Linn of Dee and the wasps

Our one full day around Braemar and we wanted to walk in the Pinewoods so we drove the couple of miles to Linn of Dee, a very popular trail head.

We looked at the waterfall for a couple of minutes before setting out along the river bank heading for a longer walk. KK had mud on his hands and decided to wash them in the river. We walked on and he jumped down the banking. Next minute he was screaming and climbing back up the bank. Run we shouted to him as hundreds of aggressive wasps clouded around his head. We ran down the track a little before having to wipe wasps from him and stripping his outer clothing off to get rid of them. Luckily his jacket was thick but they had stung his legs through his trousers plus his hands and many stings on his head, face, neck and through his hair. I have never seen anything like this before and we think he had well over 20 stings many of them multiple.

We headed around 30 miles down the glen to the chemist for antihistamines by which time the swelling and pain was subsiding. In fact by a couple of hours he was back to normal although we had all had a fright.

Back to the woods in the afternoon but well away from the river we did manage to complete our walk. After cooking dinner at the tent we drove up the glen and watched a herd of around 300 red deer come down to the grasslands for their nights feeding. No wonder no trees grow up there!