Today is day 2 of 5 on the trail for us, walking the 21km from Fochabers to our new place to stay in Craigellachie at The Highlander.

A day of classic Scottish weather for us. Aka you don’t know what you are going to get from one minute to the next but you at least know the rain is never quite done with you. Keeping on eye the trail and one on the sky today we made our way across 10km of minor roads and the rest 11km rest forest track and woodland path. Putting on and taking off our waterproofs as often as the trail switches from flat to steady incline.

We started the day back at the Speyside Way path just a couple of blocks from Gordon Arms Hotel in great, only overcast conditions. T-shirt’s and sunnies! The first long stretch of minor road was ahead of us first, about 6km I would say. A nice wide section with almost 0 cars making for easy walking and great conversation as we walked along.

From there, the path turned to take us along some farms, a fantastic country mansion (who rudely didn’t not even notice us passing or invite us in for a tour and a tea despite our thinking they most definitely should) and then into forest track for a lot of kilometers.

There was a great view point along route called Earth Pillars where you could look over the Speyside River and compare how it looks today with a photo from the exact spot in our guide book from 1983. Still impressive but wow so different. There was a fly fisherman in the picture and one today … thinking it’s not the same guy or has at least gone home a few times between then and now for snacks.

Before heading up, up, up hill into the forest we first passed Boat O’Brig Bridge. The bridge was named over 400 years ago when the bridge of the Spey River collapsed and the ferry had to float over the bridge remains .. boat over bridge. We took a micro break at this spot and even got to see a train cross this beauty.

The ever climbing, most gently and some sections not quite as gentle, took us up to the shoulder of Knock More and then Ben Aigan. Don’t be too impressed yet. Yes, a Ben is a Mountain here but they are not what our Canadian readers would consider a mountain, aka the Rocky Mountains. Ben Aigan is just 471m high. So a fantastic workout but not anything sketchy for this gal who hates heights.

We rambled along the shoulder of Ben Aigan for quite some time rewarded with great views over lush farmland with far views of the coast where we started our day just yesterday.

Some kind soul put a picnic table along the route tucked nicely off the track – the sun was shining as we passed so of course we had our 2-sies stop here. (2-sies is afternoon or second break and often around 2pm. Not to be confused with 11-sies which is morning break and often around 11am and may or may not be the favourite break of hobbits).

We took full advantage of the bench and break in the clouds to get the feet up, get socks dried or new dry socks on, and give my bum knee a little time off too.

From there we had a long, gentle decline along forest track and then minor road for the rest of the afternoon. This section, as warned by the guidebook, did get a little monotonous but great conversation, random dance moves, short bursts of song lyrics, taking off and putting back on rain gear, and munching on naked Skittles broke it up quite nicely.

As we came back into civilization at the end of the day we stumbled upon the Fiddichside Inn. This Inn was built in 1842 and first served as a place for refreshment (think whisky) for rail workers, then expanded to an Inn and is now still a tiny wee pub (maybe 20 x 10 feet) with a huge deck with picnic tables for those rare sunny days and an Air BnB on the backside.

A great decision to stop! The gran (Gail) behind the bar was so fantastic. She was telling stories about the bar’s history to us and in such thick Scottish with all the ken’s instead of know’s and dinnae’s instead of did not’s and w’ instead of with and more. Love!

We tried to get a photo with Gail but she would have no such thing and instead took a photo of us behind the bar – Rosa got to get up close and personal with the whisky she was tasting! I on the other hand discovered Speyside Way Lager. Yummy!

After our pints, we walked the 500m along the River path to our accommodation and accidentally had another pint on their porch before some dinner, showers and a tuck into bed to rest up for our walk to Ballindalloch!

A few stats for ye:

Trail: Speyside Way, Scotland

Day: 2/5

To/From: Fochabers/Craigallachie

Start/Finish time: 9:28am/5:36pm

Distance: 21km trail (21.1km Hiiker App)

Steps: 27,653

Terrain: gentle climbs and declines (forest track, 10km of minor road)

Weather: 14C Overcast w Rain and Sun

Breaky: Full Scottish Breakfast

Lunch n Snacks: Mature Cheese on White Bread with French Onion crisps and baked Skittles

Dinner: Mac & Cheese

Pints: 4

Tonight’s home: Highlander Inn

Mood: happy

Body: feeling great but getting grief from the right knee

Highlights: The Fiddichside Inn

Lowlights: road walking

People of interest: Gail the barkeep at Fiddichside Inn, and Whiskey the poodle

Funny bone: Ordiequish the Octopus

Spontaneous dancing: seldom, damn rain

Deep thoughts: a good marriage includes remembering your wife’s Starbucks order

Brande