Cairngorm Curtain Call

Dates: 23-25 August 2018

Hills: Carn a'Mhaim, Carn na Drochaide

For the nth time, I offer a TR of our dog Sadie's 'last' trip into the hills. Yes, she's still defying veterinary science: although her engine stalls and she shows every sign of nose-diving into oblivion when she's at rest, the moment Sadie's lead goes on, her rear propeller whirrs back into life. We've looked for an outsize hamster wheel for her, but without success. It's the hills that still offer us most. Trouble is, the next hills (Gillean and Am Basteir) on our list are not exactly dog friendly. And from then, we have a long line of hills in mind from Knoydart, finishing on Ben Avon as C's final Munro. Hm. Then I spotted Carn a'Mhaim, which sits in a pesky position for my long-planned west to east traverse. Why not snip that one off on its own?

So here we are, heading up the…

…track to Derry Lodge. Sadie gets a free ride on C's back for this part of the route.

We parked the bikes by the Lodge, and walked up Glen Luibeg, turning north up the track that heads towards…

…Ben Macdui. Note the tail propeller.

We pitched the tent by the Allt Carn a'Mhaim (you can just see it in the next photo) and headed up the…

…NW shoulder of Carn a'Mhaim. Isn't the Mar Lodge estate changing, under the National Trust? Without significant numbers of deer (we saw a single one in two days) new Caledonian pines are flourishing. Great, but so too, is the heather: the lower part of this trackless ascent was hard, hard work.

I never thought I'd say this, but after the baking heat of the early part of the summer, I was quite looking forward to some real weather on this trip. And here…

…it is!

Between blasts of showers, the views over to…

…Macdui were great.

And then, at the top, the best view of the lot…

…the Devil's Point about to be embraced by some very real weather.

The sun came out…

…for the descent by the same route.

No glorious sunset down by the tent - just…

…reflected glory instead.

The following morning we made our way back to the Linn of Dee. Is there any light in which the pines of…

…Glen Luibeg don't look stunning?

So that was that. Munro 245 for Sadie, and if it proves to be her last, it will have been a good one.

But the weather forecast for the next day was good, and we were still up in Braemar. I pointed out that the first Scottish hill Sadie ever did was Carn na Drochaide. We're done it again since, and it's remained a favourite. And so the cry went up - Encore! Encore!

From the Devil's Punchbowl we crossed the bridge, and walked up the track above Glen Quoich. Then up to…

…Carn na Criche.

Over to the summit itself, then down the long snaking track…

…to the Linn.

It's odd, how in descent this fantastic track loses confidence in itself the lower it goes. There's still a decent trace of it…

…at the top of Carn Dearg, but lower down the heather has now grown over it almost completely. In ascent, at least there is this…

…tiny cairnetta to give you a clue about where to start.

And now feel free to cue the violins as we see this final photo of C and Sadie…

…walking off into the sunset. Still, the word on the street is that the sun will come up again, and you never know, it may see Sadie's tail whirling her up another hill.