Photo Trip Report: England and Scotland

[migrant]

Nice!!

[buksida]

It was time to get into the Cairngorms National Park which was about 20 miles from our base at the cottages. Using Google Maps, we located what could be a good first trek, a small lake called Loch Brandy in the mountains. To access it we drove up a gorgeous valley to a wee town called Glenclova, parked up in the free car park, and commenced the hike.

The views across the valley as we ascended were simply stunning, like a scene out of Lord of the Rings with rolling green carpeted hills interspersed with patches of vibrant pink and purple heathers, winding rivers, and babbling brooks. The weather started to close in as we got higher and close to the loch, which seemed a lot further than it looked on the map! Finally, we reached it but with a looming shroud of low clouds, the views were not as picturesque as the ascent. A few brave souls braved the dark icy waters and went for a swim, but we decided to make our descent back into the warmth since we had no wet weather gear.

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To be continued ...

[PeteC]

It looks like you could reach up and squeeze the water out of the clouds up by the loch. Beautiful place.

[buksida]

St Cyrus beach was pretty close to our base so we took a walk along the virtually empty sands of this pristine spot. One thing that struck me was how clean everything was, unlike Thailand and Asia where the beaches and beauty spots are strewn with plastic and Styrofoam.

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[Dannie Boy]

Very tranquil - great photos!!

[Big Boy]

Why the walkway? Was it over marshland?

[buksida]

Yes, the whole area was a protected nature reserve also.

[Thistle]

Once again,great photographs and trip report.
May i ask,did you choose the location you stayed in Scotland at for any specific reason?

[buksida]

May i ask,did you choose the location you stayed in Scotland at for any specific reason?

A friend who used to live in Thailand has bought a cottage there so we stayed with him and used that as a base to explore (beats paying for hotels which are very expensive in Scotland!)

[dtaai-maai]

While we're on the personal questions, Buksi, could I ask if you had the lads with you? I've kind of lost track of time, they've probably flown the nest by now!

[buksida]

No, just the mrs and I for this trip. The boys have missed so much school/education with 2 years of forced closures in Thailand so they needed to stay and catch up.

[buksida]

It was time to revisit Stonehaven, that quaint little touristy town up on the coast. Breakfast today was very Scottish, a massive sweetie-filled ice cream from Aunty Betty’s on the seafront as we fought off equally massive seagulls. We swerved the deep-fried Mars bar - another Stonehaven export.

Stony isn’t renowned for a big sandy beach but it does have a quaint little harbor and some oldy-worldy shops and pubs, and a very good butcher selling top-notch sausages, Lorne, patties, and black pudding so we loaded up for the BBQ later. The weather was not with us today, however, and it was time to get out the wind-breaker Berghaus.

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[Big Boy]

Having heard from relatives in Plymouth what they pay for ice-cream on Dartmoor (always a Credit Card job), how much did the massive sweetie-filled ice cream from Aunty Betty’s cost please?

My DIL does a mean deep-fried Mars bar, but her deep-fried Snickers is to die for . Served with deep fried ice cream, it is almost (literally) diabetic heaven. Only served as a special treat, very rarely.

Was there any story behind the Viking Boat in IMG_20220830_123609 please?

[buksida]

Needed a bank loan for the ice creams which were £5.50 each, however, the shop was one of those famous touristy ones which explained it. I'm not an ice cream fan so this was a rarity for me.

All of the sculptures along the seafront had a little story to them, even the BBC covered them:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-no ... d-46814307
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-no ... d-48186165

[Big Boy]

That was cheap - family pay double on Dartmoor, and nothing so nice.

HaHa, I thought the other sculpture (fishing boat) was a burnt out wreck The Stonehaven Banksy - I like that.