2018 TGO Challenge Day 11

TGO Challenge Day 11

Ballater to Loch of Aboyne - 13 miles
 Total Trip Miles: 148.1

Monday, May 21st, 2018

Day 11 part 1

Day 11 part 2

Ava was rejoining the group for the final days of our crossing, it was nice to have another personality injected back into the group.  Also, I was getting tired of calling Kenny a knob for her all the time.  

We reluctantly left the cottage for our day's walk, which would be entirely on the Deeside way.  The pluses to this were that we could make good time and also that it was a well-established, marked path, so no real navigating.  

Once we got out of town we went through some farmland.  It was actually quite warm in the sun...is this really Scotland??  Other than an afternoon and a morning it had been mostly sunny for the entire challenge so far!

Kenny and Ava leading the way!

Damaged bridge

Closer picture of the damage to the bridge caused by the flooding in Jan 2016

We were cruising pretty well.  The Deeside way runs pretty close to the A93 for this entire section to Loch of Aboyne so we were never too far from civilization.  We knew there was a hotel along the way, and were hoping to stop in for lunch.  They were doing lunch and had a nice outdoor area.  There was 6 or 7 other challengers there already when we arrived.

The boys at lunch

The girls at lunch

 The food was good but it was kind of pricey (and the manager was not the nicest fellow)

Lunch

A pint with lunch

Leslie accidently ordered bottled water when she wanted tap water.  The waiter didn't bring me the tap water I ordered, so we drank the bottle figuring it wouldn't cost that much, but when we got the bill it was £6 (a little under $8).

Expensive water

We continued on after lunch; me mildly annoyed at the cost of the water and Leslie being angry about the manager.  later in the afternoon we passed a glider plane training school and saw a bunch of gliders in the air.  We stopped for a snack at an observation point that had some picnic benches.  Leslie managed to get a video of one of the gliders landing.

Gliders

We stopped to buy some ice cream in Aboyne, because why not?  We sat out front of the little general store and ate for a bit.  We had less than 2km to go to get to the campsite, which was out of town past the golf course.  

We arrived, set up, all showered (separately) and cooked dinner together under the little pavilion.  It got cold pretty quick so we all retreated to our tents after dinner.