Monday, 23 January 2012

Getting friendly with the reindeer on the Cromdales.













Friend Jo was here for the weekend and we decided to tackle the Cromdales, hills that shelter Grantown from the mountainous weather of the Cairngorms. The forecast wasn't great and in fact it was appalling but Jo and I are never deterred by the wind and set off.

We reached the dizzy height of 635m which is marked by a georgeous cairn. At this point the wind was so strong that I couldn't stand upright, never mind take a photo.

You can see we did have some respite from the driving snow and wind but that wasn't the only thing that preventing me taking photographs. You can see the herd of reindeer which was taken at some distance only because when they came within stroking distance I was a little alarmed!! Jo had to walk a little distance off with our dogs so I could try to drive them away with my walking pole.

If it weren't for the dogs, I would not have been so quite nervous. They seemed a LOT larger than the ones pulling Santa's sleigh (previous post) and were more numerous. I expect they are fed and used to humans and unlike cows, didn't seem too interested in the dogs, but they have very imposing antlers and there were a great number of them..as you can see. So, no close up photos but an experience to have 20 odd reindeer running across a snowy hillside to see us!

Meanwhile the husbands were doing their own form of exercise; Adie cycling and Ralph exercisersizing his mind with Saturday's Guardian. They did walk Pip in the afternoon.

Just for your info, dog lovers; Buffy is a GSX and 10, well used to hills and long days, and Moss is a brilliant hill dog, walking nearby and not running off and disappearing. Pip stays home for preference, that is MY preference, just because of her love of chasing animals small and BIG, probably like reindeer.

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