Jock's road, four Munros & the old chateau

Declan Lunny is a friend who used to work in Dundee but who moved to Singapore a couple of years back. We had some good mountaineering sessions together before his move (buy him a Guiness and you might be lucky to hear them) and every year we meet up to add a walk. On Saturday Ana and I picked up Declan but also Celine, another friend of ours, and we drove to Glen Clova. We walked up Jock's road...

... to a shelter which is marked on the 1:50,000 OS map. Here is Declan enjoying a well deserved rest.

We left some gear and did four Munros, first Tom Buidhe and Tolmont (Declan shown at the summit of the latter)...

... follwed by Cairn Bannoch and Broad Cairn. Still snow left in the high Cairngorms and happy bunnies on the plateau (spot the bunny on the picture below). A 330 ml Glenmorangie oxygen bottle helped us to cope with the effects of altitude.

We returned to the shelter which we had renamed 'the old chateau' and had a three course dinner. It consisted of Spanish lomo as a starter, pasta with aubergine pesto as a main course and caramel cookies as a desert. This was complemented with a good selection of beers, French wine and the remaining oxygen. Prof. Lunny then gave an account of his harrowing experiences in the most hostile places on Earth. The ladies nearly fainted when hearing of the various acts of gallantry on steep North faces or on the oceans of this planet.

BBC Scotland had heard of the presence of the distinguished Prof. and conducted an inverview in the morning:

We then parted with the bonny place and walked down Jock's road.

HW