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It’s our last proper day in Aviemore today and despite all the weather forecasts promising more snow - no more snow came. Despite sounding like a bad thing, it’s actually a good thing as it’s our last chance to climb Cairn Gorm and the weather is perfect. So once again we catch the 34 bus to the bottom of the funicular railway. The actual path is between the ranger building and the cafe/station/information (or lack there of) building. Allegedly this path is signposted - if it is they can’t bee seen by people, but there’s quite a bit of snow so maybe that buried them if they were 5cm tall. So we get to a point where we could go right or carry straight on. Right is a path but seems to head off somewhere we don’t want to go - but straight on would appear to be a ski/snowboard run. So we go straight on and discover it is actually a path (yay) and whilst I’m taking a photo of the view another walking dude on his own wanders past, says hello and attaches himself to our little party. This is excellent because this dude, Peter, actually knows where he’s going!! Pete’s one of those dudes that used to be in the service and now just does a lot of walking around hills and mountains and stuff either camping or staying in [bothies]. So we wander up countless paths/ski runs and about half way up we see a coloured post!! That’s 2 so far and we’ve been climbing/walking for about an hour. About 20 minutes later we arrive at the top of the funicular railway. This isn’t the top, the final climb is coming up, but we have a rest and Pete puts on his crampons - it’s also bloody windy. Then we’re off, following the posts which mark out a kind of path/steps/neatly arranged rocks which are all covered in ice. The wind isn’t letting up here at all, we spend a lot of time making crab like moves. And then, after a lot of time staring at the ground trying to stop my face freezing off and walking like a crab we’re there at the top!! Conveniently there’s a weather station at the top in the shape of a metal shed that we can hide behind. So there we are, at the top of a mountain having a cup of tea :) Mission Complete. It’s still pretty cold so after the tea we spend another 20-30 minutes getting down to the top of the funicular railway again where there’s a cafe and more tea (also cake). After eating cake and stuff we thought it might be nice to take the railway back down, but you can’t :@ If you don’t take it up then you can’t take it down. Which is shit. Really shit. But allegedly they’re supposed to be changing it. But until then it’s still shit.

Despite being tired getting down is actually really easy, big giant steps into ankle/knee deep snow allows us to make the descent in about 30 minutes - so there’s time for another cup of tea at the bottom before the bus comes.

And that’s about it for this holiday, we’ve had a fantastic time, it’s probably been the best holiday we’ve ever been on!

So tomorrow we’re off on the train, then the bus, then an EasyJet flight from Inverness airport (which has an announcement ever 5 minutes) to Bristol airport, then another bus, then finally a train ride back to Romsey :D

aviemore, cairn gorm, mountain, scotland, snow

Today we thought we’d take a little wander to the [highland wildlife park]. This is a half zoo half safari park that contains species that either are or were indigenous to Scotland. It’s open all year round, but if the weather is bad you have to phone first. You can get there from Aviemore by catching the City Link bus towards Edinburgh as it stops right outside.

So we get to the bus stop and there’s this dude with 3 suitcases, a bike and 3 items of hand luggage. But the bus is a coach so there is space but the bus driver still deems it necessary to have a 15 minute conversation about the issue. During which time it begins to snow.

Eventually the bus driver and luggage man come to some kind of agreement and we’re off. The bus drops us right outside the entrance to the park and by now (10 minutes or so later) it’s stopped snowing.

The first half of the park is the safari bit - as we’re walking types a nice lady in a land rover comes to pick us up. The first area we go through contains Reindeer . These dudes get fed 4 times a day!! From this vehicle!! So there we are, the nice lady has her foot solidly on the accelerator, we’re doing 30 coming on 40, the reindeer are keeping pace left and right, until they get bored and pile into the road in front of us forcing us to stop quite abruptly.

Finally we extract ourselves from the Reindeer and can carry on around the rest of the park seeing Bison, Highland Cattle, Red Deer and loads of other things. Then it’s time to head into the zoo part that you can walk around.

We wander along to see a Badger sleeping and suddenly a blizzard breaks out. Which is kind of fun for us types that don’t get any (real) snow. Despite the weather we managed to see some really cool animals like Grouse (which make amazing noises), Red Squirrels (in a protected feeding area so they’re actually wild) and Wild Cats (which look like normal cats in a cage).

Then we join in with the Walk and Talk show where you basically follow around the dude that feeds the animals, it’s shorter than normal due to the weather so we’re only feeding the Lynx and the Wolves. We get to the Lynx and the dude tells us he ate loads yesterday and probably won’t want any food today, he wangs in a cow or 5, and true to form the Lynx doesn’t come. Then we’re off to the viewing tower in the Wolf enclosure, another cow or 5 here, and lo and behold a Wolf appears a mere 500 yards away and the promptly legs it back to it’s hole.

We wander off to the cafe and gift shop which are both excellent :)

If you’re walking you need to ask in the shop to get a lift back to the gate, but after a minor miscalculation by me we’re at the bus stop 20 minutes early in the freezing cold :( But eventually we’re back home for DM and Morse (yuk)

aviemore, blizzard, highland wildlife park, reindeer, scotland, zoo

For our second proper day in Aviemore we thought we’d venture a little further afield and visit Loch Morlich and the Glenmore visitor centre using the number 34 bus which stops outside the visitor centre. The visitor centre is a little shop and a cafe and it sells maps of the cairngorm mountains which, to be honest, are shit. You’re much better off sticking to the OS map for Aviemore as long as you fold it appropriately before you get most of the way along the trail!! There’s also a reindeer centre but it’s closed in the winter so I have no idea how much fun it can be. Just down the road from the visitor centre is a little ski/snow stuff shop that also has a cafe and a dry ski slope that’s about 10 meters long. Needless to say we didn’t partake in any snow based sports there. The loch has lots of trails going around it and is pretty well signposted except some of the colours have washed away a bit. We just attached 2 or 3 of the trails together and skirted the edge of the loch.

It was pretty windy and the first part of the loch we came across looked like a beach by the sea with all the suft the wind was kicking up. We stayed here literally long enough to take a photo and then got out of the screaming gale force winds :)

Once again the paths are good, though at some points you really have to stick to the trail rather than try and make your own way as there are a few hidden streams around. They seem to have done quite a bit of tree felling for whatever reason, which certainly did nothing to halt the wind.

Once at the bottom of the loch it becomes clear that it’s more of a pond in the middle of a river as you cross the bridge back to the road over a torrent of water making its way back down to Aviemore from the mountains.

Up the road a bit we found a picnic spot to eat our lunch and we were promptly surrounded by a large number of ducks who all seemed to want a piece of the sandwich. These ducks were then attacked in what can only be likened to a gang raid by another group of ducks from further up the lake. We left before any feathers flew.

The final part of the walk is actually by a path on the other side of the road where we saw another person!! This brought the tally of people seen on our 2 walks to about 8 with almost as many dogs.

A quick bus ride later and we’re back in time to watch Diagnosis Murder :)

aviemore, cairngorm mountains, ducks, glenmore, loch morlich, scotland, water

Well we got in at about 7pm last night after a 20 minute walk, a 1:30 train ride, a 30 minute bus ride, a 1:10 plane ride, a 20 minute bus ride, a 30 minute train ride and a 10 minute walk. Everything hooked up ok, no connection issues or anything!

It’s bloody freezing here and there’s some slush on the ground too but no actual snow.

[This place] is excellent - really nice 1 bedroom self catering flat with a TV - but only channels 1 to 4, microwave, oven, hob and a washing machine!!. We can’t see anything as it’s far too dark so I can’t wait to wake up tomorrow to see what there is to be seen.

Just time for some food before a little TV and bed :)

aviemore, bus, cairngorms, plane, strathspey house, train

I’m off on holiday tomorrow, we’re going up to Aviemore (near [Inverness]) in the [Cairngorm National park] and possibly even into the [Cairngorm Mountains] (webcams available to view the small amount snow still remaining).

I’m hoping to try some snowbarding, and I’m really looking forward to the cold (Inverness is on the same lattitude as Stockholm). This visit will give me the set (in monopoly terms) of UK destinations: Ireland (Northern and Republic), Wales, England - duh and now Scotland! I’ve also been to Guernsey but I don’t think that counts (ducks from impending attack).

If you really give a toss check out [John and Emma's Google maps holiday destination thingy].

If the urge takes me, access permitting, I might try writing a blog post from my DS via the fabulous Opera browser for the DS but don’t hold your breath.

My good buddy Marc is looking after my fish and taking the bin out in return for owning a Wii for a week. Thanks Marc - though I will be taking the Wii back on my return.

The plan is to take so many pictures that the likelyhood of your eyes bleeding will get me shut down by the internet health and safety types.

Look after England while I’m gone and maybe I’ll bring you back some crazy Scottish money! Easyjet here I come……..

cairngorm mountains, cairngorm national park, easyjet, google maps, holiday, wii