Reindeer Hunting

Tuesday 14th April 2015

Scotland Trip

We were extremely lazy this morning. It was practically afternoon by the time we left the campsite. I can't even offer any excuse or explanation, other than it was drizzling a bit.

We parked up by Loch Morlich and set off on a fairly easy 8 mile walk through the woodland, up a bit of a hill for some nice views and than back through the woodland. According to the book, there was a good chance of seeing reindeer during the day. Not just normal deer, but proper festive deer.
It started raining about 2 minutes into the walk, and continued on and off for the remainder of the day. It is going through an "on" phase as I type. Apart from the the rain, the first difficulty of the day was finding the path up onto the hill from Rothiemurchus Lodge. The book described it as being by the helipad, which for some reason we couldn't find, despite the fact that it was a stereotypical helipad design complete with a big H on it. Eventually a helpful Scotsman shouted some directions out of a window and we were soon on the way up.

It was a nice walk up the side of the hill despite being a bit boggy (although it's hard to find a walk in Scotland that isn't boggy, especially in April). We were startled by a grouse taking off in the loudest possible way from practically under our feet at one point.

It was also a nice walk alongside the stream down the other side of the hill until we realised that I had been following the obvious path rather than the directions and we were going the wrong way. We got back on track and were soon at the little loch that I'd thought might make a nice picnic stop. Maybe in the summer, but today the rain was coming down sideways and it felt like about minus 10. We couldn't see any of the amazing views the guidebook had promised because of the cloud, so we headed briskly down the right side of the hill back into the woodland.

Once we were in the woods, we were sheltered from the wind and felt a lot better. We stopped for lunch under a tree, which would have been the perfect spot had it not been for the deer herders hut we could have stopped in just round the corner. We had a nosy in the hut anyway, which was built in 1956 from the crates used to reintroduce the reindeer (which we still hadn't seen) to the area. It would have been a great lunch spot, or even an overnight stop if you fancied a slightly creepy night in the middle of the woods miles from anywhere.

It was plain sailing after that, no getting lost or even rained on much for the last mile or two back to the van. I'm afraid to say that this story doesn't have a happy ending as we didn't see even a hint of a reindeer all day. Claire thought she might have spotted a reindeer hoof print on the path, but to be honest it could have been anything. We also didn't see any of the red squirrels, crossbills or crested tits that are supposed to frequent the area.

We had Bakewell tarts and some out of date custard (which tasted fine and for some reason was less lumpy than normal) with a cup of tea back in the van, before realising that it was twenty to six and we had better get a move on.

After another quick trip to Tesco (we were out of chocolate) we returned to the same campsite as the previous night, and have once again pitched up as far as possible from the other campers.
Tomorrow we are going to the RSPB Osprey spotting centre, where we are not only guaranteed to see Ospreys, but also Woodpeckers, Crossbills, Crested Tits, Siskins and Red Squirrels feeding from the bird feeders. After today's lack of wildlife I'm not holding my breath!

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