The Cairngorm Project - Toffs and dirt bags

I love Braemar and it was nice to be back. After stuffing ourselves at the cafe we tried to get supplies at
the Co-op. Lunch supplies were limited but at least Judith got a bottle of wine for the second night. The Fife Arms has recently been renovated and it's a fine building. Slightly surprised and amused by the goings on outside of it on this Saturday morning.

Mercedes, Bentley's, Porche galore! The hotel front of house staff were very smartly dressed in tweed plus fours, waist coat etc and were constantly assisting customers to take their (leather) suitcases to a vehicle. Two young women were standing by one 4x4 with a half empty bottle of gin (I think it was around 11am) and a concierge was offering to make them a GnT on the roadside before they left. Their parents arrived and as they were leaving they reversed to turn around nearly crashing into a chauffeur driven Merc... if Shaw had not shouted "STOP" it could have been a disaster! 

Alas we had to leave the show behind so headed West on the dead end road to Glen Derry. It was hot now and we took our time. At the road end they had opened an overspill carpark and hundred's of fake were enjoying the river. 

As soon as we left the road behind and continued West on estate tracks to White Bridge we only saw a hand full of people again. At the river crossing were the Geldie Burn and Bynack Burn meet there's an old derelict building. It was interesting to see a big work party leaving. I found out later that it is in fact a bothy and they are currently renovating it and have already put in windows and doors - great news! 

Heading South once again we rode a cool piece of single track along side the steep ravine of Allt Garbe Buidhe to the impressive Bedford Bridge. I've been here previously with Kev (coming the other way). With a slight down hill this way round it made the track 5 star! Some of if is quite technical with serious consequences if you mess up! We didn't go fast but both Shaw and I got in a great groove and rode a few crazy sections which really we shouldn't have! But we were in the zone!

After the bridge were I informed Judith that we couldn't have another cup of tea (well we had one an hour before!) you hit estate tracks again. We were all pretty tired and glad of this. Even being mostly flat or gently down hill it still took a while to get to Blair Atholl our next settlement. 

Day 2 we had to do a bigger mileage and we didn't really have a plan of where we would end up or camp so I felt a little pressured. We were all frazzled and Judith bought all of the sausage rolls in the shop in Blair Atholl. I persuaded everyone to buy hot food at a fish and chip shop/pizzeria before we moved on and this was a good call as it picked up all of our moods I think, even if it was going dark as we left with no real plan and no bike lights!

The Cairngorm project - Glenmore to Braemar

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...