First of all, a warm welcome to some new members on this meet- Dianne Watters and Rob and Annika Acheson.

This venue was a first for a bus meet – Glen Dye, with the intention of tackling Clachnaben and Mount Battock. 21 members on the bus, with various pick up points – Inverness, Forres, Elgin, Lhanbryde, Keith and Huntly (is this another first for the club?).

Despite the mid-week weather forecast of a hurricane storm hitting Scotland on Sunday – a last minute change to the weather forecast on Friday meant that we had glorious sunshine all day!

After a long bus drive, along some winding country roads, most of the members were feeling a little motion sick. So, when the bus arrived at the Glen Dye car park there was a speedy exit and a quick start along the forest track. Unfortunately, I still had to put my boots on and got left behind quite quickly. No matter, this was my first outing since the December 2016 bus meet and I had only planned to tackle Clachnaben. I met up with 2 members, Andy and Lianne at the top of Clachnaben and they were planning on going along towards Mount Battock and turning back down the glen. As it transpired, Lianne had a change of mind and continued to the distant Mount Battock. Anyway, some really great views of Aberdeenshire from the top of this little hill, and a welcome little scramble over the granite tor.

The main group were traveling at quite a speed, to ensure that they got back to the bus on time! However, there was still time to enjoy a refreshment stop at some of the deluxe estate bothies on the moorland. There was the option on the return leg to cut down to Glen Dye but – the wind dropped and the midges came out with a vengeance! So, everyone came back via Clachnaben. In all, the round trip took about 6.5 to 7 hours.

All in all a good walk in remote countryside – except for the grouse butts and windfarms. The upland track and their effect on the environment, and the prospect of even more windfarms, were the topic of much debate on the return journey (as well as on social media).

The last hurdle to surmount was finding a pub on the way home for a well-deserved refreshment stop. I had been unable to contact any hotels/public house prior to the meeting and was working on some old memories that there were several hostelries on the Aboyne to Banchory road. However, it would appear that most of these are now closed or have been converted to B&B’s. Eventually, we found a rather nice pub in Alford.

Unfortunately, being “tail-end Charlie”, I was unable to get photos of the members on this trip. If you want to see some better photos and descriptions then check out the clubs Facebook page and Heavy’s WordPress blog.

One final point of note, the bus cost a bit more this time because we were charged for an additional driver. Is it worth paying for an additional driver so the we can go further afield (Glen Coe, Glen Nevis) in the future? Note that paying more for the bus means that we need more members to attend to make it financially viable.