Glen Esk/Loch Lee

Our October walk was one featured in the Times recently as one of Britain's 20 Best Autumn Walks. We decided to expand things a little by doing a combined cycle/walk, starting at the Retreat in Glen Esk, where we'd cycled on a beautiful day last year. Our leader, Ken, made a relatively rare appearance, joining Dave, John, Ian, Colin and me.

The distance from the coffee shop at the Retreat to the end of the tarmac at Invermark Lodge was just over 5 miles and after that there was a good track that ran along the north west side of Loch Lee for another couple of miles.  Time to tether up the horses:

Then a small change of gear:

Some nice, if ever so slightly daunting looking hills in the glen:

Some interesting items of apparel too:

Who was brave enough to wear the multi-coloured headscarf?:

John wasn't the only one looking slightly dodgy:

Soon we arrived at the Falls of Unich:

Then it was a fairly steep and slippy climb upwards, with the path a little tricky and precarious at times, but the views were lovely:

It got even better when we eventually got to the top and could look down on Loch Lee with the lowering sun behind us casting our shadows:

On the downward journey, we spotted this dark little lochan:

Then it was back on to the bikes for the ride back to the Retreat. All went well along the trail, but less than a mile in to the tarmac'd ride, Ian got a puncture. Dave, Ken and John had sped on ahead and were out of sight, so Colin and I set off to see if we could catch up with them - but never did until we got to the cars. Ken went back and picked Ian up and soon we were all off back to Banchory, but not before we snapped the beautiful sunset:

All agreed it was a great walk with splendid scenery and views, reminiscent a little of our trips to the Lake District a few years ago - without the rain! Here's the route and stats: