We kicked off the Speyside Way today and could not have asked for a better day! After a full Scottish Breakfast at the Struan House B&B in Cluny Square of Buckie, we left our front door at 930am and literally walked steps to the official start of the way!

After a brief photo shoot and video upload to Instagram, we started the first 8km along the coast, skirting between side streets to stay close to the water as we searched the waves for bottle-nose dolphins, and minke whales. We didn’t find any of those but found a Mecca of harbour and grey seals – did you know they sing? It’s amazing and really unsettling actually it sounds so mournful. But so cool!

We wrapped up the coastal portion / half way in our day with some time at the Dolphin Centre were we enjoyed the hospitality of a warm cafe with such kind servers. We loved the scone with clotted cream and raspberry jam they served us. Washed down with a hot pot of tea, of course! Perfect warm up before heading out again to finish part 2 of the day.

We spent the rest of the afternoon, 8kms and about 3 hours kitted out in waterproofs but we were not bothered. The temp was great and the rain was only moderate not the torrential sideways stuff this country is know for! The rain started almost as soon as we left the Dolphin Centre so we even had a nice warm, dry spot to get our waterproofs on!

The afternoon had a fantastic detour (about 300m off trail) to this very long and neat aqueduct bridge! We loved it and just had to spend a bit of time taking some very cool photos. We had the place to ourselves which was fantastic!

After the bridge, we were on a well covered and flat forest path with loads of pine trees, rich ferns and some beautiful wild flowers that stood out so bright against the grey sky and green backdrop. Rosa snapped some of her epic flora pics!

We wrapped up our second 8km at just after 3pm when we arrived at our accommodation for the night, Gordon Arms Hotel, just a block of the trail. A tired but neat and clean 18th century hotel with creeky floors and ghostie vibes!

Along our way we met some great locals. The man walking Suki the greyhound / husky dog who told us about the seals in the harbour and whereto look for them; and the nice lady in the dream home built on the water who gave us the history of how she received the land from a fisherman’s bothy owner; and the amazing lady at the Dolphin Centre who was so kind and dropped off Rosa’s hiking poles to is at the hotel! She was not even coming through Fochabers but made a detour for us!

The stats …

Trail: Speyside Way, Scotland

Day: 1/5

To/From: Buckie/Fochabers

Start/Finish time: 9:30am/3:19pm

Distance: 16km trail (18.9km Hiiker App)

Steps: 28,557

Terrain: flat (forest track, tarmac, trail)

Weather: 16C Overcast AM, Rain PM

Breaky: Full Scottish Breakfast

Lunch n Snacks: Scone w Clotted Cream and Raspberry Jam, Sour Kids

Dinner: Steak and Ale Pie w Chips

Pints: 2

Tonight’s home: Gordon Arms Hotel

Mood: happy as all heck

Body: feeling great, right knee (torn PCL) misbehaving only a little

Highlights: seals singing!

Lowlights: lost poles

People of interest: Suki the dog) and her owner who told us all about the seal on the coast line

Funny bone: ‘special’

Spontaneous dancing: at least a few times

Deep thoughts: walk for the walk, the sights, the feels, the smells .. not for the finish line

A day to be grateful for and we assure you the gratitude was running deep! We had fun, we feel good, we are reminded of human kindness and the amazing places we are so blessed to hike through. Wow, what a day!

Tomorrow we are off to Craigallachie!

Brande