dooger.org

[Trail blog is here]

We had a nice lie in this morning since we only have a short hike into Braemar. Breakfast was "self service" bacon, sausage and eggs. Lovely. Packed up our stuff and moved out for a short road walk into Braemar. Lots of folks on this route today with enthusiasm building for what promises to be a very social affair.  While walking along to road we passed by a huge herd of deer on the upper ridge.

We entered the town and soon passed by the Fife Arms which seems like a gathering point for challengers. It’s very hard to pass by the huge bar windows and not be drawn in by folks waving and drinking. Had quite a few jars there and met many other challengers.

Also visited the Hungry Highlander for a lovely lunch of fish and chips.  The fish was so large, I think I could have sailed it across the pacific back to Seattle.

We stayed at the Callater Lodge B&B which was wonderful.  The rooms were large with very comfy bed and sofa so we could spread out with all our stuff.   This was also the spot for food parcel #3 which also made it safe and sound.

We had lots of time free in Braemar so headed into the local hiking store (Braemar Mountain Sports) to see if we could do anything for Lynn’s footwear problems.   Lynn left with a nice shiny pair of TNF Hedgehogs.   The store is wonderful and well worth the visit if you’re passing through.   It was hilarious to see all the Challengers in there replacing broken and worn out kit.   Many kit upgrades were purchased.   The shop owners were pretty smart too, offering free shipping back home for your purchases.  Many challengers took advantage of this to ship back old gear in exchange for new stuff.

Dinner was great at a local cafe I can’t recall the name of.  We also headed out to watch the Bingo Wings play.   Great night overall, lots of catching up with folks we’d seen in the first few days of Challenge including Hamish!

Distance today was a record 6km 🙂 making 179km to date

On to day 10