Plan B - The Gorms ...

Seems like plans are forever changing these days …

Plan A –

Paddle the 14km up Loch Mullardoch to camp around the south side of the inflow to the loch at the west end (NH 088 292) - BESIDE the kayaks.

Tuesday - take a ramble up on the ridge which joins Creag a Coir' Aird (673m), Mullach Sithidh (974m), Mullach na Dheiragain (982m) then continue round to Sgurr nan Ceathreamhnan (1151m), possible side excursion to pick up the un-named 941m subsidiary top to the east ..... then descend back to the loch via Stuc Beag (1075m), Stuc Mhor (1041m) and Druim Bheag - roughly speaking.

Wednesday - see how the weather is and what anyone is up for / paddle back.

Plan B –

A bothy somewhere, a hill then see what happens …

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Braced against the Mullardoch dam, watching some serious waves breaking down on the loch, Plan B was adopted. The choice was split between Camban in Glen Affric and Ryvoan down in the Gorms. Ryvoan had a number of advantages with a major one being an easy walk in so a big fire was on.

A small donation to the Cairngorm Rescue team secured parking at the back of Glenmore Lodge where we left the cars (and kayaks). Quick re-pack and we were along the track in no time. With Cherie being so good at putting fires out, she looked after lighting it whilst I made dinner (does that seem like the wrong way round to you ?!?!). The wine went down quicker than the dinner and we moved onto Morgans and Coke followed by whisky chasers. The long lie next morning was mainly due to coming off nightshift … honest. The target for the day was Bynack Mhor with a possible extension over to Cairn Gorm. Heading up the ridge was wind was beyond a joke – barely possible to stand at times and cold … very cold. The summit was clear and at least heading over towards Cairn Gorm would be in the lee of the wind for a while. The ascent back up from the saddle was punctuated with stops for weighty discussions. On the summit the wind returned … unsurprisingly. The map showed a track leading from the Ciste car park directly to the lodge (where a source of beer was). Descent was fairly rapid. Two beers later, and it was back up the track to Ryvoan collecting wood on the way.

Same sketch as before – Cherie lit the fire and I cooked. Some time around 9pm a guy arrived with a big bag of coal and a wee Spanish lass. I might be wrong but I am sure he was expecting the place to be empty. They stayed a couple of hours before disappearing back into the darkness and Aviemore. The coal burnt very nicely.

Having transported the kayaks, it seemed a shame not to use them. With the wind at a manageable level we headed over to Loch Insch and had a paddle up the loch. Not exactly sure where we were going, we paddled up the Spey towards Kingussie. About 1 hour 40 mins into it, and the current got too strong. The return only took an hour. One of the highlights was seeing a flash of green neon shoot across the river in the shape of a Kingfisher and a young buzzard sitting in a tree. Great thing about the kayak is getting to places not easy to reach by any other means.

The Mullardoch trip … next spring !