ACTIVE OUTDOORS: Family walk in Cairngorms fills hearts and bellies
We must have been stood there at least 10 minutes being eaten alive before someone remembered they had midge repellent in their bag.
Although it was a relatively small canister for our group of at least 20, we still tried to make sure everyone got a shot at it.
Mercifully, when the last eight of our party arrived at the rendezvous point, they had two canisters with them. I think someone must have texted one of them because they told me they were grabbed from the car at the last minute.
It was easy to forget that first canister as we were all catching up with each other after some of us hadn’t met up for over a year.
Our annual family walk was later this year. In 2022, we reunited in May, this time it was September. These things always take a lot of organisation with family and friends coming from all directions to descend on the Cairngorms.
It’s a tradition in my wife’s family that dates back at least 30 years. I’ve been part of it for around a dozen years and the only thing you can predict is that it’ll be unpredictable.
One of the elders (or not, if they are reading this!) chooses the route, which is shared with a select few but is usually kept a mystery to youngsters like me. The script is often a long walk followed by a few drinks and a big meal. It tends to be 10 hours or so of laughs and generally catching up while enduring sore legs, blisters and chafing.
We kicked off by meeting most of our troupe in Aviemore, where we caught a bus to Glenmore close to Loch Morlich. It was around 8am and, while I was in just shorts and t-shirt, others had hats, gloves and big coats. As the day went on, I was the only one not carrying one or more garments as the temperature soon rose.
Our destination was revealed as Loch Insh, where the children were promised a go on the dry slopes, adults were promised a beer or two and I was promised as many leftovers as I could eat!
But before we got there, we had the 12-mile trek, which took us until about 4pm.
If you have never done a long walk in a big group, I recommend it. You can get from A to B while having a number of interesting conversations. You can be a pace setter, you can be a tail ender to make sure everyone is fine, or you can ride the wave somewhere in the middle.
If you want to avoid someone, it’s easy. If you want to avoid everyone that’s possible too. Sometimes it can be nice to just take in the scenery.
Our squad was aged from two years old (she only did a fraction of the route, youngest completer was aged six) to mid-70s.
The route was mostly flat with low steady ascents and shallow declines. Terrain was mainly paths, some stonier than others. There was the odd stretch of road, two or three bridges and a stream that was too wide to leap over, so finding the right combo of stepping stones was required.
The walk started by the Hayfield where we went into the forest and followed the trails round the far side of Loch Morlich towards Loch an Eilein.
At Loch an Eilein, we stopped for lunch and the younger members departed the walk. Continuing through the woods by the edge of Loch an Eilein, the glorious weather gave gorgeous views over to the ruins in the middle of Loch an Eilein. This section was quite busy with walkers enjoying the circular route.
We then veered off towards Glenfeshie on easy going forestry tracks. We popped into Jack Drake bothy to have a look and we are sure it would be a welcome shelter on a bad day. We emerged at a Forestry Commission car park just above Feshiebridge. Here we paused to watch a group river tubing. We followed the path by the road and winded our way toward Loch Insh.
It was also a rare opportunity to be off-grid. Any sort of mobile phone reception in the Cairngorms can be hit and miss.
Now it might sound risky being on an unknown route with no way of calling for help if things went sideways but we had back up with a couple of non-walkers aware of how we were getting to where we were going and on standby at a variety of potential pick-up points we either passed through or went close to just in case anyone couldn’t continue. However, we were lucky, apart from our two under-5s and their mother whose departure was planned, we all made it.
When we reached Loch Insh, the sight of the packed beach and watersports was pleasant alongside the satisfaction of finally taking the weight off our feet and offloading our backpacks.
My pea soup and club sandwich was destroyed, while leftovers came thick and fast. We all ended with full bellies and full hearts, looking forward to next time.
Route details
Glenmore to Loch Insh
Distance 20km / 12 miles
Terrain Paths and tracks
Start/finish Hayfield, Glenmore / Loch Insh, Kincraig
Map OS Landranger 36
An annual family get-together leads to a long walk in the Cairngorms
