Someone in a coffee shop in Inverness mentioned to me that Rosemarkie was worth a visit. Given the coffee shop in question served me outstanding coffee and veggie food (Velocity cafe for anyone interested), I thought I’d take them up on this recommendation. Rosemarkie sits on the north side of the Moray Firth, on a small spit of land that sticks out into the water. It is apparently one of the best places in the world to see dolphins from the land, because they chase salmon up the Moray Firth… but I didn’t see any 😦 😦 😦
The nice people at Rosemarkie campsite were able to squeeze me in, and I was pitched pretty much right on the beach. I had a wander up the beach and sat down watching the waves while the sunset developed. Later on we also got a very bright moon which highlighted the fluffy clouds passing by in the dark.
The sound of the waves was so loud that every so often a huge crashing sound would make me jump, forcibly reminding me that I was by the sea. Funnily enough the waves were *almost* too loud, and I wondered if they’d slowly drive me mad if I was to stay for a week. I didn’t stay to find out because I was heading back to munro country the next day once all my van-chores (laundry, water fill, empty bins and toilet etc) were done.
I hadn’t been round to the Braemar side of the Cairngorms yet so I thought it was high time. And it was a high drive over the Lecht down to the Linn of Dee where a bunch of munro walks in my books start from. I stopped en route at Braemar castle to take a snap of their reassuring message:
At only 27km(!) Carm a’ Mhaim is one of the shorter walks in this area, so I thought it would be a good one to get the lay of the land. The skies were looking nice in the morning so I kept the pace up on the looong walk out to the hill hoping they’d still be nice when I got to the top.
When I got to the Luibeg Burn I opted for the stepping stones. I’d seen a few signs that one of the bridges was out of use, and assumed (lazily without checking the map) that it was the one over this Burn. Plus there were footprints at the edges showing others had clearly opted to hop across on the stepping stones and I didn’t want to be out-done! There were several options on where to cross – I tried but backed out of a couple of places because the stones were very slippy, or it was too big a leap for my little legs, or the stepping stones were too submerged in fast running water. One slip and I’d quickly find myself knee deep in very cold water. On a third attempt I told myself to stop wimping out. I got over one, two, onto a third in the middle of the stream, found my footing on the next – submerged – stone, held the balance, prepared for the next step and…. gaaaaah…. Mayday – river in boot! Given I managed to keep one foot dry, we’ll begrudgingly call this one a draw – River: 1, Me: 1. I sat down to wring out my sock and half the river came out.
Up the hill the wind was a’blowin! One of the windiest days I’ve walked on. I was getting decisively shoved and bullied about by the wind. Each time I lifted a foot to take a step it would land in a totally different place to where I’d intended. Anyway I battled on up to the top and thanks to the winds keeping the clouds at bay – got clear views!!
Carn a’ Mhaim looks across the Ben Macdui so I’d like to dedicate these pictures to Tash and Udani who slogged up Ben Macdui in the mist to not even see Ben Macdui!
The sun came out in force as I went back down the hill, giving me the pictures-with-the-green-dot that I like to get from shooting into the light.
On the way back I decided to walk up the river to see if there was an easier place to cross, keen to keep my one-dry-foot dry. Further up the river it was flowing more ferociously over some mini-rapids. And…. ta da!! The Bridge! Me: 2, River: 1 😀
I think that’s all I have to say on this one, but lets just have one more green dot from the walk back for good measure:
Only Young Twice 