Sunday 11 May 2024
Handily scheduled just when I could use my parents’ caravan, I spent a late night chasing aurora around highland Perthshire I met up with Marek, Lubi and their friends in the top car park for Ben Vrackie, unfortunately a communication mishap resulted in us missing Christina who had trained it up and was waiting patiently for us in the lower car park.
With stunning weather the paths were busy all the way to the top which was probably the most popular lunch venue of the day. We looked across to Beinn a’ Ghlo where Dave had not long sent a summit selfie from but it was a bit too far to make out even with a long zoom camera. At this point we realized the comms error with Christina who had messaged just after we had set off and we sent a selfie for id purposes incase we crossed paths as we descended however opting to go round the loch and onto the bealach path at the killiecrankie end we didn’t.
The others had time pressure of a Eurovision party to get to so we parted at the top for the final descent where I opted to take a leisurely rest at the view point above the forest to finish my lunch before returning to the caravan as I needed a shower and to top up the electric. When I got back to Pitlochry finding a parking space proved difficult and I eventually found both the Beinn a’ Ghlo group and Christina in the pub before we headed for dinner at the Prince of India.
A cracking day out nicely tied up with a light show.
- Report by Niall
A sleepy start might be expected when driving early from Dundee to start the walk, but the most spectacular display of the Aurora Borealis for 20 years led to some particularly bleary eyes on the journey over to North Perthshire. Earlier in the week there had been a discussion on the relative merits of cool and comfortable vs tick-free legs as the Scottish summer kicked into gear. A helpful breeze on the summit ridges allowed most to stick to their guns when it came to their choice of trousers or shorts.
One group headed for the moors above Blair Atholl and a traverse of Beinn a’ Ghlo. Actually a range of 3 mountains with several paths up the flanks, an initial group of 7 managed to have a range of days on the range, bagging 1, 2 or 3 of the Munros. Martim was able to find a solid 3 of the 4 geochaches on the route, and Simon’s mascots had the chance to make multiple appearances with all those Munros to bag.
Most of us reunited with the Ben Vrackie group for a round of thirst-quenching in a likely Pitlochry beer garden, before going for a big curry to round off a grand day out in the southeast highlands!
- Report by Patrick Sugden
