Creagan Riabhach 2021

The first opportunity for a Friday bus trip to Ballater for a walk and some ales was taken with relish by 5 of us, despite the mixed weather forecast. It came as a little bit of a surprise to discover that it had been fully 4 years since we had tackled this hill. On that occasion we were having a bit of a heatwave, but conditions were a bit different this time for Gary, Jeb, Ken, Colin and I. However, in the end, we escaped with just a couple of brief light showers. Here's the photos - first of all the team shot at the official start of the walk halfway along the Pass of Ballater where Gary met us - and Jeb played Jacob:

Once we'd done most of the climbing and were up on the plateau, we got nice views of Lochnagar which had fresh snow on top:

A little further along, Gary took a photo of the 4 of us:

Gary then took a selfie at the same spot:

Ken chose the spot for our snacks where we had a fine view of the valley below:

On the way back down we passed fields of sheep tending their newly born lambs, one of which was only minutes old and still yellowed:

We took the path along the river and round the golf course to take us to the beer garden at the back of the Alexandra Hotel where we were delighted to find that they had all three handpumps in operation. The condition of the beer, as ever at the Alexandra, was first class and we were in heaven as we supped our first 3 pints of real ale this year - despite the cold!:

The original plan was to have one or two here and then wander round to the Barrel for one more before hopping on the 17:11 bus home, but we got settled and were enjoying the beer so much, nobody wanted to move until it was time to go. We waved goodbye to Gary from the front seats of the top deck of the 201:

Here's the walk stats from another excellent afternoon in Ballater: