Saturday stroll

The girls (and honorary girl, Derek, aka Delilah) had another stroll yesterday. Derek supplied the route and as he is ex-mountain rescue, we trust him implicitly. Strangely, we were nowhere near the mountains. Think he might have got the measure of us girlies!

Any road up, we gathered in Lidl's car park, where Derek had arranged with the manager that we could leave cars in the corner, very kind manager. Walked to Culbin forest, then through to 'The Gut' and onto the beach. Round the corner, we had an unusual view of Findhorn from the other side of the estuary, along with the colony of grey seals. We carried on along the beach a bit before returning through the trees and meeting up with the river again further along, following and crossing it back to town.

14.6 miles
2.9 mph average
5 hours 54 secs walking
1 46 mins and 36 secs rest
84 ft climb!

A fine day out, was pleasantly tired last night, woke up with no aches at all, so that's fab. If it wasn't-for-the-blister. Wore my new boots. Only a year old and I'm still breaking them in and thought this would be a bit of a long walk for them. "Wear them, you'll be fine!" I do it every time, I listen to him because he's my husband and I trust him. Humph! You'd think I'd learn. Anyway, Alison, one of the experienced walkers in the group, swears by zinc oxide tape, which she tapes on her weak points before even setting off and never has blisters. So I'll give it a try. Oh, and new socks. Never had a problem with mine, but Angela made me swap into her spare pair during a first aid stop and it was like walking in slippers. I want some.

Onwards and upwards, as they say. We have two more walks planned now before the sponsored one. Sunday 31st May, we might be doing a longer walk, maybe even venturing down to the Cairngorms, if we can find a suitable route. I'm trying to avoid suggesting Meall a Bhuachaille. It's one of my favourite walks, we took the children up to get their first Corbert for my 40th last year. The views from the top on a clear day are wonderful, but I know I'd struggle amongst the rest of the group, most of whom appear to be descended from mountain goats. It was easy keeping up with the children who have short legs!

The second walk is the week before the big event, so I've persuaded them we just need a short, easy walk to boost everyones confidence and just have a jolly old time, so will probably be closer to home gathering at a friends house and strolling to another's for lunch and cups of tea before strolling round the back of the hill and home.

Angela has suggested that once we have done the sponsored walk, we should still meet and walk together on a regular basis, stipulating the last Saturday of the month or whatever, so everyone knows when it'll be and plan around it if they want to. I think it's a great idea, I've never walked in a group like this before and I'm having a thoroughly good time. I still enjoy walking alone and with David ofcourse, but this is a new experience and it's great getting to know such a varied group of like-minded people that I don't see all the time. Unusual for me, I don't generally like groups.

I'll limp off now and attend to this stupid, annoying, rather throbbing blister. Bah!