Monday 5^th May, Glenmore – Strath Nethy – Loch Avon – Fords of Avon (11.6 miles)

 After a rather poor breakfast of Cornflakes/shortbread/tea/”orange juice”, the sleeper arrived exactly on time at Aviemore. My taxi was waiting outside. When I told the driver my plans, he said “I hope you have a good book”. I don’t usually bother with a book as I’d rather look at the scenery, even if I have time in the evening.  I arrived at Glenmore YHA just after 8.00, walked down the road and into the forest.

Navigation in the forest was a bit tricky using a 1:50,000 map as the writing obscures some of the paths. I probably didn’t take the most direct route to Strath Nethy. The forest was resplendent with the smell of pine and the chatter of birds. The snow sparkled on the tops and the sky was blue and cloudless. It was a good day to alive.

I took a the wrong fork at one point but soon realised my mistake and it didn’t cost much time. The forest paths are well graded but give way to more rocky ones out of the forest. As the trees thinned, a pleasant breeze became apparent. I arrived at the bridge over the Nethy at around 10.30 and decided to have a second breakfast of banana porridge. I used too much water so it took longer to thicken. As I was having some tea and a fig roll a young girl hiker in red turned up. After exchanging pleasantries she moved to other side of the stream.

I got going again after half an hour and the walk proper started. Lower Strath Nethy is quite boggy, which made for slow progress. At one point I disturbed a grouse, the first wildlife I had seen. The path improves further up the glen, although the rocks made it slow going. I was even slower, as I kept stopping to take photos, but, hey, this might be the only time I’d ever here.

In the early afternoon, the temperature rose to 27c. Little did I know that this would be the norm for the trip. Foolishly I omitted to put some sun cream on and payed the price with sunburn.

The path disappeared as I reached The Saddle for my first glimpse of Loch Avon. The tops around the loch were clothed in white, contrasting with the dark rock of the crags and lower slopes. Wonderful. I took a slightly longer route down by bearing right, rather than left, so I could have a better look. The melting snow made the ground very wet. The path along the loch was hard going with patches of bog. Beyond the loch and on the way to the Fords of Avon, the constant detours became tiring.

I arrived at the Fords of Avon at around 6.00, I now faced a choice: to stop and camp on the only decent piece of grass for miles around or push on down Glen Avon. I was feeling tired so I decided to stop. In retrospect, it was a good decision as the next day revealed that the first decent place to camp was about 2 hours further on.

No-one was in the shelter. I could imagine that the shelter and the ground around it could get busy sometimes, but I had it to myself. There was no incentive to use the shelter rather than my tent as it was gloomy and cramped, so I pitched my Akto.

Going down to the river, where the ford and stepping stones were meant to be, it was clear that it would not be sensible to attempt to cross it on the return journey as I had originally intended, so I had to think about how to vary my route. Going around Loch Avon would have been too arduous, so I decided that I would go through the Lairig Ghru.

 Dinner was some tasteless chicken and noodles, whose only function was to be hot and filling. It was apparent that my arms were quite sunburnt, so I would have to take more care tomorrow. Having said that, the air pressure had dropped appreciably over the last few hours, so perhaps the weather will change. Even though I’d not done huge mileage, I felt very tired.

If you’re going this way: the navigation is straightforward, but conditions underfoot make it quite slow and the path is not always clear. The path from Loch Avon to the Fords of Avon requires a bit of bog hopping. Think very hard before passing up the chance to overnight at the Fords of Avon shelter. The ford may be passable in drier weather but looked dangerous to me. The alternative of going round the loch looks hard going and makes a long detour.

On to day 2