Dinnet - Ballater 30 Oct 20

Five of us - plus Ruby - joined the 201 service yesterday, alighting at Dinnet, where Ken was waiting for us. Taking the trail on the north side of Loch Kinord we headed towards the visitor centre at the Muir of Dinnet Nature Reserve and then over the top and down to Cambus o' May. From there it was a simple straight, flat walk along the Deeside Way and into Ballater. Our first refreshment stop was the beer garden at the rear of the Glenaden Hotel/Barrel Bar:

Dave gulped down a swift couple of pints before catching the earlier bus to take Ruby back home, but the rest of us wandered down to the Alexandra Hotel for one more before catching the next bus home. Another excellent Deeside day out. Now a few photos and stats from the walk:

Potarch - Banchory 16th October, 2020

Colin and I decided to change our regular weekly cycle to a walk on Friday, taking the bus to Potarch and walking back to Banchory from there. On hearing this news, Andy decided he would like to join in and he got Hazel to drop him off at Potarch to meet us. The three of us then headed along the Deeside Way to Dave's, who also wanted to come along, but first we were obliged to accept his hospitality - Dave had laid out the table on his new patio with a steaming pot of soup and plentiful supply of beers to set us up for the walk:

Dave further impressed us when he showed us the chillis he had grown:

Suitably refreshed, we took the fairly conventional cycling route back to Banchory, stopping briefly at everyone's favourite viewpoint:

Conditions were great - dry, no wind and a perfect temperature for walking - just enough to build up a thirst, which we sated afterwards with a couple of pints at the Legion:

Here's the stats:

A fine afternoon indeed - with special thanks to Dave for his hospitality.