We had a good turn out of 24 walkers, including some newcomers, for our trip up Deeside to the small hamlet of Inverey. After a couple of pickups on route and a short comfort stop at Ballater we arrived at our walk start point at around 10.15am.
The weather though dull and overcast in Aberdeen changed to bright sunshine and clear blue skies as the main group of 17 set off up the Allt Christie Beag burn towards the ridge leading to Geal Charn and eventually the main summit of Carn Bhac. A further 4 walkers also headed in this direction but instead turned northwards at the bealach to climb to the summit of Carn Liath before continuing along this ridge.
Meantime the remaining group of 3 walkers set off along the track up Glen Ey to reach the lonely ruin of Altanour, some 5 miles distant.
For those on the summits ,the views were spectacular and clear, looking south westwards to Beinn A’ Ghlo and north to the vast wilderness of the Cairngorms stretching from Ben Avon and Beinn A’Bhuird in the east to Cairngorm, Ben Macdui and Braeriach in the west.
A walker was lucky enough to see an adder on the Glen Ey track.
After a good day all arrived safely back at the bus in advance of the original time which allowed a short pub stop in Ballater before Kyle our driver had us back in Aberdeen ahead of schedule around 7.30pm.
We all enjoyed a good clear, sunny day with spectacular all round views.
Frank
