Day 12: Tuesday 2nd Aug (cont) Dunning to Braemar approx. 61 miles

..the hill loomed ahead of us and wound up the valley into the gap in the mountains. The wind dropped slightly but not for long. As soon as we turned into the opening it increased again, we were now separated and quite some way apart. FLASHBACK: Earlier, shortly after a banana break Matt and I spotted a live red squirrel, the first I've ever seen and a rare bit of live roadkill. We dropped to sea level soon afterwards and knew we then had 2000 feet to climb. Anyway back to the hill. As the wind pressed into us we separated, Hamish fast disappearing, Matt a steady pace, however, I was now struggling. As the others began to vanish into the distance...

I took several breaks but my stamina had gone with the wind. So severe was the weather that walking was a struggle. I knew that the rain and cold wind would do me no favours so stopping for any period of time would be a bad idea. The noise of the wind was so intense I couldn't hear myself singing a rendition of '..bright side of life'. The others struggled but somehow the fitter Hamish made it to the top, with Matt some ten minutes later. Some 15 minutes later I struggled into view having jumped back on for the last hundred yards (for the dvd you see..) The wind at the top was so intense now that standing up at all was an issue. I flung myself to the floor (also for the film) clinging on as if to avoid being sent back down the hill as the gusts inflated my waterproof coat. We sheltered by a weather station at the summit and prepared for the long descent, an extra layer required to avoid the doubling effects of downhill into the head wind. With both myself and the hill conquered we limped on to our lodgings.