We had 27 walkers out today which was down a few from the original 31 who had booked this walk.
The bus picked up a few walkers along the A96 en route to the main start point at Colpy. 23 walkers disembarked here to commence the longer walk, just as some light rain started to fall.
The bus continued on to the forest car park at Gartly Moor where 3 walkers got off to commence the shorter walk to Gartly. 1 person stayed on the bus until it reached our finishing point at Gartly.
The weather forecast for the day was not great – predicting light rain, moderate breeze, sunny spells & temperatures ranging from 6 to 8 deg. C but feeling much lower due to the wind chill factor. However, the rain was very light & only for short spells & the sun was out for most of the day resulting in good visibility which meant walkers enjoyed great views of the surrounding area when on the top of Hill of Foudland. The group on the shorter walk did not feel the brisk breeze most of the time as they were sheltered by the trees in the forest at Gartly Moor.
Progress on both walks was good until they reached the exit from the forest track at the “rusty gate” (Grid Ref. 548 320) which gave access to the planned route which entered the Glen of Cults. The group of 3 walkers reached this point first & soon realised that the planned route ahead was completely overgrown with trees & gorse etc which were not there last time the club carried out this walk. This group decided to change their plans & took the good track off to the left (West) & headed uphill on a parallel route towards Pundler. At Grid Ref. 540 311 there is a narrow track heading off right which doubles back in a North Easterly direction before turning left & heading South Westerly & parallel to the original planned route. The group of 3 decided to struggle their way through the thick gorse to gain the original route but 1 person came to grief as they slipped & fell headlong into the prickly gorse & couldn’t get up without some assistance from the others.
Information was passed back from the small group to several members of the larger group who were following about the perils lurking behind the “rusty gate” route. Some took this advice & changed their route whilst others bravely decided (or perhaps were not aware) to adhere to the planned route.
All walkers were back at the bus on time for the 3:30 pm departure time. Sadly, much to the chagrin of many, the ice cream van wasn’t present at Gartly as he had been on several previous walks, so no sliders or cones consumed today – at least not in Gartly anyway! Everyone enjoyed their day out despite the challenging nature of the “rusty gate” route. After a short discussion with all walkers it was decided not to have a comfort stop but instead to head straight home & our driver Kyle got us back to Aberdeen around 5:00 pm which was 30 mins before schedule.
Gilbert