On-call Olympic duty has played havoc with my summer plans and I had been limited to quick sorties here and there. In fact, I hadn't had a wild camp for over a year. My initial plans to tackle the troublesome 2, Sgarsoch and Fhidleir were massively in disarray when I crawled into Braemar at 1700 with a kaput VW. Not impressed especially considering the car was only 5 months old. 2 hours later and a manny fae Huntly came to fix it - simply a loose lead, which was connected and I was good to go. At 1915, I would maybe have a couple of hours walking and from Linn of Dee, I didn't think I'd get near the two hills and have a smooth walk back out the day after. I therefore decided to take things a little easier and catch a sunrise from Sgor Mor.Now, there have been some fantastic trip reports from this Corbett, notable Alastair S and Kinley's. Any hopes of replicating their magnificent vista were kicked into touch when the heavens opened, just as I arrived at the Linn of Dee. The laws of physics suggest that all that rain should crush midges to the ground but somehow, they appear to hover mystically in between, while voraciously descending upon me. They didn't even let me get changed properly and I must have been parked and walking within 2 minutes. I decided to plunge through deep heather and get to high ground as fast as possible and the sweat was now mixing with the incessant downpour. This wasn't the night of relaxation I had envisaged. No matter, I ploughed on and it was incredible how quickly darkness fell. I decided to set up tent about 3 km from the summit and was delighted to get out of my damp gear and settle into my sleeping bag. My wife laughed at my 'poor me' voice and said she was just having a nice, warm bath. Thanks dear.
I listened to a few tunes and the rain and amazingly slipped off to sleep until 0500. Sometimes you need to go through the s**t to find the good stuff and I was blessed with a cracking sunrise and some unexpected views over to the 'gorms. There were a couple of pools marked into boulders, which were very interesting and it is always good to have a meander over a mountain rather than place the stone on the cairn and return as one arrives. My walk back to the car was very relaxing although I was less impressed with the ever-welcoming insect party which began the exsanguination process at the car. It wasn't the camp or Munro haul I had planned but nonetheless, it was a fantastic experience being out in the hill once again.
