Meeting the Reindeer

It was Rest Day at the Scottish Six Days today although some folks chose to do a Sprint Race or Trail-O.  We were booked in to visit the Cairngorm Reindeer in the afternoon so no orienteering for us today.  In the morning we went to Brodie Castle which has a fantastic Playful Garden for children.  No swings and roundabouts here, just safe grassy hills to tumble down; a giant Brodie rabbit; tunnels to crawl through; giant spinning tops; a miniature castle house and Euan's favourite was the Zoetrope flowers which when spun around showed a monkey doing lots of silly things.

From Brodie, we drove south to Aviemore, lunched at the Rothiemurchus Barn and then travelled further up the valley to the Reindeer House to check in for the visit to the herd high up on the Cairngorm slopes.  Euan was hoping to see his sponsored reindeer Texel for the first time but she was out ranging free on the mountains.  Instead he said hello to her son 99 (this year's calves are named after ice creams!) which is a white reindeer.  He loved being amongst the herd and feeding them.  Becky and Jenny have sponsored reindeer for about thirty years but their two were also out on the hills.

After the visit we called in to the Tiso Cafe in Aviemore for cuppas and cake, had a stint in the playground and set off back to Findhorn.  Unfortunately, the busy day didn't end there as Becky discovered her phone was missing and Rob tracked it to a car in Forres!  I won't go in to the whole story but it involved several hours waiting around for the local police to turn up; a very helpful neighbour; some dodgy characters and, sadly, a broken phone which looked as if it had been run over at some point.