Aviemore

Arriving at the Aviemore site the bloke on reception was a very strange, weird looking bloke who did his spiel in a drone, “the toilet block is closed from 12 to 3, your pitch is at the far end of the site, you have to buy electricity cards which you swipe in the bollard, blah blah blah”! The nice thing was Phil had 3 birthday cards waiting at reception.

Phil got up early to go off on his bike to do a 19 mile ride which took him around Loch An Eilien (which has an island on it with a ruined castle) to the nearby Rothiemurchus estate, and then around Loch Morlich, while there he had a nosey around the Caravan and Camping Club site which was extremely busy, but looked a bit nicer than ours!
The assessor from our insurance company was coming today to look at the ‘van, he turned up early and was done by about 11.15 so we decided to head off to the Highland Wildlife Centre that Linda’s Mum and Dad had bought tickets for Phil’s birthday. When we got there they had free kennels for the dogs to go in, so we popped them in a large one (which wasn’t that big!) and drove off round the main reserve, seeing Yak, Kiang Horses with 2 foals, Reindeer , Camels, Red Deer, Przewalskis (Wild Horses), European Bison. Then we parked up and walked round the rest of the reserve seeing Red Pandas, a Pine Martin, Highland Wildcats who had a kitten which is the first 100% wild cat born in captivity as there is a problem with them breeding with domestic cats, a polar bear called Mercedes who was captured in Churchill in Canada to stop her raiding the town bins and was brought to Edinburgh Zoo with the help of Mercedes Benz. She lived there for 25 years and had 2 cubs and was brought to the park in October last year into a lovely new enclosure with a large pool and a big field. We also saw a Wolf, some Antelope things (technical term) and three young Tigers and their parents in a large enclosure with pools that one kept jumping in, they were very playful. They also had a huge Snow Monkey enclosure where we saw baby monkeys….ahhhh!

Phil was up early again and went on the bike up the nearby Creag Ghleannain, an 8 mile ride from the site as recommended by the local bike shop, a long climb up a land rover track rose 1,500 feet before the route set off down a great piece of singletrack across the boggy and rocky moor, then a short road ride back to the ‘van. When Phil was back we drove up the road to the Cairngorm Railway base station as we had decided to do a walk to the summit of Cairn Gorm. In the winter the whole area is a ski resort, and there are ski lifts and tows scattered around the mountainside, the railway is a Funicular jobbie, and the two carriages were running up and down the mountain all day. We walked up the very steep Windy Ridge path which took us to the top station of the railway (unfortunately named The Ptarmigan building- people at work will understand!) we both went in for a look at the shop and the exhibition before having our lunch sat at the bench outside. Luckily everyone who comes up on the train is only allowed inside the building, and you are only allowed outside (and up to the Summit) if you have walked up, this meant it was relatively quiet outside! After lunch we continued up the steep track to the summit, some 2,000 vertical feet from the car park! After stopping for a while to look at the amazing views and take a few photos we headed down via the other ridge of the mountain, which took us down a surreal almost lunar like rock field, and then down past a large patch of snow which was still there despite all the sun we have been having. (Apparently they were still skiing here on the longest day in June!) The track on the way down was steep enough to give us both wobbly legs, so we were glad to see the base station of the railway. After having a quick look at the camera obscurer (a kind of periscope in the dark!) we headed inside the café where we luckily got the sofa seat and had wonderful cake and hot chocolate!

We’ve been out to Laggan Wolftrax, a mountain bike centre about 25 miles from Aviemore. Phil rode here a couple of years ago and the black route is crazy, with huge rock features and steep drops not for the faint hearted! It is definitely the hardest black route I’ve ridden, and I enjoyed it so much this time round I rode it twice! (One or two pennies short of a pound methinks!) Also rode the red and the bike park twice (while I was there) for a total of 20 miles, snapping a gear cable and breaking a spoke were luckily the only injuries. While all this was going on Linda went for a walk on a waymarked route up to Dun Da Lamh Hill Fort, a very steep 4.5 mile route with the reward of some fantastic views in the sun and spotted a red deer on the way up.






Linda was up and out early the next day to go on a horse ride at a local stables. She rode a highland pony called Mac (short for MacDonald), we had a nice ride through some of the Rothiemurchus Estate which is family owned and covers 25,000 acres. The weather was fine and the two other riders and myself were led by a very nice woman who had just broken in the horse she was riding 5 weeks ago, it was amazing and only stopped once at a steep bank, she cantered well and was very good at standing for gates to be opened. We had lots of trotting and a few canters and even a little jump over a log in the woods. My horse was nice and quite responsive and was very comfy to ride…I want one!
Meanwhile Phil took the dogs for a little walk in the nature reserve before going for a wander into town, visiting nearly all the outdoor shops in the process. One had a friendly lad in there who chatted about his love of camping and campervans, he also had a 125cc motorbike which he uses to go away with his tent! Another shop keeper got chatting about mountain bikes, he does a lot of running, but has recently got a bike so I told him about a few of the routes that I’d done and he got his map out so I could show him. He used to be an accountant but hated it so much he jacked it in to work in the shop and is now studying for some outdoor qualifications, ace!
Later on Phil had a run in with the horrible weirdy man who ‘welcomed’ us on arrival. When Phil went to empty the caravans waste containers, he discovered there was no grey waste empty point he went to reception to ask where it was. Weirdy man was there and he droned on about how people have to use the chemical waste point and lift their 40litre containers into place, Phil said that was crazy and an elderly person could easily hurt their back, weirdy man did another drone that most people check the facilities before they use them and empty their waste more regularly, Phil said it was a piss poor way to run a campsite and marched off! How liberating!

Move day today! Once we were hitched, Linda went to reception to get our deposit back for the toilet key, and a refund on the 2 x £2 electric cards we had bought (we never needed them, as there must have already been enough credit in the bollard!) the lady at reception was really offhand and said we shouldn’t have bought them in the first place, Linda pointed out that the weirdy man made us buy them on arrival, so she reluctantly gave us the £4 back! We were really glad to be leaving this site, and were glad to arrive at the Auchnahillin site by Inverness.