Day 102 Findhorn to Inverness

 

 Date: Saturday 2^nd June 2012   Distance: 37 Miles

 

We awoke to sunshine and the sound of other people’s sanilavs. Why are they so noisy?  We have a lot of colour and my skin is quite crinkly from yesterday’s  51 miles in the wind and sun. Breakfast was slower than the expected 8.15 but they were training a new waitress and it was fine.

 

We left Findhorn going back a little towards Lossiemouth to get to the cyclepath at Kinross another RAF base.

 

“Oh good” we thought, a distillery that is open to the public. It looked old but now just keeps the whisky, distilled somewhere else, in special barrels. I went in to the shop where someone was being handed a free sample. “All I got was a disdainful, “Can I help you?” translating to “what are you doing in here?” – I was in cycling gear! The organised tour would have added on too much time but he didn’t even try to sell us anything and we were much more likely to buy than the young fellow who’d had the taste of whisky. We went off in a huff.

 

At Nairn we stopped for a coffee at a community internet cafe. A hot scone, cappuccino and latte came to under a fiver. Nairn is full of Georgian buildings and looked interesting but we wanted to press on. There was to be a women’s golf tournament this weekend. Schoolchildren had done posters for it festooning the cafe windows. A car boot and jubilee festivities were happening in a nearby school and we sensed that here was another strong community like Port Soy.

 

We went out of Nairn on the main road, then, took the B road to Fort George, arriving a bit before 1pm. Bob had seen that this occupied fort cum museum is reputed to be a good spot for dolphin watching. It cost us £11 between us to get inside the walls including portable audio tours which we declined having bought a picnic from the cafe there and our hands were full. It was odd walking round while the soldiers were in their rooms or discreetly going about their business. There is quite a lot to see if the museum is open. We walked the ramparts looking over the Moray Firth. It was a gorgeous day and we ate our sandwiches in the cannon gaps, standing on the massively thick blocks of granite watching the glistening sea. We weren’t disappointed as we watched for some time as 2 dolphins swam near to us while further out another was occasionally leaping. What a lovely sight!

 

Over the bridge on the way in and out gulls were nesting in the grassy “moat” region. Some sat on eggs and there were tiny fluffy, speckled- brown babies. Around all the old buildings swallows had seemed tame, sitting close to where people walked. This place is much better as a nature reserve than a historical monument!

 

Leaving the fort we smelt the heavy coconut-like scent of the gorse as the sun warmed it. We had to retrace about a mile then it was B road to the main road which we took for a mile till we reached some more cycleway. Bluebells seemed a very deep blue here. Views were extensive but we were surprised to see a factory, oozing thick smoke at a low level and we smelt a chemicals.

 

 

We passed a sign for the Culloden Battlefield which we had visited during the Lands End to John o Groat’s ride. We cycled through part of Culloden via a path through a bit of woodland with carved trees depicting children’s literature- wizards, dragons and the Gruffalo.

 

We rode on to the Premier Inn at Inverness Industrial Park, where the bike was in the room with us and we enjoyed yet another good evening meal