Day - 13 Wednesday. Downhill.
I got up at 7:45. I had woken at six, but it had been very cold and I’d just pulled the hood of my sleeping bag tight over my head and gone back to sleep. I had muesli for breakfast, and then noticing that I had four packets of custard powder left, and only two days to eat them in, I had one of them. I wish I could say that it’s been my breakfast of choice ever since, but it was only a short lived habit.
There was nothing original about today’s planned route. The previous few days would have seen dozens of Challengers making their way over the hill into Glen Lee and following the glen down to spend the night in Tarfside, and I was about to follow them, but as I was a few km ahead of my schedule I might push on a bit further and see if I could get within striking distance of Johnshaven.
I followed the path up the stream, and then, tending towards the south, headed across the dried up peat hags to the Water of Mark, only to find myself further upstream than the Shielin of Mark which I’d particularly wanted to see. Yes, I am a hopeless navigator, but my excuse is that I saw and photographed an eagle which appeared to have an aerial on its back. Radio controlled?
I followed the Water of Mark upstream for a way and then struck off across more peat hags to join the track in Glen Lee. It seemed to me that this was an important moment – surely it was more or less all downhill from here - so I stopped for a snack and then set off down the track, which seemed to have an extraordinary number of dead frogs or toads on it, it was hard to tell. There was even a dead adder. It was sunny now, but there had been a flurry of snow/hail back on the tops.
At the head of Loch Lee I met my last years route and it seemed like a good time – 1:20 - to have lunch – bread rolls and cheese with a few nuts.
I got to Tarfside at 3pm and phoned Challenge Control for the last time. I decided to push onto the Retreat for something to eat rather than go into St Drostran’s, and remembering Humphrey having his dinner there at 4pm last year I did the same and had steak pie, chips and peas.
I was now well placed to get to Johnshaven tomorrow evening and wondered if I should head into the hills north of Glen Esk and wild camp, or keep on down the road and camp at the Glenesk Campsite. I decided to walk down the road to the place where I would turn off into the hills if I was going to, and see how I felt then. When I got to the turning into the hills it was pouring with rain, so I continued down the road to the campsite which I got to at 7:30.
Day 14 Intro