Wild camping at the Linn of Dee

18^th July 2015

WELL…..my son Duncan. I can only describe him as a “Man of the Woods”, his mum’s description. I just call him a “Tree Hugger”. He works in the Aberdeen area and his interests include hill walking, wild camping, trees, fungi and wildlife. It was our interest in the outdoors that prompted him to plan this cycling / wild camp outing to the Linn of Dee near Braemar and Duncan had just purchased a new Basha and wanted to try it out.

We were dropped of by the wife at the Linn of Dee car park around 6.30 pm. There was a slight breeze which kept the dreaded midge’s at bay, the sun was out and we were looking forward to a short bike ride, up to Derry Lodge.

                                                  Bike loaded with kit ready to start

From the car park we headed North West up through the trees on a wide path which was easy riding. Continuing on this trail you eventually come to a bridge which you cross and turn left onto a forest road. It is worth while stopping at the bridge as you get a fantastic view up Glen Lui.

                                              Lui Water as you pass through the forest

                                                            Duncan at the bridge

                                            View from the bridge looking up Glen Lui

As we headed up Glen Lui with the river on our left, I was amazed at the scenery, I do most of my cycling in the Galloway Forest which I think is amazing, but this scenery, WOW !!!!  I’m lost for words. After a short ride you pass Luibeg, which is a small house that a group of adults were using for the weekend. Just past Luibeg there is an area with trees where we decided to camp for the night.

                                     View from the forest road as you head up Glen Lui

                                                                      Luibeg

We walked round the area and Duncan picked the spot where he wanted to set up the Basha, so we set up camp. There was still a slight breeze which kept the midge’s away while we got organised. Duncan was in his element with the new Basha, I just watched as he worked away in his own little world smiling and talking to himself, about how awesome the Basha was, each to his own.

                                                    Checking out the camping area

                                                     Duncan setting up his Basha

                                                   Tent set up with bike and poncho

                                                       Duncan trying out the water

Once we had set up our tents, we decided to go for a walk round and see if there was anyone else in the area. There were two tents set up over by the Mountain Rescue Centre behind Derry Lodge, but they were far enough away, which was excellent as they would not hear Duncan snoring. He’s like an old tractor when he starts.

                                                                  Derry Lodge

                                                         Mountain Rescue Station

                                                         Looking up Glen Luiberg 

At around 8 pm Duncan started the dinner, inside the new Basha, which consisted of boil in a bag Beans and Bacon with broken oatcakes through it to give it some substance, YUM YUM. While the dinner was cooking I made some strong coffee. After dinner we sat inside the Basha and caught up with each others news as it has been a few months since we last met up.

                                          Duncan cooking dinner inside his new Basha

                                                       Our campsite for the night

 The set up that we used was Snugpak one man tents. This worked very well especially with the Basha for sitting and cooking under and a poncho set up that I had with my bike. I went to bed about 10.30 pm and was asleep in 20 min, I never heard Duncan snoring all night. I woke up around 3 am with the rain bouncing of the tent. I dozed on and off till around 6.15 am when I decided to get up. Big mistake, no breeze, rain and the dreaded midge’s, by the time I managed to get all my gear packed away the little shits had breakfast, lunch and dinner from my face and were coming back for seconds. Duncan got up about 7 am, we decided to give breakfast a miss and get on our way as soon as possible. The rain had stopped while we were getting organised, we took one last look around to check the area and leave it as we found it and we were on our way.

                                            The next morning looking down to Luibeg

                                         On our way back to the Linn of Dee car park

As there was no phone signal in this area we had made an arrangement to meet the wife in the car park at 10 am. As we cycled back down through Glen Lui I was thinking to myself that as we are early, we could not sit and wait at the car park because the midge’s were hungry for our blood, we could cycle down the tarred road towards Braemar. What a surprise I got when we arrived at the car park to see the wife sitting waiting for us. She got up early because of the weather. (I knew I married her for some good reason).

This was a fabulous overnight wild camp and cycle which I will certainly do again for the scenery alone.