Culter to city walk

Month 3 brought walk 3 of 2018. Five of us made it in the end - Ian had to cancel at the last minute - to follow Dave's planned route which started on the Deeside Way, but had a couple of diversions taking us down beside the river.

We alighted the bus in Culter and headed down Pittengullies Brae to join the Way briefly, before diverting towards the Camphill School entrance, where we turned down "Lover's Walk" which took us down to the riverside. Soon we arrived at the APR where we had to walk back up to rejoin the Way again. There were some fine views of the new road sweeping over the river from Maryculter:

Time for a team photo then:

There were a couple of pools constructed - what were they for? Too small for reservoirs - could they be for trout fishing - or water treatment?:

The next diversion down to the river eventually took us on a very narrow trail that was, even this early in the season, overgrown with brambles etc whose thorns picked away at our clothing. At one stage, one of the floor creepers took Dave down. It was a pretty uncomfortable part of the walk and we discovered further on that we were on the wrong trail!

We did eventually get back on track and there was a decent riverside trail as far as Deeside Golf Club, where we headed back to the Way again. From there, it was tarmac all the way to Duthie park where the crocuses were in full bloom:

We got to Archibald Simpson's, a little sore and heavy-legged, before 6 pm. It had been a fair old trudge:

Wetherspoon's had their international beer festival on and there was a fine range of ales that we don't ever see in Deeside available. With Wetherspoon's normal low prices, plus our CAMRA vouchers, the rounds were exceptionally cheap - just £7 for 5 pints!

We got very comfortable and the ales kept coming, so we soon decided to abort the original plan to eat at Wagamama's in Union square and just ordered standard Wetherspoon's meals - not as tasty, but very convenient - and they came complete with yet another free pint each!

We caught the 21:45 bus back, but it didn't take long before Dave assumed the classic position: 

The rest of us were still awake and alert however (Colin hidden behind me):

A fine day out in very pleasant weather, with the wind giving us a kindly push to Aberdeen. It was our longest walk for some time, albeit a very flat one.