Sunny Spey Bay

Bit of a late blip as we were so busy.  It was nicer weather today.  We went to Spey Bay, a small village at the mouth of the Spey and a place where we used to live.  On the drive the snow started falling again but it had cleared by the time we got there and was sunny and warm when out of the wind.  It’s a beautiful spot and great for watching wildlife, although it gets some pretty wild weather in winter.  We kept an eye out for dolphins and osprey (one of the local ospreys had been spotted for the first time this year a few days before our visit).  There was no sign of them, although there was plenty of other bird and plant life to see.  By chance we met some friends who were searching for lost keys. It was great to catch up but they didn’t find the keys.  My wife was the ranger there for several years and we miss having such a wild place right on our doorstep.  The Speyside Way is a long distance path which runs from Aviemore to the coast.  I have cycled it a few times, including once when I did the whole thing overnight after work on the summer solstice.  I had hoped to benefit from the long hours of light on the solstice but unfortunately it was a particularly wet night with little light and one of the most tiring cycles I’ve done.  The buildings here used to be part of a salmon fishing station.  In its heyday the fishermen were catching huge numbers of fish by netting the mouth of the river.  The fish were processed and boxed up in ice then sent all over the country by rail.  You can see the old Tugnet ice house in the far left of the photo, and our old house on the right side of the archway.