A day in the hills! Hurrah! 

I'd been chatting virtually to Fi about work - she is the one who currently puts things my way to do, although we've known each other for quite some time. We had a mutual friend in David - I started with him in the department - and she worked with him. In many ways, he sparked her interest in hills when he organised for a few of their team to tackle the Cobbler many years back - maybe 2011?

Anyway, FI has been reinventing herself; since her daughter left home and got a job, she's taken to running (half marathons, mostly) and setting about the Munros. She's currently done 126 of them, mostly in the past 3 years or so. Once we'd finished talking about work, the chat turned to hills, and before too long we'd arranged a wander out in the hills.

We'd exchanged notes on what we both needed and settled on Beinn Bhreac and Beinn a Chaorhain as a possible target. The forecast was acceptable, so I met her at St Leonard's police station at 0530 (I know!) and off we went. 

From Linn of Dee (just after 8) we set off up the road to the Derry Lodge, cloud low over the hills and intermittent drizzle as we rolled on through the heather and Scots Pine. For someone who's only lived in the heart of the city, I think she's still trying to get to grips with the countryside; she's often on guided walks and I'm keen to show her she's well enough equipped to deal with a day out; and with some practice she'll manage just fine.

From the lodge, we head north and then NE up onto a claggy Beinn Bhreac; a man from Ayr was having a sneaky piece as we crept up through the gloom on him.

With visibility of 50-75 metres, there was no incentive to stop and admire the view, so we once again turned north and trudged across the great plateau of peat hags that separates the 2 summits. About half way across, the cloud relented a little and we were able to see broadly where we were heading although the summit resolutely clung to the cloud cover. 

With summit #2 nabbed; and in a reversal of fortune the man from Ayr sneaked up on us out of the gloom as we managed a piece of fruit cake made by Fi. Suitably fortified we set about the 9 miles back to the car....

The cloud inevitably lifted some more although never really shifted entirely - Macdui was never more than hint of a lump and Derry CG was in cloud as much as out. But it made for pleasant going after a steep little drop back to the river and the endless path south. 

But make it we did; the book says 8 hrs 35; we were inside that but had we had views I suspect we'd have been a little bit longer.

The drive through the Angus / Perthshire border was delightful; sun threatening to make a mokery of our earlier drizzly day. 

Back in town around 1930; She'd offered pasta for dinner, so I cycled the mile to Hers and hoovered up a decent portion of dinner, discussed our respective days before a very tired lad took himslef off home to shower and sleep.

225/282.