Loading Image...Day 13: Hill of Roughbank Wildcamp to Dunnotar Castle (the end!)
Distance: 17km (170m), total of 292km
Time on trail: 5 hrs
Planned route: map
We had a nice restful night in our riverside camp. Graeme and Marion showed up later and we chatted with them and Stuart. We woke early around 6am and had oatmeal and coffee before breaking camp. We left camp at a record early start of 7:50am joining Graeme and Marion for the walk to our planned finish of Stonehaven.
The weather was nice with no wind and gray skies (no danger of flying sheep today). The Fetteresso is a working Forrest and we soon passed several work crews and logging trucks. Graeme had a cunning plan which would cut down on road walking so we all walked together for the day. The planned route involved following the powerline to reach a LRT which lead out to a road only 2 miles from Stonehaven.
Alas the path didn’t really exist so we hunkered down low and crawled/walked up the hill following a moss encrusted stream bed. Lynn was in the lead and made some sort of victory whipping noise as she found a clearing. Unfortunately the victory was short-lived as the clearing soon gave way to more trees! :(. Graeme moved into pole position and applied an innovative (if somewhat unusual) technique of walking backwards trough the trees. After another 50 feet the forrest ‘birthed Graeme’ shortly followed by me, Lynn and Marion.
The paths from that point were easy to follow an soon after passing the ‘Harlie Bog’ we bumped into Stuart we’d followed the road from our camp. From there the five of us walked the final miles to a lunch spot in Stonehaven where we refueled before stomping out the final mile to the beach. We dipped our feet, gave congrats all round and headed to the pub (after photos) for our congratulatory post TGO pint.
We then took the express bus from Stonehaven which meandered along the coast road into Montrose. After a quick stop for a new toothbrush at Boots we headed to the Park Hotel to
sign out and officially complete our 2011 TGO challenge. Tonight we’ll be visiting our favorite curry spot for a post walk dinner 🙂
Congratulations on the completion of your adventure. You both look great.
Dad
Well done – you made it … again! has been fun listening to your adventures. See you tomorrow, Hels, Mel and Bethany xxxxxx
CONGRATS!! You’re the only people I know who enjoy camping & hiking in the rainy country side. I know there is no way I could have done it with a smile like you guys.
Ever think of doing a 200 mile hike somewhere more tropical?
Congratulations Nige & Lynn, you made it! Well done to both of you.
Well done! I finished in pouring rain at St. Cyrus, which was perhaps an appropriate end to a very wet Challenge but it does look as though you had a better finale. Always a delight to read how others fared on the way; and great to say hello again, even if it was briefly.