Day 1: Inverness - Fochabers - Craigellachie - Abelour - Carron

The first day started with an early wake-up in my hostel in Inverness. I was "lucky" enough to be staying in the Hobbit Hole, a sauna that the hostel owners converted to a five-bed dorm room.

The view from the outside of the Hobbit Hole - a one-time sauna that now sleeps up to five budget-conscious travelers.

Inside the Hobbit Hole. The mattresses had the padding of yoga mats and the living quarters were a bit tight, but it wasn't so bad once you got past those little details.

Not a creature was stirring when I set out in the morning. The walk from the hostel to the bus station was a hike in itself - about 2 miles, mostly along the River Ness. One of my regrets from this trip was not making it up Loch Ness, but with any luck I can check it out on my next visit (and not be eaten by the Loch Ness Monster that we all know totally exists).

A view along the River Ness. No monsters in sight, but they
don't usually come this far downriver anyway.

From the Inverness bus station it was a two-hour ride out to the little town of Fochabers. The bus driver kept trying to convince me to buy a return ticket, likely because there's no way any tourist would want to spend more than an hour in Fochabers. As you read that, you're probably mispronouncing it to yourself in an attempt to maintain your modesty. I tried the same at first, but there's no way around the fact that the local pronunciation makes it sound like you're throwing out a four-letter word.

After getting off the bus I headed to Christie's Chemist to stock up on last-minute essentials (read: candy bars) and started my hike. I planned on the hike being relatively well-marked, but had already wandered off the path twice within my first 5 minutes hiking. Not a good sign. At all. The good news is that this seemed to be a problem mainly when you needed to navigate your way through town and my handheld GPS was enough to keep me on the right track. The trail joined a paved road outside of town and from then on things were smooth sailing.

This was early in the day, so you can understand why I'm still wearing that silly grin

The road wound through the countryside with great views of farms on either side. Everything was so incredibly green - but that makes sense when you consider how rain is an almost daily affair for the area.

Looking out over the green, grassy fields

My first view of the River Spey, the river from which the Speyside Way takes its name 

The road goes ever on... at least for the next four miles

You kind of see it from here, but that pack wasn't light. Usually 30lbs or so with the water full...

The long and winding road came to a head after reaching Boat o' Brig and the Speyside Way curved up a short hill until it reached some private farmland. This was the first land I crossed as part of the path, but crossing through others' land was just about all I did on Day 2. Even though you snake through someone else's land, the trail is usually pretty clear and well maintained.

Watch out for livestock!

Where's the livestock? Ok - watch out for beautiful views!

Another great shot, this one with the River Spey down below

The trail left the farm and passed alongside a shooting range before making its way up into the forrest around Ben Aigan. Let's break for a quick Scottish lesson: 

Ben = mountain

Burn = river

Loch = lake

Strath = a mountain valley

Inver (as a prefix) = the mouth of the river (so Inverness is the mouth of the River Ness)

After passing the shooting range, the trail continues along a woods path before reaching a forestry road that they're using for some logging operations. A logger passed me twice, once with an empty truck and once with a full one. We waved each time so I think that means we're friends now.

Luckily no shooting when I was around (though some random gunfire on Day 2 scared the pants off me)

Leaving the shooting range behind as I enter the forrest around Ben Aigan

Continuing along the route into the forrest

Now for a long forestry road that continued up along Ben Aigan

Some kind soul thought to put a picnic table right at this mini-summit
Check out the beautiful view of the valley below - wow!

And here's a direct shot of the valley, sans the picnic table

The picnic bench was about the half-way point of my time in Ben Aigan forrest, but the rest of the photos show much of the same. Fast-forward a bit to where I'm out of the woods and stumble upon this tiny little house. Just imagine how expensive their heating bill is in the winter. Something tells me the proprietor can probably afford the hit.

That's only about  1/3 of the total size of the house. Click here to see the satellite view on Google Maps. 

After a few more kilometers (that's French for "short miles") of winding country roads I came out onto the River Fiddich. If that's sounds familiar then you probably fancy yourself a whisky drinker. The Glenfiddich Distillery is just a few miles upstream. Too bad detours weren't on the agenda.

Crossing the River Fiddich

12 miles down! How many more to go?

Reaching Craigellachie meant I had officially finished the first stage of the hike recommended Walking Highlands website. With 12.5 miles under my belt this would have been a decent place to get a rest, but I couldn't find any last-minute vacancies with area B&B's. That meant continuing on along the Speyside Way for another 5 miles until reaching the little village of Carron. First things first this brought me through the sleepy-seeming town of Aberlour. I had no idea at the time that Aberlour actually produces a fairly famous whisky of the same name as well as Walkers Shortbread. I made a quick stop in to Aberlour to stock up on some essential supplies (read: beer) and grab a delicious meal (read: pre-made grocery store sandwich and a banana).

You have no idea how many sheep puns I made to myself while walking.  Or maybe you know me well enough that you know exactly how many sheep puns I made. This sign let me know that I'm not alone. 

Want to fill up your water at the public fountain?
Maybe if it wasn't filled with a nondescript white fluid.

With only three miles left it seemed like a fair time to load some beers into my backpack.

After a few minutes' reprieve from the slow-grind of the day's walk, I picked my pack back up and set out for Carron.

Only three miles left for Carron! Then again, these signs are not to be trusted.
For example, Grantown is closer to 25 miles away at this point.

Rain during a hike is never fun, but I counted myself lucky that the rain didn't come until the last few miles

A look over the fields in cloudier weather

Somebody isn't happy to be walking in the rain

You get to a section of my photos where there just aren't any for a few miles. That's generally a sign that the times weren't going so well. After more than 30,000 steps the bottoms of my feet were really starting to hurt. I checked the map again (and again and again) and saw that the hostel was just on the other side of the river, so I kept my eye out for any signs of the Spey. When I reached the river the rain was really starting to pick up, but I was so happy to see it that I stopped to talk a few photos.

View down the River Spey from Carron 

View up the River Spey from Carron

After 18 miles I finally arrived at my destination, the Riverwood Bed and Breakfast. Stella and Howard met me at the door and welcomed me into their home. I was feeling pretty rough and I'm sure I looked even worse than I felt.

Just minutes before I was struggling to put one foot in front of the other, but seeing this sign put the bounce right back in my step.

I've never been so happy to see a bed and what a bed it turned out to be.

After some quick conversation with Stella I decided it was time to get myself horizontal. I showered, washed up my clothes, and got right into bed. I had grand aspirations of reading for a while, but after 18 miles of hiking I was clearly kidding myself. I think I lasted two pages before calling it a night - the sun hadn't even set yet.

Prologue

I found myself in Scotland last month for work. In the broadest of strokes, I was meeting with two faculty of the University of Edinburgh to plan out a study that will form the basis of my dissertation. The work was demanding and is still a week or so from being finalized. That said, I wasn't about to travel to Scotland and let the beauty of the highlands pass me by.

The complete route for the Speyside Way,
including the spur that connects to Tomintoul.
Click here for the full route details.

I set aside a few days at the end of the trip to do something a little different. Starting in Fochabers, I would spend four days following the official route of the Speyside Way until arriving at the Scottish mountain town of Aviemore. The official route begins along the coast in Buckie, but Fochabers made more sense for someone trying to finish the route in four days.

The full walk from Fochabers to Aviemore would be about 55 miles. That's more than I've ever done in so short a time, but there's a first time for everything.

What follows is my day-by-day account of the trip. I may sit down and write all four days at once, but this could also take a little longer. It all depends on just who long-winded I decide to be. I'll do my best not to bore you with too much detail. Then again, if the writing weren't a bit chatty then you might doubt that I'm really the one writing all this.

I took over 300 photos across the trip and have spent a bit of time sorting through them to pick out the best ones. This blog is as much about pulling together a narrative for the photos as it is about anything else.