The last day of The Walk was 17 easy and flat miles, although we ended up walking a bit further thanks to the organizers of the Speyside Way.
We saw cornflowers en route - an unusual blue hue rather than the more typical Scottish purples.
This stretch of the Way was more built-up. For instance, rather than loose planks thrown on top of soggy ground, we had a bona fide boardwalk with handrails to allow us to overlook a grassy marsh without muddying our boots or needing to pull each other out of bogs.
There were two dragonflies on the railing of the boardwalk. They may have been engaged in a G-rated wrestling match. Or they may have been attempting to increase the number of dragonflies in the world. You decide.
We saw a fair amount of wildlife today, including 2 red squirrels and a small red deer. Also bears (OK, maybe the bears don't really count).
The old railbed path took us within easy access to the renovated Strathspey Railway. The steam engine was reconstructed along with a new rail track for tourists and railroad buffs. The station is in operation (it sells rail tickets and gifts), and features a picnic table suitable for walkers. But the most distinctive part of the experience is the vintage advertisements posted around the place.No offense to Rowntree's, but when I hear "Pastilles", I think "Puking Pastilles" (as per George and Fred Weasley):
RunnerNYC might be able to use some Rodine on her early morning subway excursions....
I also liked this modern hotel sign:
Alas, lunch time came to an end and we picked up the trail again as the steam train started its i-THINK-i-can rhythm, faster and faster until it was a collection of clickety-clacks in the distance.
Today's trail again went through grassy forest....
...and finished in a light track through a glorious field of heather ringed by mountains.
When I say "finished", however, I mean only that the Nature part of the trail finished. We had another 2 miles to go as we trekked on past some giant seed-themed sculptures...
...then circumnavigated a half-built housing development, and then trudged into town where Bill and Frank treated us to ices. We continued on, down the main drag, looking for the trail end markers. We eventually found a map of the Speyside Way near the Aviemore public toilets, but no trail markers. They just petered out. Nothing. We asked around, even at the Tourist Information office, and learned that Aviemore had no official markers for the start/end of the trail. Curses, foiled again! We should have posed with the "end" stones in Buckie on the first day, after all. Grrrr. For what it's worth, the official Speyside Way web site claims that "[t]he Way ... finishes at the car park by the [Aviemore] Police Station."
We settled into our final B&B, nursed our wounds and napped (or, in Bill's case, explored the town), then got together for our final celebratory dinner.
My companions reached the 80-mile mark in 6 days; I completed a more modest 67 miles in 5 days. We all basked in a sense of accomplishment and camaraderie, aided and abetted by 3 (?!) bottles of wine.
Navigation: Postlude
2 comments:
This is a good record of our little walk in the country and all credit to our ladies/girls (?)who performed magnificently.
Thanks, Bill, it's very sweet of you to stop by and comment!
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