Today’s walk is the last of our 9:00 am starts until our walk in November. We had 27 walkers on the bus as we headed up Deeside to our starting point at Keiloch, stopping at Ballater on the way for a comfort break.
We arrived at Keiloch just after 11:00 am where 26 walkers alighted with 1 walker remaining to explore the area around Crathie & Balmoral Castle grounds. We all walked together for the first few kilometres until the junction where 20 left the main track to take on the longer walk whilst the remaining 6 followed tracks close to the River Dee & continuing onwards to Crathie car park.
The group of 20 took the detour to the waterfall & the green, metal footbridge overlooking the Garbh Allt. The detour was worth it as the falls were in full glory due to recent rain. Soon after the waterfalls the group left the main track to follow an overgrown, muddy, single track with an interesting crossing of a tributary of the Garbh Allt where stepping stones had to be used as the footbridge indicated on the OS map was no longer there! The group visited the Gelder Shiel bothy & Prince Albert’s cairn & Princess Beatrice’s cairn before returning to Crathie car park. Two large birds of prey were seen high in the sky above the track from Gelder Shiel & the general consensus was that they were golden eagles.
Several walkers had time to spare so paid a visit to the castle grounds & some others returned to Crathie via the white suspension bridge. This had been closed for some time so glad to see it in use again.
One thing we learned today was not to believe everything in the weather forecasts. No rain was predicted for the Crathie area but we did experience a few light showers although this did not dampen our spirits as everyone enjoyed their day out.
The bus departed Crathie around 4:30 as planned & we had a 30 minute stop at Ballater before heading for Aberdeen. Our driver, Heather, got us back on time at around 6:30 pm.
Gilbert