Ben Vane

I wasn't feeling particularly inspired about today's walk this morning - Dave reckoned Ben Vane would be a boring up and down plod and Rich read it was a steep up and down that was not easy to navigate through steep rocky outcrops (more knee crunching).

It's just great when completely the opposite happens!

Another superb weather day. There were no route finding issues, no difficult rocky outcrops and the terrain was far from boring. The ascent was a fairly steep but splendid path through spectacular scenery of boulders, mini gorges and caves. We spent an unheard of hour at the top basking in the sunshine behind a sheltering crag. The path down has to be one of the best Munro descents with a perfect gradient for the knees.

Rich did his favourite thing of dipping his feet in a stream at the bottom and CJ paddled and played with sticks before we took the track back out.

Another ice cream at the car and a pasta extravaganza has ended another incredibly good day... Definitely ranking up there with some of our best hill walking days.

CJ has just refused to go for a walk with Rich, Dave has left tonight and we're now all set for another deep sleep before travelling back tomorrow.