Lairig Ghru & Lairig an Laoigh

Bet you can’t pronounce that correctly :) Basically, these are the two mountain passes that connect Braemar to Aviemore in the Cairngorms. Having done masses of hill-walking and scrambling all around that area, I’ve always wanted to ‘connect the dots’ and complete these two walks which are both 22-25 miles in length. I started at Linn of Dee - just me, my mp3 player, boots & backpack! I had 2 days of fantastic weather and superb views, and despite being by myself I thoroughly enjoyed the trip.







Apart from having to completely strap both feet to pad out the developing blisters, and the slightly cold camping spot, which I found out later was ~ -10C. I think I might have drifted off for an hour or so, but spent most of the night doing sit-ups, rolling back and forward, stamping my feet and rubbing my hands to try and stay remotely warm… My boots and water bottle were frozen in the morning, and packing up the tent/sleeping bag etc was a serious challenge with hands and feet that I wasn’t sure belonged to me anymore.



Running around my campspot, smacking my gloved hands together and jumping up and down eventually enabled me to pull out the tent pegs, roll up my gear and stamp my feet into my boots to start walking again. At first I felt like I was dragging clubs around on the bottom of my legs, but after half an hour the tears pricking and intense fiery feeling told me my feet were starting to defrost!


Once up on the saddle above Loch Avon and in the sun, it was all far behind me and the rest of the walk/run (walking any declines is just boring!) was really nice. Back to Braemar in plenty of time before going out for a lovely dinner with mum, dad, Gavin & Jen at The Gathering Place for an early birthday dinner.

Saturday was a lazy day – went into Ballater, met the lady who’s doing the bouquets for G&J’s wedding, discussed various other wedding plans, and then I had to head back down the road because I had a coaching course on Sunday at Ratho. Parts of the course were pretty interesting, but probably the best bit was getting to do a bit of bouldering, abseiling and the Ariel Assault Course at the end of the day…fun stuff! My actual birthday (Monday) wasn’t so exciting because I was working all day, but I’d had a really nice few days so can’t complain, and did an extra spin class to celebrate (!)

Click here to see more pictures from my trip!