Ben Gulabin...and scoping Monamenach

Back to the car and after a drive round the eerily quiet Braemar I headd back down Glen Shee and parked off the road just north of the Spittal of Glenshee. The guidebook says to park by a gate at the second sign warning of bends in the road to climb Ben Gulabin

Through the gate there is a good track which according to the guidebook would go as far as the col between Gulabin and Creagan Bheithe after which I would take to the hillside up a grassy strip opposite an old hut.....

In the event, at the col the track went on for another mile or so....and there was also a dirty great and ugly bulldozed track right up almost to the top of Gulabin.

Oh well.

Trudged up that and got to the top in about 45 minutes greeted by nice views and darkening skies as the rain advanced from the west. Over to the west I could see Ben Tuliachean and down below was the Dalmunzie hotel where we'd had a drink after those hills a few years ago. Glen Shee itself was a huge trench better and different form this angle, with motorbikes accelerating up its bends every few minutes.

Back down the way I'd come....the toe was still sore....but I was walking ok.

I had initially planned 3 hills today - I was to finish on Monamenach. Another short hillwalk frmo nearby Glen Isla. I drove to the bottom...had a scout around the route...but couldn't be bothered. It can wait.

The east of the country is strange. I rarely think of going there....but I like it when I do go. It doesn' have the ruggedness and the jagged ridges of the west but it has big open spaces, trees and a sense of openness.

Back home I took my sock off .... was shocked at the bruising and was encouraged to go for an X ray....