Second of 4 late trips..? 17 10 11 (22) 25 1 21

When I returned the second year it began as the previous autumn around the same time in the month of September having established that by careful planning one could be out of doors a good 12 hours around the time of the year of the autumn equinox without having to walk in darkness. 

It was in many ways a re-run of the first such trip a year earlier for I returned to to the same hostel in the same town of Braemar with my first excursion to the same bothy as before, this pic on the morning of 14 9 18 as I was leaving my bothy at 8:52. 

Thence after a second night in the bothy a return to the same hostel for a few days before completing my holiday with a second visit in the area of Bob Scott's bothy, but without the need to stay there. By which time I knew train and bus schedules plus having a pretty good idea of the type of terrain I should need to negotiate in order to go on collecting my Munro summits...

Socially too to an extent it would follow a pattern from previous trips in the sense I would have the company of a Scotsman, Russel I had met in the spring of 2014, that's 3 months earlier, who had been kind enough to join me for walks he had done before both after my wife had left for home in late May and now again in the autumn, each time days which required between 10 and 12 hours to complete.  

                           

My first big walk with Russel then took  place with his having a really early start at his home in Stirling a 2 hour drive away when he collected me from the hostel for us to start our walk to take in Ben Avon and Beinn a Bhuird from the car park at their foot. Leaving the car park at 8 17 saw our approach the summit of Ben Avon in the next pic at 13 09.

                                        

From there in still quite good weather we headed off west for our next peak when the rain first kicked in and for most of the rest of the afternoon we dodged showers whilst walking through mists to achieve our objectives...

This pic taken at 16 44 as we made our way off Beinn a´ Bhuird with the first of several rainbows we were to see on our way down, all in all a really splendid day... when the rain first kicked in and for most of the rest of the afternoon we dodged showers whilst walking through mists to achieve our objectives...

                                      

With Russel we returned to our hostel and a dinner we prepared in the members' kitchen... It was in this kitchen that I met a new friend Michelle a French lady married to a Scot whose job was a Repairer of Footpaths who was working in the Cairngorms with a young man whom she employed in her small company. Later in my holiday for my last walk she and her young assistant would take me in her Land Rover into the Cairngorms along the gated Estate Roads who because of her job had keys for all the gates we passed, sailing passed Bob Scott’s bothy nearby the Derry Lodge where she parked her car for the day, the deal being that I would return to her car by 17 00 hours: here starting her repairs at 10 26...

En route she had talked me into climbing not only Carn Mhaim but also the Derry Cairngorm which she said was an easy extension to my walk since I had gained the height by first climbing my first Munro… aim looking northwards towards the summit of Beinn Macdui before the mists came in...Well unfortunately what she had proposed turned out not to be so easy an undertaking because after climbing Carn Mhaim in good weather with good views of all the peaks around including my first clear view of Ben Macdui, Scotland's second highest mountain:

                                    

...  before heading off eastwards to take in the Derry Cairngorm by which time I was struggling in mists to navigate quickly enough around steep south facing cliffs when I decided to abort that part of my mission and exit the area by returning to the Derry Lodge on a route I had descended before in mist. (This loss of an important summit would be the last time I should walk in mists struggling to navigate with only a map and compass because for my next trip I decided I should obtain a GPS (Global Positioning System) tracker).

But with 5 new summits to add to the 15 climbed during the spring visit I could be well satisfied with my annual count for 2014...Have a good day everyone.