.  Every penny helps these two important charities, charities that have a direct effect on so many lives.  If you could also share this blog with friends and families so they two can share our adventures from the comfort of their home. :)

I thankyou for reading our blog, and until the next post... :)

Pleasant Canal Walk in Leicestershire on August 3rd 2012

Well our last walk of the week, and sister Sue has it planned.  We are going to Foxton Locks in Leicestershire, for a reasonably short walk on our way to Peterborough for a couple of nights before returning home.

Foxton Locks is the largest flight of staircase locks on the English canal system with two 'staircases' of five locks.  They are located on the Leicester line of the Grand Union Canal, 5km west of Market Harborough close to the nearby village of Foxton..

Today the weather looking promising though yet again heavy rain is forecasted, we park the car at Foxton Country Park and walk to the locks passing the pub where we will eat later on.

This is where our walk will begin and finish, there are a few barges waiting to go up the locks, and some looking impressive.

We are going to walk along the canal for quite a distance which is completely different from what we usually do. We are first heading along to Debdale Wharf Farm, so after a short time we leave the canal side and head through Foxton before going through a golden field of wheat. 

We then pass through a gate and end up back along the canal side.  Going along the canal is peaceful, the mixture of wild flowers is pretty and lots of Dragon and Damsel flies.

At Debdale Wharf there is a marina full of different barges and narrow boats, although I'm not sure what the difference is??  Any boat enthusiasts out there who can fill me in? :)

At this point, the sky has turned really black and the heavens open!  We quickley get on the waterproofs which stay on for a while as these heavy showers keep coming.  We continue around, following the tow path for a distance before leaving to head on the road for awhile until we reach the village Saddington.  Looks like a peaceful village with some nice houses.  

We then turn off and head down a track towards Manor Farm which looks like a new farm to me.  Turning down the road for a while until we reach a path that goes alongside Saddington reservoir.  We are back on a bridal way and it looks quite boggy.  Sue decides she was not going that way and crosses over a grassy area which turns out to be more of a bog, yes she gets mucky!! ;)

From here we walk up hill towards Smeeton Hill (once again we need to go through wheat fields) where there is a bench where we can sit and have a break, on our way up the hill.  

^^Come on Alistair, you can do it!!^^

We see a red kite is flying around (pictured below).  Alistair always attracts the wildlife! :P

Reaching the Bench we have coffee, crisps and nuts etc and watch sheep being moved on by a sheepdog.  Roy informs us we have come 5.5 miles, and Sue says half way. Okay we thought it was a 6 mile walk, gather its NOT!!  ;)

After a while we head down the hill towards Gumley, going through a field of bales we decide to have a competition to see who could move one the furthest, what a laugh! I won :)

Fun over we continue up hill and through a cow field.

At Gumley we end up on the road and follow it for about a mile passing Laughton before arriving back on the tow path. Roy's ankle has given way so Steve swaps his sticks for Roy's rucksack, and trots off with a grin on his face.

We still have about 2 miles to go but it is a nicer walk going along the canal than by road.  We pass more barges, a family of swans and her young.

As we walk along we count down the bridges we go through until we at last reach the locks and the end of our walk is near.

Tired but all still smiling.



Don't do it Alistair!

Our next stop is the Foxton Locks Inn for a drink and tea, we are all feeling rather hungry!!!

                              

                                     

After tea we went to watch some barges going up the locks, it was the first time I've seen it apart from on tv so it was interesting.



Well that was our last walk of the week, we have walked today 13.7 miles., Now its time to head for Peterborough for the weekend. Roy and I congratulate ourselves we have walked over 60 miles this week!  :)