I love the 8 mile run around the Loch, dodging streams and jumping stones and then under the glaring sun along the track on the northern side. Today Husband was running from there up to Loch Nagar and over to Balmoral which we reckoned gave me about 3 hours to go for a walk, have a picnic lunch and then drive round to fetch him.
I didn't want to go up towards Loch Nagar myself as I wanted to be able to keep the Loch in view, so headed off along the southern track. Before long I saw a tempting sign: Glen Clova via Capel Mounth. The track headed upwards, which appealed, but also kept the Loch in view as far as I could see. Up I headed!
As I walked I wondered if this was a very ancient track, one of the many routes which led across the various hills and mountains surrounding the Loch and over into the Cairngorms, Glen Muick apparently being the 16th and 17th century equivalent of a motorway service station. I wondered about the travellers who had passed that way: what their thoughts were; how far they were going; whether they were lucky enough to be on horseback or were walking.
It was one of those tracks where you think that at any minute you're going to be at the top, only to find when you get there that it turns a bend and there's another 'summit' which needs to be conquered. I carried on walking upwards, finally out of view of the Loch, for 50 minutes or so until I came to a 't' junction. By then it was about time for lunch and to turn around, but I stopped to admire the view. Chocolate brown hills all around as far as the eye could see and not a soul in sight. Blue sky above with the desirable fluffy white clouds of postcard photography. Patches of snow up on the summits opposite. And in the background, the sound of a rust-coloured stream but otherwise not a murmur. Maybe it was the pregnancy hormones but tears came into my eyes and all I could think to do was look to the heavens and say 'thank you God, for our world - and sorry we're making such a mess of it'.
I hasten to add, for anyone who feels uncomfortable reading those words, that I am not a deeply religious person, not in the going-to-church sense anyway. But I have always felt a somewhat pantheistic love of nature, and being up there near the top of a hill with nothing man-made within sight, my emotions aroused, God of some description seemed the person to talk to.
I started to retrace my steps and lunched within view of the Loch. Somewhat further down I came across a walker admiring the view, and stopped for a brief chat. He had walked over 'from the other side' and passed Running Husband on the way. It was a pleasant encounter: he had a face which reminded me of the Toy Maker in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and (and this is not intended to sound the slightest bit critical or mocking) would not have looked out of place in lederhosen: a kindly face which made me think he must have a happy life walking up over the hills and seeing fantastic views. There's something therapeutic about having such scenery to yourself, especially on a glorious today like today.
I got back to the car, gave two walkers a lift into Ballater, and arrived at Balmoral at precisely the pre-arranged time of 3:10: only to find SuperFit Husband had arrived about half an hour earlier, to his surprise as well as mine. And now we're about to be served paella for tea - yum yum!
I particularly enjoyed reading this. I love the way that the enthusiasm for our mainland natural environment rolls off your keyboard. Also the balance between appreciating good aloneness (and the goodness in being alone) alongside good companionship. Well balanced from dodging streams and jumping stones to arriving at agreed rendezvous at agreed time.
ReplyDelete