Our next walk at the height of summer proved that global warming is a complete myth. We went down to a place near Tomintoul - further than we had ever been in a single day before. Indeed, at one point it seemed as if we had gone to the very ends of the Earth.
However, we started off in great heart. It was only drizzling at that point and relatively mild. If only we had known then what we knew later.....
We did come across a little bit mud - or gutters - as they no doubt say here, but we did manage to cope admirably..
As always there was a style and these are often where the best photo opportunities arise. Robin has clearly decided that it would be rude to stare at Susan getting her leg over - who says the age of chivalry is dead - what a gentleman.
Once across the style we moved out of the shelter of the trees and on to open moorland and all up hill it was too. Soon Charlie was away, making for the top like a Duracell battery bunny.
The reason for going to the top was to take in the magnificent 360 degree views of the surrounding countryside. And to prove it here are the pictures. You could see 360 degrees, if you could stand in the ferocious wind, that is. What you couldn't do was see any magnificent countryside. The photo below was the view to the south, I think. The next three were north, west and east, possibly in that order!


Soon, in fact very soon, we left the top and went downhill to the trees on the other side as quickly as possible where it was time for lunch. However, before lunch we were treated to the unususal sight of Dave bringing out his radio! Why he had it with him, I do not know, but he did offer a wide range of programmes to us. The thing was the radio is as old as he is so it could only pick up Radio Caroline and the Light Programme.

As you can see some of us had already started eating, mainly to get some sustenance and thereby the possibility of survival. We did rally around for the group photo and here it is. I can't remember who we buried under the stick and the hat, but it is a nice spot. It is a bit of a shame about the little old man bent over his walking stick at the front, though.

After that we started to wend our way downhill and into some better weather and we did finally get some idea of the magnificent views that we would have got from the top, but by then no-one had the inclination to go back up just to check.

Many thanks through chattering teeth to Mac and Janet for arranging this walk - it wasn't their fault that the weather was so bad, nonetheless, they are getting the blame. You could tell how bad things were because at the pub afterwards Bob and Charlie had a cup of hot tea rather than a cold beer. Sharon and Sue had to be carried out to the car to get home, such was their disbelief. Well done to all who survived this one!