Gold For St. Margaret's And Albyn

Alison checking her bike at the beginning of the cycle on Friday with our 4 day exped bags

Working for Alison Culshaw and Gold-Expeditions.com

Read Alison's exped write up HERE. 

On Thursday Alison and I met up with the prepared teams of students from St. Margaret's School for Girls and Albyn School - from Aberdeen. Everybody had exactly the right stuff from the kit list - the most serious omission being batteries! Lots of their food looked better than mine - my menu for the 4 days seemed basic by comparison - but at least it was light (ish).

Day 1 for the groups took them all down the side of Loch Ericht from Dalwhinnie. One group (Anna, Katie, Zoe, Amelia, Sarah and Pippa) managed to walk the entire 24km from our start point in Dalwhinnie to the Ben Alder Lodge campsite. I managed to cycle part of this - strategically leaving my bike part way - to pick up on Sunday. Day 2 saw groups doing various routes. I was supervising Anna's group mentioned above as they tackled the munro west of Ben Alder cottage - Sgor Gaibhre (955m). They didn't quite tick it off unfortunately due to strong winds, poor visibility, bog, and apparently sore muscles from their 24km the previous day.

Day 3 took the groups through or around the Ben Alder hills, past Culra Lodge and past Loch Pattack. All the groups had a good day getting to their wild camps in good time. I was supervising Anna's group again, and it was my chance to witness how fast they can move. At one point I witnessed them running down a hill (proud owner of new binoculars), apart from Amelia with a hip injury, so she was merely jogging!

I got to Culra Lodge and made some tea. in the process of unpacking and repacking my bag - I managed to leave my Berghaus Ignite jacket in the Lodge. Luckily for me the Kinross High School staff (thank you Ewan) were based there, so later the next day, they rescued the jacket and got it to the road. I'm hoping they will be able to send it to me - otherwise it was an expensive mistake on my part!

Day 4 took the groups either over or around the hills blocking access to the A86, and thus the end of their expedition. I met the groups who chose to pass through the bealach giving them access to Lochan na h-Earba - both groups were moving at a great pace. The bog (with hidden holes) on the hill descent did see many people take various tumbles but all emerged unscathed at the other end smiling. However one particular hole caused me to disappear and lose my sunglasses casually perched on my head. So, I can tell you what square km they are in if you want to go look!

So, another successful Gold Assessed exped comes to an end with a batch of happy tired candidates (with assorted requisite blisters, sore hips, ankles and shoulders) - Ellie, Meggie, Grace, Victoria, Maddie, Rona, Sandy, Anna, Katie, Zoe, Amelia, Sarah, Pippa, Tom, Mayon, Luke, Malcolm, Dan and Christy. Congratulations to all.

Ben Alder Cottage and the funky bridge over the high stream

Our group crossing the bridge (is that a ghost on the RHS - or somebody jumping a stream!)

Looking down on the Ben Alder Lodge beach - a pretty good camp spot - but a little busy!

Anna, Katie, Zoe, Amelia, Sarah and Pippa walking past Culra Lodge on Day 3 (Sunday)

Culra Lodge - where I stopped to have a cup of tea - very English!

Looking back at Ben Alder

Some other groups had left their tents outside Culra. We avoided camping at Culra, because we had intel that it was a very busy place on the Fri and Sat nights in particular.

Alison walking along the Loch Pattack Shore

Ellie, Meggie, Grace, Victoria, Maddie, Rona and Sandy with only 3km to go before their day 3 is over - still in good spirits

The morning of day 4 (Monday) - this was my view over Lochan na h-Earba, at the base of Binnean Shuas

I spent some time on this beach trying to get photos to capture the great light of the early morning dawn

Tom, Mayon, Luke, Malcolm, Dan and Christy on their way down off their final hill of day 4 (Monday) - with only 3.5hours left to walk to the end.

Ellie, Meggie, Grace, Victoria, Maddie, Rona and Sandy head off the top of their final hill on Monday - all downhill now to the end

Sandy, Ellie, Maddie, Meggie, Grace, Victoria and Rona taking a momentary rest before powering to the end

Grace's classic rucksac that has seen her seccessfully through her practice Gold and her Qualifying Gold expeds