Aboyne to Ballater

From http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.com/

In the end we were 5 strong for this morning's walk along the Deeside Way - Dave, Colin, Dan, me and John - but no Messrs. Sharp nor Meany - apparently the former had too many things to do before heading off on holiday on Thursday, and the latter, who was always a slightly dodgy starter, pulled out last night after a day of rain in Banchory - doesn't he remember how changeable our climate is and didn't he check the forecasts for Sunday?

It turned out to be a beautiful morning and everything worked like clockwork. Dan and John were seated together when Colin and I got on the bus at the High St, and Dave was waiting for us at Potarch - he was the only fare paying passenger on the bus - everyone else used their free passes!

We alighted at the Huntly Arms stop at Aboyne and crossed the road to join the Deeside Way. At the start, I couldn't get a GPS signal to start off my Blackberry app which monitors the distance, pace, elevation etc - http://www.adidas.com/uk/micoach/#TrackWorkout/Route/modtr - but eventually it kicked in.

Dave and Dan set the early pace - somewhat bizarrely, experienced walker Dan had brought his umbrella along - it was a bit of a health hazard, protruding upwards from his backpack:

First team photo opportunity was at Deeside Gliding Club:

After over 12km of walking, we arrived at the old Cambus o' May station:

Not much further on, we came to Cambus o' May bridge:

A little bit of a dilemma here - the bridge was open and there was a sign that said Ballater - 3.5 miles on the south side of the river, and 3.5 miles on the north side. We stayed north on the official Deeside Way, but, on reflection, we should perhaps have taken the newly opened south route, which was further away from the relatively busy North Deeside Road.

We had strolled along up to this point, but we did the maths and realised we would have to either up the pace if we wanted a beer before the scheduled bus home, or be prepared to catch a (much) later one. No brainer - we accelerated and made it to Ballater station in good time:

We walked down from the old station to the Alexandra Hotel in good time for a couple of swift pints (and a bowl of soup for John) and made the 1:34 bus back with time to spare. The beer was excellent - Trade Winds and Highland IPA, with Lia Fail available as well. Dan was hungry and thought it would be alright to eat one of his remaining sandwiches in their lounge, as we looked on with embarrassed grins:

As we waited for the bus, Dan finished off his packed lunch in slightly more acceptable surroundings:

The official Adidas Mi Coach web site says that we walked a total of 17.13 km from the time the app kicked in until I stopped it in the Alexandra Hotel. The overall average pace was 4.72 km/hour and the climb up the valley was just 160 metres.

Next walk still to be determined, but there was some discussion about doing something on bikes next time - especially with the Deeside Way opening up new opportunities all the time.