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Just off the A9 - My Life in Grantown on Spey.

THE LAST POST

This is the view from the last Munro Party we went to on Saturday.
It is Ben Hope near Tongue in Sutherland, a quiet and easy 3 hour drive from Grantown and such a beautiful and remote place.
Scotland is full of beautiful and remote places and is to me what makes living here the best thing I have ever done.
It IS hard, caring for someone and I have touched on that part of my life a little bit but the reality is that this part dominates all my life in Grantown. It is hard to leave for my weekends away and I haven't done as much as I would like to do. But if it weren't for my dad, I wouldn't be here, so I have his neediness to thank for the ultimate decision Ralph and I made to settle here.
I can't wait to explore more of the country and I want to explore it on foot, on bike, on water and on horseback...hips, knees, weather and availability of friends both human and equine, to do so.
Meanwhile Yorkshire is still only 7 hours drive away.

Gold for Grantown.

We have our own post box painted gold for a medal won by Craig Maclean, the eyes of the blind cyclist Anthony Kappes, (who also won gold of course) in the 200m sprint. setting a lap record.

I think everyone in the UK has been excited by the Olympics and Paralympics and it's nice to have a local competitor do well. However, I have been shouting for the locals to Yorkshire. Today the hand cycling was won by a Halifax woman...and that still felt like a home win.

This will be my penultimate post before Yorkshiretospeyside closes because now I should be a Highland lassie. One part of me has always been so...but for now I'm rushing off to the Grant Arms Hotel for a talk on Walking in Scotland, just to see how it's done.

Another tourist weekend.

This is a beautiful car. It was one of many that parked up for Motormania last weekend.
The town was packed and everyone was out, strolling up and down in the sunshine, listening to the live music provided by the pipe band and the Scottish dance band (perhaps there is a generic term for this, but fiddlers etc) and the Farmer's Market, stalls for local charities and some market stalls so that people could buy blow-up hammers for some reason.

It was also Dad's birthday. Sadly not one of the good days so he missed his birthday dinner. He is 83 and has good days and a lot of poor days when he feels frail and tired or is sick and unable to eat. On a good day he can walk to the river through the woods but these days are increasingly infrequent.
Grantown is a good place to grow old, the local services are fantastic and Dad gets his prescription delivered to the house if he can't make it. They just bring it, he doesn't ring. They just notice he hasn't appeared by closing time and the staff trot over with it. The "service" is partly because we are a small town and partly because of the good nature of the people who chose to live here.

In 6 days I will have lived here permanently for a year and this blog will cease. The transition is complete; from Yorkshire to Speyside.

The Motormania was on Sunday, on Saturday I climbed a mountain from Glen Feshie and on Friday I canoe-ed round Loch an Eilean. The need to fit in all the good weather activities I can is pressing as winter is on the way. The curtains were drawn at 8.40pm...but we're not there yet!

Harley Davidsons arrive in Grantown.

Shame, I've been trying to load the video that Ralph took because the noise of 3000 (?) Harley Davidsons is something unmissable. It is on my Facebook page for my friends.
The rain was sheeting down in the morning and again at 5pm but inbetween the hours of 1pm and 5pm, it remained dry and even nearly sunny. I will await the newspaper report to give details of numbers, but just to say, this is a sight not to be missed.
I am now lusting after my own, a small HD 880, that has a low seat and needs to be steered round corners notleant. I had a big bike (Kawasaki 550 Zepher) and after falling off it several times on the hairpin bends that are all over Huddersfield including at the end of our street, and securing a new job with a company car, I sold the Zepher. When I took up biking again in 2009, I got a 125cc again but found it underpowered and would be no good here on the long, uncluttered Scottish roads. Perfect for the communte through Bradford and Halifax though and was sold easily when I left the farm.
I haven't felt the need of a bike as I don't go anywhere that doesn't entail taking the dog, the canoe, the tent, Dad or the bikes. But now I am to start volunteering at the Dolphin Project...I do have somewhere to go!!
I'll tell you more about the Dolphin Project after I have been for my first day as a shadow on Tuesday.
Meantime, the Highland Games today had bright sunshine and Ralph and I climber Geal Charm Mor near Aviemore and had views north and south of the strath. Bliss.

The chaotic garden and revolution!

Oh, it looks so lush and I do have plenty of spinach, lettuce, kale, carrots, parsnips, the start of the sprouts and some broad beans...plenty chick weed too.
When the veg are finished, the chickens will clear it all up. There is potential for so much more and yesterday my letter appeared in the local paper; The Strathspey Herald. I was bemoaning the fact that so much land around Grantown is not being used despite the national park (Cairngorms National Park) and the estates professing to support wildlife, crofting and "grow your own" initiatives. Instead, beautiful fields stand neglected, either empty or rented by horse owners (well, just one horse owner who sub-lets even though I understand she is not supposed to) and they are being over-grown with ragwort (poisonous to livestock incidently) and bracken. The fields are also poached and water logged. Yet the estates will be receiving money for just owning this land.

Scotland and who owns the country makes for interesting reading. So too does the history of the land, from the Glen Coe massacre, the clearances, the Scots abroad, mainly Canada, and to modern times with the establishment of the national parks that seem to allow development indiscriminately. Shame not to nuture and adore this beautiful countryside.

Maybe I'll get a response to my letter...

Meantime, Grantown is full of tourists and motorbikes for the English Bank Holiday. Thunder in the Glen and the Highland Games and every bed is taken. The weather turned foul at 5pm and it rained and rained. Pity the campers and bikers but I'm sure it'll not dampen anyone's spirits...and my weeds will grow even more unwieldy!

The Last Day!

The walk takes you along the side of Glen Coe for 3 miles then climbs up and over The Devil's Staircase. We passed an orderly line of...German walkers who moved aside to let us pass. "Which bank have you robbed?" commented the leader. We laughed and said, "We've a long way to go...Fort William."
That is 23 miles and the two steepest climbs in one day as well.

The clouds cleared as we dropped down to Kinlochleven. The first sight of this wee town nestling in a steep sided valley is more industrial than rural, although the contrast of the lush green from the brown and grey of Glen Coe is remarkable. The photograph above is looking up towards the track we followed down, showing the hydro-electric scheme that dominates the entrance to the town.

The climb out of Kinlochleven is spectacular because of the views down Loch Leven. It took us a while to walk to the top of this climb as it grew steadily hotter and I grew steadily more hungry and Sandra grew steadily more tired. When we reached the top where the path evens out, I stopped and attacked my picnic lunch from Kingshouse!

Lairigmor is a steady trek at around 1000' and is very beautiful although exposed and there was a stiff breeze which in the sun was actually quite welcome. It is easy going with a good track until reaching the forestry. Sadly another industrial landscape when the trees are felled, as these were. The chopped woods always remind me of Paul Nash's paintings of war scapes.

It was lovely to enter into the soft paths of the pine woods and have the shelter of the trees overhead and the comfort of pine needles underfoot. Then Ben Nevis...with this strange cloud formation hanging over the dreadful path that winds its way clearly up the side.

Obce Ben Nevis was on our right, we knew we were very nearly at the end of our walk. It would have been nice to finish at the Visitors Centre but there was a a mile and a half to the end...or at least the end as Sandra knew it... Her husband was waiting for her there...mine was still a mile away at the centre of Fort William at the new end. Shame. John could have driven us there but we decided having come so far we would make it to the "new end" and thus ended our West Highland Way walk.

I enjoyed every minute. I loved the scenery, the places we stayed at, the weather, the company of Sandra and our German acquaintances and all the others we met briefly. I would recommend this trip to anyone who is of reasonable fitness but you don't have to be super-fit. There are plenty of baggage transporters which would take the weight off your shoulders and back for sure, but whether that would disrupt your sense of making your own way, I can't be sure.

Scotland is a beautiful country. I have many more paths to explore.