Three Days Alone in the Cairngorms National Park
so morning folks the time is half 10 and i'm half an hour in to my mini section hike of the scottish national trail plan is to do this over three days and two nights starting in Blair Atholl and finishing Kingussie. so the plan tonight is to do 27 kilometers and camping bynack lodge i'm just coming out for seven kilometers on the clock so i've got a little bit to go behind me there is marble lodge after marble lodge another four or five kilometers up the track is forest lodge then after that you're pretty much going to remote country and it should get a little bit more interesting so i'm now approaching the aptly named forest lodge which is roughly the halfway mark what's the time robin rap o'clock there's been a wind channeling down the glen all day so i've come down to this little bridge to see if i can get a better shower and get a macro wrap on the go it's actually mackerel in the road kind of have michael raptor who kev i would just be sacrilege right i'm back on the go i needed that macro rap i was just a ticket i'm going to get my head down for a few kilometers and i'll bring you back follow along the track that's me reached the fork in the track and i've headed off down to the right if you head up on the left track that will wind its way around any mambaland near the taff hotel buffy so that's been done just over 19 kilometers and uh it's 27 kilometers to bainack lodge so that leaves me about eight to go that kind of ties in with the map you want to head in that direction there that will take you to glen walk and lock lock which is a quite original note i will be going this way though i'm hoping when i get around that corner we'll see a bit more of the cairngorm mountains there's been some impressive rockfall here i wonder how many years that's been there probably hundreds you never know though right i'm almost at the fawzi turf check this out by the way this is cracking what a setting well this is fantastic i have to say impressed if only i'd brought my bikini in really hot i'd be in there in all seriousness i do wish i was a stronger swimmer because that did look inviting but swimming has never been my 40. i've got a scottish over badge which is half a length i was back in primary school i think i can manage about a land for maybe a length and a half these days i've always been a walker or a runner in cycling but i'm going to bring you back when i find my pitch i shall see you then all right folks i'm not quite there yet three three clicks on the map and i'm there but if i just bring you back a little bit early because what's happened is the glenn has opened up and it's much more spacious now and there's some little wild camping spots around here but we're going to push on i must admit though i am struggling i've aggravated my right hip it's a little bit sore and that has slowed me down so i'm gonna have to get some vitamin eye down my when i reach camp right folks i thought i'd bring you back yet again i just want to point out this massive lump here this big snowy one that has been mcdewey the kiringong giants have appeared right in front of ben mcdeway's kind of aim kind of blends in a little bit and just to the right here is derrick and gorm so there you go this lodge has taken the pass literally half a kilometer if that still hasn't come out of sight all right folks seven hours 10 minutes i've made that i'm here thank god for that let's get set up all right that's the notch pitched just in front of the lodge all right folks that's the stove on starving i've got a little starter having that first and then for dinner trying these new meals chicken and ham carbonara so hopefully that'll be decent it's five past six so got a long night ahead one by jack jones that's all right i'm quite happy nice place to pitch nice feeling of remoteness good morning campers it is 20 past six and it's currently minus two degrees it's looking nice outside so all right folks it's a just gone eight o'clock and that's me back on the go i've got a couple of river crossings to do further on which i'll show you um i can't imagine there'd been any problems with that well that's river crossing number one just over here a bit slippy in the frost but no significant problems right this is river crossing number two it's managed to tip two across without getting wet feet so i'm glad these rippers are not in space right this is river crossing number three that i've yet to do i'm thinking some stepping stones here go over to that big boulder maybe then across i'm not sure i took the correct line across but i did go with that big boulder and i kind of zigzagged my way across but i've got dry feet and that's exactly what matters right to the red house and beyond so this here is ben voting just over and beyond kevin and i done this last year got the mining mirror here and straight ahead we've got guilty lodge and these remote forest monroes all right that's 11 kilometers since leaving the campsite this morning and i must say i'm enjoying this this may be boring tellers but just the vastness in the wide open of all this is brilliant i was a bit worried they might be suffering from fomo and what i mean is on a day like this i should be up in the summits but i like this it's good this here looks like a good place to stop for some lunch tell you that wind there's a stunning waterfall there i think it's called the the ida so this little bouldin's actually marked on the map but i don't know how much you should be in a life or death situation it's a certainly seen better days so um don't rely on it depending on the one direction maybe a little bit of shelter in that corner there bye just in case you're on the route and you're struggling and don't think you'll make it to glenn and fishing that off-road vehicle hasn't have ripped up this terrain it's really bogging places i don't know how bad it was before but i kind of wrecked it what all right folks there's a bit of confusion here uh the lie of the land doesn't agree with my map this track crosses the fishy there but on the map it comes around this river but that looks a bit dodgy there's a path there though and i don't want to cross that and end up in the wrong side i don't know if the river's changed course uh since storm frank you know the damage happened so i'm going to follow that track but attentively if the watch comes to the wash i'll just take my boots off and lead across but that means i'd have to cross this river twice so i'm going this way yeah there's definitely been some erosion i have to be careful with this little bit here you can see there the path continues on right so that's the first obstacle of the way i must admit the alarm bells are ringing here i just hope this path isn't a dead end but there's the track there with the crosses bizarre but anyway let's go well the little path continues on but i'm just going to pick up the track again here that is so quiet i'm gonna get so much stick for this look at that magic well folks that's me pretty much solid i've got my kitchen here gordon ramsay eat your heart root and i'm just going to use freeze dry efforts to have shortly chicken fried rice good morning campers it's just not long gone eight o'clock and um i do apologize about the lack of footage but i was just keen to get packed up in a way down the road last night i was pretty tired as well so uh this is stage three and the last day of the hike i'm going to be following the national sorry i'm going to be following the scottish national trail for so far but the route that takes you to can you say it's kind of meanders away and it looks a bit of a pain to be honest so i've worked out there is a little shortcut that will shave off a good bit of distance and i'll show you that later on right here folks this area just needs a little bit of care you see here is a little bit steep and the road had gone down but mother nature did this it's quite impressive huge scar ratio that took me exactly one hour to reach the bridge there so that's not too bad and now i'm just about to join the minor road here so i need to watch out for this little right-of-way shortcut can you see that's me now on the shortcut i was talking about uh the same post back there said can you say seven miles so it's pretty good it doesn't have shave off a lot of distance but i know what the purists will be saying oh no i'm sorry old chap you can't see you've done the scottish national trail you'll have to go back and do that section it's all gone so came out with that woodland i just been blasted by cold air it's freezing just tried the door in the buffet behind me there but it's locked i looked about basic anyway before i may have been good to grab some shelter in the bike to eat but the show must go on now if it wasn't for the cloud i think i'd actually a really nice view you've got the monroe scooter guy up in the cloud there somewhere i can just see the path meandering up not a day for the top so ho ho first glimpse of can you say i just zoom in and show you there we go should all be downhill from here all right folks i've reached the small hamlet of drumgoosh and at the crossroads here i'm going to swing a left all right folks that's the trauma bridge there and i'm going to join the space sideway hey folks i've got a mile to can you say so it seems like a good time to wrap up the video so if you've watched this far thank you very much and as always i'll catch you next one cheers you
2021-07-18 10:27
