Thereis nothing better than 3 days in the wilderness to restore energiesand forget about your daily life. It was like destiny wanted usthere. What are the odds of finding space in the Aviemore youthhostel for 3 nights, and bike space on both outbound and inboundtrain, and kind of good weather too??
Day1 – CairnToul traverse (turned back after first 2 Munroes) – 20km
21June 24
Wetook the after work train on Thursday and arrived in Aviemore at8.30pm. The road was empty, I've never see it like that! Quick stopat the shop, check in and off to bed, both exited and scared for thebig day to come. We knew the forecasts were not great up in themountains but we tried anyway.
Weleft the hostel at 7am, cycled 8km to the start of the path, lockthem there and off we went. It was actually quite warm in the forest,and gosh I missed it so much! We kept going until we got at thejunction to go up the first hill. Took off the shoes, forded thestream,and up we went on the steep path. We could see black clouds inthe Lairg Ghru, and on the tops, but we were super motivated to getthe loop done (we already failed twice before...).
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| We later found out we didn't have to ford... |
The viewswere getting better the higher we went, until we got eaten by theclouds and saw nothing, we could just feel and hear the strong windroaring. Visibility was down to 10m, sometimes I couldn't even seePaul just behind me. We followed the path and managed to bag thefirst 2 Munroes, after which the path disappeared and Paul had tostop several times to check the navigation, and every time I waslosing heat. Scared of hypothermia I decided it was time to turnback, a bit of a failure, again, but we figured there was no point inkeeping going as we couldn't see anything and it was becomingdangerous... Happy first day of summer, wherever summer is!!
Weturned back, got to the place were we could sea again, found shelterbehind a rock and had our lunch with the most amazing view in frontof us, frankly, no regrets at all! Back to the bikes we had the mostpleasant cycle back and since we were back early we strolled aroundthe shops for a chilled out afternoon.
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| That's were we were...total blackness |
Day2 - BynackMore and loop- 20km cycled and 36 walked.Todaywe definitely made it up for the day before! The weather improved andwe managed to destroy ourselves, I mean, to put km in the legs astraining for the upcoming Alps trip. We set off again at 7am,cycled the 10km to Glenmore, parked the bikes at the visitor center,and started walking along a nice path in the forest, description ofthe walk here:
https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/cairngorms/creag-mhor.shtml It was warmish and definitely not as windy as the day before,but by the time we reached the top of the Munroe the clouds arrivedand took the views. We sat and ate a piece of cake thinking theywould clear, but they only cleared when we were half way through thedescent... Oh well!
Oh well, what can you do 
Pictures don't make justice to this place 
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| To the 10km of boggy sh*t, we are done!! |
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| Paul trying to clean shoes, socks and trousers |
After 10km ofthat sh*t, at 4.30pm we finally reached the good path and at 5.30pmwe were at the bikes, destroyed, relieved and happy that the day wentexceptionally well. To reward ourselves we went for beer and pizza atla Taverna. We both slept very well!
Day3 - Cycle to Pitlochry via the Gaick Pass - 80kmSummerfinally arrived!!! Not at the start of the day, but eventually thewarm sun came out when we reached the highest point and the lastloch. It was the most pleasant cycle ever, especially the bit by thelast loch. We even saw 2 adders, got to Blair Atholl in time to getour pastry, laid on the grass for 1h playing the lizards, and justenjoyed the feeling of cycling like when I was a kid in Italy insummer, can life get any better?
