I know some of the Cairngorms reasonably well, but it's a massive area and I have only explored a fraction of it. I have been fascinated by the Cairngorm Loop for years. It's a created bike route that consists of two interconnecting loops, and inner and outer.
The inner loop is approx 90+km in length and I cycled it 2 years ago, a great route but hard going because it has one long boggy section (lots of pushing), and one very long rocky hike a bike bit.
The outer loop is more rideable, but longer at 200km. It's been on my to do list but getting round to it has been slow (2-3 years, maybe more!). Then somehow Judith and Shaw seemed to like the idea (notice Judith's name inserted before Shaw's!). We played around with dates for 6 months or longer...
But finally it happened...
And it couldn't have been more exciting! I was trying to persuade them to do it over 2 days, but they preferred 3 days.. more on that later.
So new gear was squirrelled away for months, probably longer... but finally last Friday the bike was packed and ready to go. I couldn't quite believe it was happening, particularly with a news article discouraging cross border travel on the day that Shaw and Judith were travelling up to meet. Interestingly the BBC removed this news snap shot, clearly told to do, but I have a screen shot of it!
We met near Glenmore Lodge on Saturday with a great 3 day weather forecast but it was misty and midgy as we set off, but we quickly rode above the inversion as it started to clear.
Crossing the first river at Abernethy South of the field centre Shaw and Judith went to extreme lengths to try and cross this without getting wet feet after watching me soak mine.
After Abernethy there was a fantastic section of trail I had never been on through forest and rolling hills. We didn't see a soul for the first half of the day until we got nearer to Tomintoul at Glen Brown where we stopped for lunch at a ruin.
It was hot when we got to Tomintoul and we splurged on ice cream, cake and coffee!
From here the journey took us South along Glen Avon with initially great estate tracks until we got to Loch Builg. From here there was some nice single track until we crossed the watershed to another neighbouring estate and the River Gairn.
We found a lovely grassy place to camp by the river and were just setting up the tents when an old guy on a cheap E-bike came past with a sleek female bike packer (we think she was trying to shepherd him to safety. They weren't together). He declared he was trying to get to Ballater (it was absolutely miles) but his battery had run out! He was dressed in casual bowling, or tennis type clothing. We pointed them towards a landcover we had seen in the far distance, and a little later a mountain rescue landcover drove past, with the bike on the roof and he shouted out of the window "I've been saved"!
The midges came, but as it quickly got colder they vanished. I was told that the stars were amazing but I slept through the night! Maybe that was the wine I'd carried in as a surprise for all.
In the morning my single skin tent was very wet after a monstrous dew. If I moved it dislodged water onto me inside so it was tricky trying to get out without a shower, which actually may have been fitting. Shaw tried to cheer me up by declaring they had a few drips in their double skin tent, so I shouldn't worry!
When the sun hit us it was lovely and felt so refreshing to have camped out and we packed the bikes for another early start of 9.30am!
Just after passing an amazing architecturally designed shooting hut we had the first test of the day, a steep and long climb up to the Bealach Dearg. It was tough but we all got up it. From the top (750m) the views were incredible and it was all down hill to Braemar.
The down hill was brilliant, so long and loose (in a good way) before we hit the forests again. Coming the other way the climb would have been very tedious for sure.
On the final road section into Braemar I slip-streamed Judith all the way as she was flying, I think she was ready for coffee! We dined, Shaw thinking he should only have a small cooked breakfast, me going the opposite way and we sat in the sun and stuffed our faces...
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