Speyside Way: Day 2 - Glenlivet to Aberlour

This day was glorious in parts and a serious slog in others. Dierdre dropped us back at the defunct campsite and we headed up the hillside, with views of Ben Rinnes before us and the Glenlivet distillery nestled in the valley behind us. The moorland was fantastic to walk through: stunning colours and bouncy underfoot. Grouse flapped around us again, startled by our presence. We were looking forward to reaching Ballindalloch. As we walked down the road to it, the place grew into mythological proportions - a shop! A restaurant! Tea! Nope. The restaurant had closed, not to reopen. It was a Sunday, so the shop was closed. Luckily, we'd filled our water bottles to the max and I had some Karg crackers and chocolate. We consoled ourselves with a cracker and exploring the Bridge of Avon (I liked the dog sculptures on the gatehouse).

Onwards, then, to Blacksboat at which the guidebook said there was a tap. Before meeting the main Speyside Way track, we passed a campsite. We both felt it was a little early to rest up for the night, especially when there was no shop nearby (although it would be open in the morning). At this point it was 2pm and we had nigh on 10 miles to Aberlour. It's a bit of a stretch, but we went for it. We thought we could always camp at Blacksboat if needed.

Certainly, other people had camped there. But you couldn't drink the tap water you without boiling it first and we had no cooking gear. [Insert some choice words here.] We'd rationed our water, so we had enough for the day, but we there was no choice but to walk to Aberlour if we wanted water for the morning. And there would still be 10 miles to walk.

The path, an old railway line, was lovely and verdant, and the railway furniture was fascinating. Each station had great character and the working distilleries wafted tempting scents of fermenting hops. None of the distilleries seemed to be open for visitors, which was a shame. I had a rest at my namesake (see the blip). There was a fair bit of large building work going on around the Carron distillery - a new distillery, perhaps?

We reached Aberlour with at dusk. We collapsed gasping into the fish and chip shop and left triumphant with fish suppers and cups of tea. Aberlour even had a shop, and it was open! We cheated a bit and caught a taxi to the campsite, which was a couple of miles away behind the town - neither of us fancied setting up the tent in the dark after trying to find the site. Even though it was still light enough to see, at 9pm, the campsite concierge gave us a stern talking to for coming in late and disturbing the other campers. We were a bit taken aback, but hung our heads and tucked our tails between our legs, shuffling out to take a spot "far enough away" from sleeping campers.

An hour after we'd snuggled into our sleeping bags, a car drove up, lights blazing into our tent. Car doors opened and shut, then chat, chat, chat... If the lady was so militant about noise past sundown, surely cars should park outside the campsite? And people should be gagged. We raised our eyebrows, shook our heads and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

More photos of the day here.