The Cateran Trail: Day 2 ~ Kirkmichael to Spittal of Glenshee

I asked for porridge.
There wasn't any: How poo is that?

The Pine Tree Lodge Breakfast View
It didn't really make up for there being no porridge :-(

At least the view from the breakfast table was nice :-)

Today's leg was only 8.5 miles, & the 1st bit (once we were out of Kirkmichael) was through some awesome woods.
I love walking in woods :-D

Hazel in Kindrogan Wood

We came out of the woods going downhill & passed this lovely house.
What a great place to live!
Next up was Enochdu.
The Cateran Trail bumf says this means Black (that's the Dhu bit) Meadow or Moor.
It's a tiny place where the Cateran Trail crosses the A924, & then heads up to the edge of the Dirnanean Estate, through Calamanach Wood & up over to Spittal.

But I'm getting ahead.

Having crossed the road, we moseyed onwards & upwards ~ in the bloody rain again :-(, curved R then L through the (very smelly) Dirnanean Home Farm, & continued upwards & onwards.

This is a pic of a couple of rocks at the Enochdhu side of Home Farm that looked like a tortoise.
It did!
Honest!

Then we left the farmland behind & walked quite a way through Calamanach Wood ~ mostly conifers, before hitting open moorland.
In the wood there were a lot of hides: presumably where peeps who shot things hid.
John & I had a pee in one*, but don't tell anyone.
* Not at the same time!

John's Rule10 Hide is just out of shot to the L

There were also a couple of guys ahead of us we'd been seeing at various distances all morning. More of them later.

As usual, I was walking more quickly, so I kept stopping in the wood to look & listen, & I caught a few glimpses of wildlife. No golden eagles, sadly, but deer, various birds, & a stoat.

Once out of Calamanach Wood the moorland felt really remote, &, as the rain had stopped, I didn't need to keep my head down & so could look about.

John walks ahead

While I was on my own I had a sing.
Maybe that's what brought the rain on again? ;-p

After a bit I held back for Hazel, & John walked ahead.

The trail is that green bit on the left, just above 1/2 way up the pic above

John walks even further ahead

You can see the green of the trail meandering like an eel up towards the lump & slightly L of centre.







This was a nice little linn & I refilled my water bottle.

It was in the little pool next to that clump of heather on the L. I think H&J thought I was bonkers, but that's nothing new!

Shortly after that we reached the Upper Lunch Hut and had lunch there. 
Allegedly, in 1865, Queen Victoria did as well.

The 2 blokes had got there before us & we had a little chat with them. John discussed routes, & it was a bit like, "You show me your map, & I'll show you mine" ;-p

Then it started to rain again & we went inside.
The blokes left anyway, but we decided to wait a bit. 
It wasn't like we had miles to go today.

And it did stop, so off we went,
Happily, after all this time blogging, I've just discovered how to make the pics bigger! Now you can see the roof of the Upper Lunch Hut about level with Hazel's head by an S-shaped green bit. 
Click on it & it'll get even bigger.
Ain't teknologgy wunnerful :-)

 

It wasn't long before the rain began again, though :-(







& it rained all the way up to the highest point of the trail at the Lairig Gate at 2130'.





There's a pic of the gate below, but meanwhile, here are some views of John, Hazel & the moor in the rain!

That's John. I don't know where Hazel was?

Cateran Trail Marker

The one we were following was on the other side & pointed up the hill to the gate.

Like this one

Hazel the crow!
Well, it kept her dry :-)

Top of the shop - The Lairig Gate. But I guess you knew that already?

Our 1st view of Spittal of Glenshee, & our overnight resting place

Once over the top, it was downhill all the way to Spittal. 
According to the Cateran Trail bumf (again), Spittal is old Scots for 'refuge on a remote hill pass', & was created when wolves still roamed the highlands.


The valley in the sunlight off to the left is Glenshee, where there is a little ski resort. It's quite good fun, & although the runs are short compared to the Alps, there's some good gulleys.
I got engaged there in Feb 94 ~ the the top of the Cairnwell Chair in a blizzard!
Qué romántico ;-)

It was very boggy on the way down, & even the tussocks sank into the mud :-/

I obviously thought this moss-covered rock looked like something at the time. It may have been a fish?

I get notions like that! ;-p
It's not as obvious as the tortoise at Home Farm, but it does look a bit like a fish.
One of those ones in Stingray, anyway ;-p

We're nearly at the bottom here, so John took a couple of me crossing a burn.



That's the ski-suit that stopped my bum getting wet on Strathardle.

This little burn, & it's very late trees, looked better in real life.
We had walked down from the top.

This is about a hundred metres above the little pool where I went for a bathe once we'd checked in.
I think J&H had a kip, but as it was sunny & quite warm, I donned the bikini, went across the A93, & bathed my bod in the burn.
It did take quite a few min to get the whole body submerged (it was frikkin' cold), but my feet loved it.
As we had 14.5 miles to walk the next day, I was treating my feet with a bit of TLC ~ well, kinda ;-p

Once back in my room it was still only about 4 ~ we'd got down just after 1/2 past 2, so I went to bed till dinner time.
Boy, was I looking forward to dinner after 2 days on muesli bars, hi-energy bars, & NO PORRIDGE.


Desafortunadamente, there was chef trouble again, & 2 teenagers had been left to feed the guests.
We'd all ordered burgers & chips.
The burgers were all raw in the middle, & the chips were mostly still partially frozen.
We told the lads, & they explained being left in the lurch to do dinner for about 12 guests. 
We were stuck - there wasn't even a shop at Spittal, never mind somewhere else to eat, so we told them to take the burgers away, & thought we'd try the pizza.

Mmmm. Not a cunning plan, Baldrick, but between the edges of the burgers, the 'not quite as frozen as the others' chips, & a partially edible pizza, we were fed ~ kinda!

We had a long walk to Kirkton of Glenisla the next day, so just had one drink (on the house obviously!) before bed.

At least there was porridge to look forward to in the morning :-q

OAO