Badenoch Way

Confronted with this collection of signs when following the Badenoch Way from Glen Feshie to Drumguish and then on to Kingussie and Newtonmore.

I understand that if the Forestry Commision is working on felling trees and want to close off sections like this, they need to indicate alternative routes rather than just the BIG HAND saying (shouting?) 'No unauthorised persons allowed beyond this point'.

As there were no alternatives for us we had to proceed past this sign to get home, past stacked logs but NO WORK going on so one wonders why such signage should be up for 3 months or longer?

Must send this to the Forestry Commission for an explanation of how this meets with Land Reform legislation and access rights in the Cairngorms National Park.

The other very interesting find on this walk was the spotting of a VERY rare bird on the Insh Marshes outside Kingussie. We met a bird watcher at the hide who allowed us to view a Bittern throgh his powerful monocular on tripod - such a bird has not been seen in these parts for about 20 years!

Article in the Herald (Page 3) on Thursday 6th January for those interested.

Clearly I'm still playing catch up here with retrospective postings, but hey, that's three walks in three days in 2011!