Every year we help out with Ballater's Annual Walking Festival in late May/early June. People come from all over to walk in our area. It's a huge thing to organise as each walk needs leaders and helpers and there are about 24 walks in one week. They bring in trained mountain guides for leading any Munro walks, but local walkers lead and help on the moderate and easy walks.
Carole, one of the organisers, had the idea to set up a 'Fast and Furious Friday' walking group to check out all the walks and note any points of difficulty/interest as well as distances and elevations.
We started yesterday with a first walk (moderate) up Peter's Hill. This is a 20km circular walk, with an elevation gain of 600m which I will lead. It starts from the village and goes through moorland and up to the top of Peter's Hill. On the way back, it crosses the Lary burn, so we needed to be sure that the footbridge was still there and passable (it was). Then there follows a 2km section on a quiet country road, before it passes by the ruins of Abergairn Castle and returns to the village.
Closer to the end of the walk, I was chatting with Bill out front. I turned around to check on our fast and furious friends and saw them striding out behind us, with a lovely backdrop. I thought it was worth a snap!
Barney the dog had a great day out, as did his friend Harris, Bill's dog.
Fantastic capture! Proper walking but quite a responsible thing to lead in May. We have a walking week too in Garstang in May but of course nowhere near the scenery you have there. I have been watching the five walks on Skye this week…I thought of you but you would be higher up. Take a Hike.
A big job organising these walks, you are one amazing lady & I so like your narratives.