Enjoying a ‘recovery’ week in my marathon training I eased back a little more than scheduled in order to enjoy some walking this week.
For a change we opted for something closer to home, two munros that Bruce has previously done but that were new for me and our walking companion, Bruce’s friend James. These two seem to favour an early start but I’d stipulated leaving no earlier than 8 am in order that I could enjoy something of a lie in for a change.
Heading for Braemar, we parked just a couple of miles along the road, and walked out towards Loch Callater and the Callater Bothy. Here we met the fine man that maintains the bothy and his lovely big, drooling dog. Enjoyed a blether with them before heading up the path towards Cairn an t-Sagairt Mor.
The path was very clear and we made decent progress along it. After our recent winter walking experiences it was a pleasure to have on lighter boots and to be able to see clearly what was underfoot! Checking the map, we made the decision to head for Cairn Bannoch, the furthest munro on our journey, returning via Carn an t-Sagairt Mor as it looked like an easy descent and avoided going up the rocky slope.
Despite looking like a wee bit of a trek, it was surprisingly close and we popped up to the summit in quick time. I discovered the benefits of a sunhat are two-fold: the primary benefit being self explanatory – shading from the sun; the secondary benefit is that those of us with plentiful hair can see, as the wind blasted mane is kept in check to a greater degree than normal.
Stopping beyond the summit cairn we enjoyed our lunch out of the wind. It was here that walkers and runners converged with a variety of people having come in from a few directions. As always, it was good to engage in some hill chat.
We then retraced our steps and headed back towards Carn an t-Sagairt Mor. These munros are often done as part of a 5 munro day, the White Mounth munros, but having done Broad Cairn and Lochnagar on other occasions and not being a fan of very long days I was happy to miss these out. We were very fortunate, once again, to have clear views all around.
It didn’t take long at all before we were on the summit of Carn an t-Sagairt Mor, another ‘easy’ munro that has two summit cairns. Bruce advised that due to there being some debate as to which is the true summit we should visit them both. Given that they’re virtually within spitting distance of one another this did not prove too arduous a task.
The next step was to seek out the wreckage of the plane crash, one of the things that makes this munro unique. Alongside the fence posts on the cairn were bits of metal from the plane and it didn’t take us long to find the wing, casually tossed on the hillside. This has been there since 1956, and a full account of the incident can be viewed here: http://www.aircrashsites-scotland.co.uk/canberra_c-t-sagairt-mor01.htm
It made me wonder how it must feel in that moment when you realise your plane is headed towards the mountain; probably best not to dwell on that.
It was very blustery here so we didn’t linger; there was also the thought of coffee and cake drawing us back to Braemar, so without further ado we turned towards the summit once again, then taking a route back towards Loch Callater. We quickly picked up a path and again made good time as we descended.
The bothy was soon reached and it was then a few quick miles along the landrover track to return to the car park and subsequently to Braemar for the long awaited coffee and cake. A great end to a very enjoyable day!
Clare, happiest outdoors! 