24 intrepid walkers left Aberdeen’s grey damp weather today bound for the hills but with the promise that the weather would get better as we drove into upper Donside. We stopped in Alford for a 15 minute toilet break and then made our way through the picturesque Don valley to Tomintoul after dropping a group of 3 who wanted to do the Brown Cow Hill via Corgarff Castle. The walk proper then started from the southern end of Tomintoul and followed the road on the eastern side of the very pretty Strath Avon passing below the Queen’s Cairn for 5km until the route took us up the Burn of the Little Fergie. This is a valley that opened out onto some high ground north of Inchrory and as we crested the top of the slope the sun came out and stayed with us for the rest of the day.The path then took us into the most interesting part of the walk today when we entered the Eag which was a steep sided ancient glacial river route, fortunately today it was very dry and a pleasure to walk through .We emerged on the southern slopes of Craig Veann above the Feith Bhait valley which becomes the young River Don and soon found ourselves on the road to Cock Bridge where the bus was sitting outside the local pub and as we awaited our 3 Corgarff explorers everybody else had some cold drinks and told tales of another great day in the hills. Tork