After a few landscape photos, a nice cheery one of my mates.
These guys are the A Team – some of it anyway – the core of the Eastern area of the MBA and the Friends of Bob Scott’s, who over the last decade or more have put in countless hours and massive effort to totally transform the condition of Cairngorm bothies.
Working hard through the day, partying hard in the evening, bothy nights with the gang often see some great ceilidhs. Stories and songs, music from guitars, penny whistles, bagpipes and more; serious conversations and great laughs. Regulars or strangers, we’ve welcomed everyone, made converts of some of them, who have joined in on work parties, but above all we’ve created a bond of friendship and fellowship that alone has been worth all the hard work – even if the hard work wasn’t itself also so much fun and laughs.
When this photo was taken we’d had a hard weekend behind us rebuilding the Garbh Choire Refuge, with all these guys and many more volunteers coming to one of the remotest corners of the Cairngorms to lend a hand in the hard labour that was the culmination of quite literally more than a decade of campaigning and planning. Everybody in this photo was knackered but so proud and happy with what we had achieved – and what a glorious day for a completion photo too! (Though that was before the 12 km walk-out, carrying tools and waste materials, on the hottest day of the year!) Happy days we can’t wait for again.
A series of Covid dreams. Just a photo or two from the archives and a few words: memories of the Cairngorms to stay in the heart while we’re kept away from the hills.
cairngormwanderer 
They look a great bunch. I can count my walking mates on less than one hand unfortunately. Luckily, I don’t mind walking alone all the time!