ANOTHER VISIT TO LOCH AVON IN HOT SUNSHINE

Beautiful Loch Avon

The Beaches of Loch Avon and Shelterstone Crag

Hells Lum Crag, spot the climbers

Fiacaill Buttress from the Goat Track

More sandy beaches

Looking up to the Feithe Buidhe slabs

Stag Rocks

Plenty of Peacock Butterflies at high altitudes

Wonderful clarity today, Creag Meagaidh in the distance

My wife in for a swim

The welcome spell of hot, dry weather in The Highlands continued today. The temperatures creepd up from yesterday and we were treated to wall to wall sun here in The Cairngorms. Loch Avon is my favourite spot in the entire Cairngorms National Park, it nestles in the very heart of the mountains. I could never tire from gazing down onto this high stretch of water or walking down into the glacial basin itself. My wife and I headed up The Goat Track, across the plateau and down to the head of the loch in glorious late summer conditions. Enough of a breeze to keep the midge away. Anyone seeing the loch from the wonderful beaches dotted along the shoreline may be fooled in to thinking this loch is at sea level. It is, in fact, at an altitude of over 700m and when you gaze up at the cirque of steep, huge mountain cliffs it is only then that you can appreciate how high the Cairngorm plateau really is. It may have been in the 20's today but Loch Avon is still a chilly place for a swim, but what a place!