Good day, sunshine!

We have had some visitors this weekend which has been a treat!

Mick and Gayle arrived Saturday after David and I had spent the day at a D of E Supervisor training course.

We spent a very pleasant evening after our meal drinking wine and swapping stories of a walking nature and other things. It may have been gone midnight before they retired to Colin who was parked on the drive, but I can’t remember.

This morning we assembled in the kitchen for a natter when we should have been assembling kit, but we arrived at the car park at the Dallas Dhu distillery and were walking by 10.45 am, only 45 minutes behind schedule. Acceptable we thought.

The walk we had chosen was a variation of the Girly Walk I did in September with the local girls. This meant that after walking some familiar tracks I had to take the group on a little mystery tour on tracks I’d never been on before, in the hope of meeting the route I’d done previously from town.

As luck would have it, and after a few pauses to check location and make the odd decision, we eventually met the right track in the right place and continued happily following the course of the River Findhorn south towards our treat for the day, Logie Steading and the Olive Tree Cafe. We may have had a short rest along the way which included cake.

The River Findhorn

Gayle and Mick before the sun moved

I even managed to avoid the rather rough firebreak we’d walked last time in favour of a path that was a bit rough in places but at least had an obvious track.

We were soon sitting in the sun drinking a variety of hot drinks, debating whether we had the cheek to eat our sandwiches. Before Gayle returned from the powder room, the rest of us had decided we were that cheeky and discretely tucked in to cheese rolls and chocolate biscuits.

We didn’t tarry long as the sun had shifted round the corner and left us in the rather chilly shade. As we left the Steading I had a crisis of confidence and couldn’t commit myself to where the path was that I wanted. After a bit of fumbling and repeating a few steps, we set off up the right path uphill to meet and cross the A939 Grantown on Spey road, again. From here we headed off up the farm track to Peathillock and then north on to the Dava Way and back towards the Distillery. After a pause for more cake, when someone happened upon us who remembered Mick from way back, we left the Way and took a more direct route through Altyre Estate and back to the car.

The sun shone and here were fabulous blue skies all day with occasional glimpses of distant hills and the Moray Firth. A brilliant weekend, great company and a really nice walk. What more could we have asked for?

There were definitely a variation of stats for this walk, but I like the idea of 13.1 miles, 2.8 mph average, 1503 ft total ascent and 5 hours 57 minutes total time taken. It’s close enough!

Thanks for visiting us and please come again!