We had 27 walkers on the bus for today’s outing, picking up a few on the way to Forres via the A96. There was a comfort stop at Keith (Fife Keith) on the way to our starting point near Loch of Blairs on the A940.
All 27 walkers disembarked at the starting point & we started the walk around 10:30 a.m. The weather was slightly chilly but dry to begin with but got sunnier & warmer as the day wore on. It was ironic that the Club had just had a training session on compass & navigational skills earlier in the week as these were well tested on this walk. The route today was tricky as there were many paths in the woods & it was important to make the correct choice. The trickiest part of the walk was near the finish where the track was well hidden & obviously had not been in use for many years. Some walkers did not find the path at the end & had to blaze their own trail to the finish at Branchill. It was said that one walker had to be extricated from a muddy hole (this conjures up images from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s story set in the boggy lands of Dartmoor where Sherlock Holmes & Dr Watson are investigating a mystery in ” The Hound of The Baskervilles” ) whilst another was unduly delayed due to the difficult terrain at the end of the walk.
All walkers agreed it was an interesting day with great weather although we had expected to be back early to the bus. As it turned out we did not have the usual pub stop & departed for Aberdeen around 5:00 p.m. arriving at the Duthie Park just after 7:00 p.m.
Gilbert