TGOC 2014 - Day 12: Queen's Well to Tarfside

Tuesday 20th May 2014

A short morning walk down Glen Mark and over to Tarfside 

Distance: 11km; Ascent: 130m; Overcast with warm sunshine later; Solo

See tracked route in new window

I slept well last night after my long day in the hills yesterday, and I woke this morning to find my tent surrounded by cloud.  However this gradually thinned and lifted a few hundred metres over the next hour or two.  I set off walking soon after half past eight and wandered over to take another look at the Queen's Well in the light of day.  It seemed a little odd to have such a dank well when there were perfectly good burns around to get water from!

My overnight pitch near the Queen's Well

The Queen's Well

The Queen's Well

Glenmark and the Queen's Well

After leaving the Queen's Well, I made my way down Glen Mark on the reasonable vehicle track.  All the surrounding hills were still covered in cloud, but there were still good views up and down the glen at times.

Looking back up the Glen Mark track

The Water of Mark from the bridge

A very old looking gate near the bottom of Glen Mark

Footpath signs at Invermark

At around 10am, I reached the road at Invermark and wandered over to the car park, where I met a couple of other challengers: David and Margaret Brocklehurst.  I stopped here to chat to them and to have a bit of a second breakfast.  However I didn't linger too long as when I was on Mount Keen yesterday evening I'd arranged with Lynsey that I'd meet her in Tarfside at midday.  Therefore I headed along the hill track over to Tarfside, which I'd walked three times previously - the only such overlap between my four crossings.

Looking back westwards from the track to Tarfside

Looking down Glen Esk on the way to Tarfside

A welcome sign :-)

On entering Tarfside at 11:15am, I headed straight for St Drostan's for a welcome shower, bacon butty and tea :-).  At around midday I wandered over to the camping field to find Lynsey, Isabel & Olivia waiting for me - it was good to see them all again!  It was strange arriving in Tarfside so early as I had the pick of the entire field for pitching my tent as no-one else had yet arrived.

We had a leisurely picnic lunch followed by a visit to the nearby play park; it was good to be spending time with the kids again :-).  My tent seemed to be an exciting place to play in too!  By now a few more challengers had started arriving, so we decided it was time to start eating Lynsey's birthday cake.  It reminded me of our first challenge back in 2008, when Lynsey also celebrated her birthday in Tarfside and Roger had arranged for a surprise birthday cake to be delivered to Tarfside!

Lynsey's birthday cake :-)

The rest of the afternoon was spent around the camping field and back at St Drostan's saying hello to lots of other challengers.  We headed down the road to The Retreat for Lynsey's birthday meal, before it was time for Lynsey and the children to head back to Montrose.  I headed back to St Drostan's for a jacket potato, before spending a sociable evening in the Mason's Arms with many friendly faces :-).

Tarfside camping field