The 2014 Challenge, day 11: Mar Lodge to Lochcallater Lodge (5)

Shortly before Lochcallater Lodge, there was a wee lochan beside the path which is not shown on the map, so I stopped to take a photograph. It was about the only stop I made on the way up, and I covered the 8 kilometres from Braemar youth hostel to Lochcallater Lodge in 95 minutes - which is pretty good going by anyone's standards. I arrived at 7.55.

Alan and Lucy were already at Lochcallater Lodge, as was Dennis and one or two others. I decided to sleep in the bothy - which I had to myself - so I sorted out my gear, then returned to the lodge to cook my supper. After washing up and putting my supper things away, I brought my head torch into the Lodge and settled in for the evening; and a very pleasant evening it was. When, finally, I decided it was time to head out to bed, I found my head torch inoperable; which was more than a little irksome, given that I had tested it before leaving the bothy and it was fine. I don't know what was wrong with it, but it was completely hors de combat, so I made may way out to the bothy in the dark and settled myself in as best I could.

During the night I heard plenty of evidence of small - and not so small - scurrying beasties; but none of them made their way up onto my sleeping platform. Nonetheless, I should have preferred to have spent the night in the company of fewer mice and rats. Maybe I should have sought a bed in the lodge after all.