Scotland Trip
Our day on the river Spey got off to a good start when a friendly birdwatcher pointed out an Osprey nest nearby, and practically insisted we both had a look at the Osprey perched on it through his telescope. We managed to get away after a few minutes of bird related chit chat, and were soon on our way downstream.
It's been so long since we paddled on a river that it was all a bit scary to start with because it felt like we were going really fast. The part of the river we were doing wasn't a difficult stretch at all, but it was still a bit nerve racking with the current pulling us downstream, and various rocks and fallen trees blocking parts of the river. There were quite a lot of birds out and about on the river - we saw dippers, wagtails and goosanders, which are a rather dangerous sounding duck with a serrated beak for seizing fish with. Fortunately we didn't have any trouble with them.
We made fast progress and passed Aviemore much sooner than we expected, and stopped for lunch on a bench which appeared to have been underwater not too long ago judging by all the driftwood surrounding it. By the time we set back out I was cold, especially my feet, and realised I hadn't really brought enough clothes, and was seriously regretting having no gloves.
The section of river after lunch was described as being a lot slower moving than the first bit. Unfortunately, this lulled us into a false sense of security, and we were soon getting distracted by interesting thinks on the bank, like lambs. We spotted two very cute lambs, one of whom seemed to be gambolling dangerously close to the water's edge, and paddled over to have a closer look, and to be on hand for a lamb rescue. This meant that both of us were focussed on the lambs, and not on where the current was taking us, which turned out to be straight at quite a large, partially submerged rock. We spotted the rock too late to do anything about it, and crashed into it twice, once on the rebound after the first bounce. I'm amazed we didn't both end up in the river, although I think I was as soaked in cold sweat as I would have been in river water anyway.
You would have though we'd learnt our lesson after that near miss, but no, there were two more rock collisions to come, although these ones just appeared from nowhere in a faster bit of river. We managed to stay in the boat, the right way up, and to be honest, I was quite relieved when we reached the bridge at Boat of Garten and were back on dry land.
We hung around for a while waiting for the bus, and then decided that our faith in public transport was not strong enough and phoned a taxi. We reckon this probably cost us about £12 more than the bus, but saved us well over an hour, and probably at least £12 in money we would have spent on tea and cakes in the cafe over the road from the bus stop. When we arrived back in George to collect the canoe, the bus was only just arriving. During the drive, Claire spotted something standing in a field by the road that she insists was a Golden Eagle. I'm sceptical, but can't put up a very strong argument because I didn't see it.
After a very unpleasant and unsuccessful trip to Tesco in Aviemore, which was full of children, stressed out parents, and people with issues, and no Smash or sprinkly dried cheese, we headed over to Newtonmore to visit my cousin Phil and his wife Anne.
We were rather jealous of their house, which not only is smack bang in the middle of the Scottish Highlands, but has loads of rooms for storing outdoor gear and other stuff, as well as a drive big enough for several George's as well as the two elderly Land Rovers, Campervan and car already there.
After a wonderfully big tasty chilli (thanks Anne!) and a couple of drinks, Phil suggested a walk round the block. This turned out to be a much bigger and nicer block than we are used to walking round, taking in the famous Newtonmore Charity Wildcats, a lake, and some red squirrel rope bridges across the road.
We were pretty tired after all the excitement of our day (not to mention the visit to Tesco), and had a lovely night's sleep in the spare room, where we both enjoyed spreading out and sleeping in the foetal position simultaneously whenever we wanted to.
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