23rd ANNUAL REUNION: Kirkmichael,
Perth and Kinross, Scotland. Wed. 1st to
Sat. 4th September, 2010
Participants: Eric (Polevault) Scott, Valerie
Scott, Peter (Up the Down) Tolhurst, Antonia Tolhurst, David (Shooting Stick)
Leishman, Stewart (Lightning) Halliday,
George (Munro) Wallace, Valerie Wallace, Verena (Muesli) Petzold, Mike (Mad)
Petzold, Steve (Ballcrusher) Ward, Pauline Ward, Jack (Midnight) Bannister,
Stuart (Socks) Leslie, Rhoda Leslie, Gordon (RSB) Craig, Chris (Pinocchio)
Read, Rupert (West Face) Roschnik.
Organised by Rhoda Leslie and Gordon Craig
Wednesday 1st September: Nineteen members duly pitched up
in Kirkmichael. Most stayed at the
recommended Log Cabin Hotel, other preferred camping or rooms at the
Kirkmichael Hotel or the Strathardle Inn.
For 6 p.m., Rhoda had organised for Martin Robinson, a local
ecologist/botanist, to give us a talk on the countryside, flora and fauna of
the area. Beautiful photos (on his
computer) were unfortunately distorted by the projector linked to it, so that
all the red colours were suppressed and came out green. This did not deter from the quality of the talk. A final shot of a green-breasted robin was
most memorable.
Thursday 2nd September: At 9.30 am, we all assembled
outside the Log cabin. Three walking
groups were constituted, according to the various ambitions: 8 in the "High" group, about 8 in
the "Medium" group and 2-3 for walks in the valley bottom. The weather was pretty good, merely a bit
windy on the exposed ridges.
Friday 3rd
September: Same as the day before.
The AGM was held in the Log Cabin Hotel,
conducted by the Chairman, who kept the meeting to under an hour. Of note that three new office bearers were
elected: Mike (Mad) Petzold as President
(replacing the late Ian Mason), Stuart (Socks) Leslie as Treasurer (replacing
Brian Sayers who wished to hand over the responsibility to somebody else) and
Gordon Benbow as Malawi Liaison Officer (replacing Martin Horrocks). This was followed by a dinner at the Log
Cabin Hotel, after which the other residents were treated to a rendering of all
three verses of the Malawi national anthem.
Saturday
4th September: Members dispersed.
Walking programmes
"High"
group: Peter, David, Stewart, Mike,
Steve, Chris, Gordon, Rupert
This group was ably
led by Gordon, without even a map on the first day! On the Thursday, we drove first to the Glenshee
Ski Centre, from where we climbed four summits, including 3 Munros: Càrn Aosda (917 m, 3008 ft), crossing 2-3
skilift tracks on the way; then The Cairnwell (or An Càrn Bhailg, 933 m, 3061
ft), to which a chairlift – in operation! – took other walkers and mountain
bikers nearly to the top: From here down
and round a deep corrie to an overlook, Càrn nan Sac (920 m) and on to our
third Munro, Càrn a' Gheòidh (975 m, 3199 ft), where we sheltered from the wind
behind a circular wall to have our picnic lunches.
Gordon then suggested
we go on to a small knoll even further from the cars, Càrn a' Chlarsaich, 871
m. Here we split into two groups: Gordon and the other chauffeur, Steve, went
back to the cars, seeing many mountain hares on the way, while the others were
sent down steeply to the south to the Gleann Taitneach valley, where a track
led them to a bridge 6 km further on, near the main road at Spittal of
Glenshee, where the cars were already waiting for them. No incidents, except for two of the party on
this last descent, when one of their legs suddenly disappeared into a deep hole
in the peat, hidden by long grass. No
twisted ankles, however. 17 km (10 ½ m)
total, 645 m up, 960 m down).
On the Friday, Gordon
again took us to near the ski centre. We
started from a car left on the main road about a mile south of the "Snow
Gate" pass. Steeply up some 300 m
to our first objective, Meall Gorm (759 m).
Two of our number bypassed this summit – Lightning was suffering from an
excess of ethylic substances the night before, whereas Mad Mike decided the
first slope was too steep. We all met up
on the path up a peak at 943 m, not yet a Munro, and continued to the main
summit of Creag Leacach (987 m, 3238 ft).
A long stony ridge took us to gentle slopes leading up to Glas Maol
(1068 m, 3504 ft), our highest summit.
Again, we sheltered behind a convenient horseshoe-shaped wall to have
our picnics.
The group split again
shortly after this. Mad Mike decided not
to do the next 3 hours and found his way back to the main road north of the ski
centre by more or less following a ski run.
Gordon, Up the Down and Shooting Stick veered left along a ridge to Sròn
na Gaoithe (814 m), a nice overlook, from where a steep descent took them to
the main road. On the way, they saw a
large herd of red deer. The other four,
following a fast pace set by West Face, soon reached their third and fourth
Munros, Cairn of Claise (1064 m, 3491 ft) and Càrn an Tuirc (1019 m, 3343 ft)
and reached the main road an hour quicker than Gordon had indicated. Their total was 15 ½ km (9 ½ m), 930 m up,
870 m down. Finally, the cars picked
everybody up and we were able to get back to pints, showers, baths, etc and
prepare for the AGM.
"Middle" group: Polevault, Mrs Polevault, Verena Petzold,
Pauline Ward, Antonia Tolhurst, George and Val Wallace, Jack Bannister, Socks
Leslie.
(The
alternative walk)
Day 1
While the
Tigers of the club were burning up the Glenshee hills Polevault led the lesser
mortals on a climb of the Corbett Ben Vrackie (841 m, 2759 ft).
As we were
booting up in the car park a car-load of ladies arrived. At first we thought they were the advanced
guard of the Auchenbogle Ladies Rugby Team, a fearsome bunch of haggis-fed
women who like nothing better than a good scrum with the lads, but fortunately
they were just lady ramblers from Blairgowrie.
The climb
up the Ben was straightforward with a good path to Loch a' Choire, then a slog
up of 341 metres to the summit. On the
way up an elderly gentleman observed Midnight Jack climbing with his heavily
bandaged right knee and thought that Jack had an artificial leg ("if
only" was Jack’s comment!) On
reaching the summit we had views of the surrounding hills and could see as far
as Ben Nevis. As we were having a
leisurely lunch an apparition appeared on the summit; our first thoughts were that it was the
legendary Old Man of Vrackie - but it turned out to be only Socks who had
decided to join us. After a slow descent
we all traipsed back to Kirkmichael to prepare for the evening's festivities.
Day 2
This day
Polevault led a low level walk on the Cateran Trail. This was from Enochdhu on the track which
goes over to Glenshee. Half way up the
track we turned southeast to climb a small hill called Uchd na h-Anaile; then a gradual downhill walk back to Enochdhu
where we crossed the River Ardle and walked the two miles back to
Kirkmichael. The total distance walked
was 10 miles with 350 metres of a climb.
George
Wallace forsook us and toddled off to bag another Corbett ‘Monamenach’ in Glen
Isla
Both days
were very enjoyable with good company.
"Low level" group: Rhoda, Maureen
Rhoda
relates: "On the Thursday Maureen
Wilson and I decided to do part of the Cateran Trail which was one of the walks
I had identified. It was Kirkmichael to
Bridge of Cally. Easy walk of 7 - 8
miles over moorland with many stiles over deer fences and good views of the
surrounding countryside. We saw five red
deer, three with lovely antlers, crossing below us. I thought they were unusually low down but
they obviously knew where they were going.
We ended up at the Bridge of Cally Hotel for a cup of tea and a friend
from Kirkmichael kindly met us and gave us a lift back.
Friday
another friend from Kirkmichael took Maureen and me on a walk starting off with
part of the Cataran Trail from Kirkmichael to Enochdhu (where the others
started). Again about 7 miles across
moors and forest tracks. Superb views
and ending up at the back of the Log Cabin Hotel in time to get ready for the
AGM."
©
WDYFO, 2010