Up and over

Woke to rain which turned heavy as we had breakfast….somewhat depressing to consider a day out in it and few indoor options given it’s Sunday. We took some time to decide (having investigated whether we could just go back to Edinburgh instead but we couldn’t cancel the booking), then headed off for a drive over the hills to Grantown on Spey. As we drove it brightened up and we had some great views up on the tops (even saw some snow still in places). In Grantown we wandered around the farmer’s market (in drizzle again!) then headed back and decided to do the walk to Burn O’Vat that V had told me about. We booted up and headed into the forest and walked for about an hour enjoying the bird song (tree creepers, willow warblers and long tail tits), flashes of sun through the trees and ferns, and a couple of frogs and an ant hill that we saw along the way. We reached a signpost and realised we’d gone the wrong way, so backtracked but ended up at the car park still without having seen the rock feature of the Vat. Bizarre. S stayed in the car park and I dashed back to try again and after two further false turns I realised that the sign to ‘Waterfall’ was actually the sign to the Vat and I clambered up and into the rock amphitheatre (extra). Impressive, but annoying how poorly signposted it had been!
Headed for a drink to the local Cheese shop and cafe, then back to the hotel in sunshine. Nearly sat out in the garden with a beer but had more phone calls with VickyG and N before dinner (steak pie) and an early night.