Or ehm......hillwalkers then. After a trip to the local outdoor stockists to get some last minute stuff, we set of from Keig with the intenton of being at Linn of Dee car park for NO LATER than 5.30pm. Hmmm, so why then did we not arrive until 6.30? Well who put a darn good climbing shop right in the middle of Ballater where you just CAN'T resist having a look in by for 5 minutes?! That plus the fact that, unfortunately there was a wee accident on the road between Ballater and Braemar which meant that we had to turn back and take the very windy and time consuming South Deeside Road.

But we got there in the end and (despite the fact that after looking at the weather data from the Cairngorm station earlier on that morning which recorded 75mph winds and cloudbase at 2ft, I nearly called it off) the weather was actually perfect. Cool, with a slight breeze - perfect weather for a walk in! We set off along the now very familiar track to Bob Scotts (bothy) and up towards the footbridge at the bottom of Glen Luibeg. Pretty easy going despite the fact that its now the Cairngorm version of the M5. Darkness fell as we were walking round the foot of Cairn a Mhaim so we donned our headtorches and carried on along the path which had by now disintegtrated into a rocky burn. After a while we started seeing the wee lights of tents under the shadow that was Devils point - and started down towards the river and the bothy accompanied by the thunderstorm which was approaching fast. A tricky peat bog later, we arrived at Corrour Bothy about 10pm just in time to pitch the tent before the storm hit and the heavens opened. It was a fantastic display but only lasted for about an hour or so by which time we had drunk 2 bottles of wine, I'd eaten a tin of dog food (it said stewing steak on the tin and I'd taken it along as my one luxury item weight wise, but it sure as hell didnt taste like it) and were ready to call it a night (well, early morning)

Up at 5am, stuck my head out the tent and before I even opened my eyes, 900 million bloody midgies descended and started breakfasting on my face! It wasnt even light! Not the best way to start a day, so we quickly brewed and grabbed something to eat etc before setting off up Coire Odhar towards Devils Point (Bod an Deamhain). In case you didnt know, Bod an Deamhain actually means 'penis of the demon' and it is alleged that Queen Victoria, after seeing its startling silhouette, asked her ghillie what the name of the mountain was, and the ghillie, being quite sure that she would be affronted with the literal translation, replied with the name it is now more commonly known as. Personally, I think there should be a campaign mounted to have the Ordnance Survey revert to its original meaning!

Anyhow, back to the story in hand - we reached the summit about 3/4 of an hour after leaving the tents. Its a boulder field most of the way up, as a lot of the Cairngorms are, but quite easy to walk on and not that steep. Absolutely stunning views down into Glen Geusachan, up the Lairig Ghru, Ben Macdhui and across to the near side of Cairn Toul. More wildlife at high levels - deer and ptarmigan but no lemmings this time (see macdhui walk for explanation) We dropped down amongst the boulders about 100ft below the summit and had some breakfast before crossing back across the head of Corrie Odhar and up to Cairn Toul.

We had planned to do a lot more, but the weather was closing in fast - cloud base at 2000ft and some nasty looking storms on the horizon so we decided to drop down to the bothy and start packing up the tent etc. The midgies were now out in full force and packing up took twice as long because I could only stand being outside for 2 minutes before they became unbearable - so it was a case of running out of the bothy, grabbing an armful of gear and running back inside, then doing all the packing in the bothy. A really friendly Austrian bloke arrived as we were packing and he obliged us by taking some final photos of us with our camera for posterity.

About 3pm we set off for the hike back to the car park. The weather was fine again, a wee bit of rain for a while and a few claps of thunder, but really good to walk in and we stopped quite a few times to brew up and take in the last bit of scenery. We were back at the car park by 6.30pm and back home by 8pm.

All in all it was a really good weekend - I wish we could have done more, but hey it gives me a good excuse to go back to Corrour again - like I need one?