Walking Weekend 2019 - Day One

A variety of routes and timings would eventually lead all 12 of us to Peebles, but those of us travelling by car from the north met up first of all at Craigdon Sports, near the Pentland Outdoor Centre, for coffees - and to transfer Stewart from Gordon's car to mine.

Gordon then drove on to Peebles to meet up with Ian and Nigel for a round of golf, but Dave, Ken, Stewart, Colin, Jeb and I headed for nearby Flotterstone and the start of what most of us believed would be a little loosener prior to the more serious walks in days to come.

Jeb had arranged for his brother - who lives in Edinburgh - to meet us there and join in on the walk. We were a little early, but, fortunately, the Flotterstone Inn was adjacent to the car park at the start of our walk. It may not have quite been noon yet, but it would have been foolish to turn down the opportunity of a quick pint, wouldn't it?:

After the first of what would be several climbs on an undulating walk, it was time for a team photo:

At the highest point of the rolling hills - Allermuir - there were magnificent views over Edinburgh, Fife and even, despite some distant haze, out to the Bass Rock. Drams were taken and Dave took a team photo, which he insisted we add some character to:

On the descent, we came across Castlelaw Fort and Earth House:

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It was an interesting, though a bit tougher than we had expected, hike. Here's the stats:

We got to Peebles in good time, checked in and then had a beer or two as we awaited the arrival of Johns McW (on the bus) and D (from the south), plus Ian, Nigel and Gordon after their golf. Steve arrived a little later - by train from Aberdeen.

The hotel was very nice and extremely well organised for dinner. When we sat down at our table, we each were presented with a printed copy of what we had earlier ordered for each course:

They obviously had prior experience of elderly groups forgetting what they'd ordered!

The meal was good and after it, a few ventured out to the nearby Bridge Inn for a nightcap, whilst the rest of us went straight to bed.

Crathes

With only a handful available for Friday's walk, it was decided to keep it simple and local with a walk out to and round the Crathes estate. There were a few late cancellations for various reasons - Ian, Colin and Dave all had things crop up that they had to deal with - so it was just me, Nigel and debutant Bill who showed up outside the Burnett to begin the walk.

It was a fine afternoon as we strolled along the Deeside Way and up through the West entrance at Crathes, from where we headed along the trails and down to the lodge house at the main road entrance to meet up with Dave, who was on puppy duties.

The four of us - plus Ruby - took the trails round the east side of the estate past the newly drained pond. As we headed up towards the north trail, Ian phoned to tell us he'd got his car tyre fixed and had cycled out to meet us for coffee at the cafe, so that's where we headed.

Ice creams have become a firm favourite for Dave and I recently, but the others stuck to the traditional teas, coffees, scones etc:

Dave and Ruby went back to his car and Ian headed off on his bike, leaving the core of Nigel, Bill and I to walk back home via the west entrance to join up with the Banchory paths.

The stats for our afternoon "stroll" were:

At 15.5 kms, the distance was comfortably above this year's average of 12.6 kms, although obviously the climbing stats of 197 mtrs were down a bit on the average of 250 mtrs.