Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Day 9 - Braemar to Gelder Shiel

Today we had a late start to the walking. We slept in at the B and B with a scheduled breakfast at 8:30am. It was a delicious Scottish breakfast with all the fixings!!! Craiglee B and B a great place to refresh.

We were off at 10am in the rain!!! Not bad rain: for two hours on Day 1 and rain for hiking in Day 9. Our jackets and kilts worked very well. 


Today’s hike took us through many different forests. Probably the worst day of navigation - many more meters of elevation covered than was planned. 





We re-routed a few times but made it back onto our route. Our stopping point tonight was Gelder Shiel Bothy.


By the time we arrived the hut was full of characters. Pete was here for the night and Marcus too - he opted to set up his tent. Tim from Wales and Douglas the Scotsman had their bunk picked out. Kir and I picked two bunks and sat down. 


The bothy has a wooden stove and we sparked that up to take the chill off. The temperature has been at about +40C since!! Many others have arrived and opted to set up tents. We have chatted all evening all the while checking to see if it has reached 8pm - an acceptable time to go to sleep! Our dinner was fresh buns with salami and cheese.

We discussed many things from cultural ideas and laughs, drinks, and routes. It was truly a blast with these gents.

Kirsten and I will have to sleep armed as we know Douglas the Viking sleepwalks and we don’t want our challenge to end early.

Pete is quietly watching Netflix trying to wind down. Tim is rummaging around in what has to constitute two rucksacks worth of gear!! He is hoping for a bedtime excerpt from Kirsten’s novel but so far she has yet to agree to read aloud for us all!!

We will probably walk together tomorrow as we are heading in the same direction.

These bothies are fantastic! We are hoping to catch a whisper of our trail names- as assigned by Tim and Douglas, apparently they are top secret but we have our fingers crossed we may figure them out!!!

We are also anticipating the Thursday evening party and some pink gin drinks (thinking of you Jenni!)

Off to read for a bit then some shut eye. Can’t wait for tomorrow’s adventures!!!

Nighty night

P.S. Best gear so far, by a mile OS Maps Locate app!!!

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