Date: 2nd July 2016
Day 5 Destination: See some more of the Northwest part of the Cairngorms National Park including it’s main city Aviemore & the town of Grantown-on-Spey
Day 5 Travel Map
Costs: £5.5 (Aviemore train) + £6 (return bus ticket Aviemore – Grantown) + £5 (Brewery tour) + £4 (breakfast/brunch) + £6 (tent) = £26.50 ($35.25)
Note: Dinner not included cuz splurged with Yoda & our friends. Not counting it towards the “true” solo camping trip.
Lessons Learnt:
- Though I did not learn the lesson this day itself, always use your Spirit of Scotland pass if you have the opportunity. Being a newbie with this pass, I though that it’s prudent for me to not use the pass for the measly £5.50 needed for the return ticket on the Newtonmore – Aviemore train to save a slot on the 8/15 days usage pass. I was wrong. It’s near impossible to use all 8 days on the 15 day Spirit of Scotland pass. So use it at every opportunity you get.
- Brewery tours are a way more fun a) if you have an extremely charismatic guide – both females in our group developed mini-crushes on the guide who seemingly had done everything from being a lumberjack to a water polo player & b) with friends around to jest with.
Cairngorms brewery wisdom
- The Cairngorms brewery tour is amazing value for money at £5 per person (8+ beers to taste). Additionally, they also sell mini-kegs at around £18 for 5L of beer which we shared among us on Day 6. Also the Winking Owl’s Steak & Ale pie is the bomb!!
- Aviemore is the go-to place to buy anything you have missed out on bringing to a month-long camping trip. We bought an extra mat, a pillow & satisfied Yoda’s fascination with owning different types of toothbrushes by buying a foldable toothbrush, all from Mountain Warehouse
Ramblings
As mentioned previously, our main writeup on this region is very detailed & filled with ramblings. The only thing of note is that there lies an Osprey reserve in a very beautiful forest between Aviemore & Grantown which we saw but did not plan to get off. Turns out that forest was one of the Forest Parks run by Scotland’s Forestry Commission. I would learn much later that these forest parks are gems based on our visits to Argyll & Galloway forest parks. If visiting this area, please don’t repeat our mistake & have a wander around the Cairngorms Forest Park.
This was the part of the trip with the most food at our disposal as 4 people shared the load. Here is part of our spread including Scottish smoked salmon, Grasmere gingerbread from the Lake District, super-addictive Sainsbury cheese sticks & many Boots sandwiches & drinks.
Here are some other pics that we like from the day not shared in our main writeup.
Golf course near Grantown
Folk learning the sport of caber tossing
Dramatic views at Aviemore station
Beyond our horizons 