Banchory Veterans' Hill-walkers

How lucky were we? Or was it good planning that brought us another excellent day's weather in Ballater yesterday? We seem to have been blessed every time we have headed up Deeside for a walk. It was wall to wall sunshine and t-shirts all the way. Steve and Ken drove us to Ballater and out to the entry road to Glen Muick, where we parked the cars. Dave had come up with the route, which proved to be excellent. The trails were in good condition although everywhere was very dry. Any time we had to traverse a bit of heather roots, it made a satisfying crunch under our feet: It was Ballater Walking Week and soon we came across a large group doing the same trail in the opposite direction: The first opportunity to set the camera up on the timer came along - and Dave snapped me setting it up on the deer feeder: and this was the result: Another few hundred yards up the track, another photo opportunity: Onwards and upwards - but, wait a minute - Dave's left ...

It was Ken's suggestion to try to take a day in the Cairngorms before all the snow had melted. All we needed was a suitable weather window - but we also had to try to find a date that would accommodate at least a healthy quorum of the regular walkers - a tricky balancing act. We thought we had cracked it a few days ago when a high descended on the UK, but it seemed that most of the heat was centred a lot further south than the Scottish Highlands. Undaunted, we set off early-ish on bank holiday Monday morning - Ken leading with Ian and Nigel in his car and me following with John and Colin. By the time we arrived at the large car park at Cairngorm it was looking fairly gloomy - rain, wind and low cloud - hardly ideal for a bit of relatively high level walking. Ken's strategy was to keep our options open in the hope that the weather and visibility would improve and the clouds would lift later on. There was a high level walk and a lower level walk, both of which started alon...