AVIEMORE TO KINGUSSIE ON THE BADENOCH WAY

Last week my focus was on a winters walk in the Pentlands Hills, on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Thirsty for more I decided to venture a little further afield, three hours north by train, to Aviemore and the Cairngorm National Park.

Pauline was already there when I steeped off the train at 10.30pm, having coming direct from teaching my film students on Saturday. The temperature was falling and underfoot was icy, as we walked a short distance toward the woods at Inverdruie to camp for the night.

It wasn't the best of days the next morning, with gusts up to 45mph, so the planned idea of bagging a few tops was out. Instead we opted for a leisurely low level walk back to Kingussie over two days, picking up the Badenoch Way within 4km of setting off.

Our route south west first took us under the shadow of Ord Ban and around the northern shore of Loch an Eilein With its castle ruin on a small island at the start of the path, it is always a pleasure and it is one of my favourite places in this area.

The wind was bitter as our direction took us through the forest of Scots Pine toward Feshiebridge. It had been something in the region of 10 years since I had been in this part of Cairngorm National Park, and I was surprised at the amount of new tree growth, some already taller than me. I suspect some of it is from the release of seeds as the felled timbers are dragged from the forest, as many of the trees were simply spruce. Still, trees are trees.
A little further on an we came upon a totem pole style wooden sculpture of owls and red squirrels, which was fun, but what made this one unique to others we had seen was the use of glass beads for the yes, giving them an almost real look.

As we wandered along the fringes of the mountains, some had streaks of snow remaining, and one, to me anyway, looked like frosting on a  Christmas pudding.

Crossing the river we picked up a track neither of us had wandered before, which would lead us to a small collection of four wee lochans, the main being Uath Lochan, pronounced Wah Lochans and meaning the hawthorn small lochs. The forest was pretty, and very dense around the lochs and this would be camp for the night. After hiding our heavy kit, we were early so took off for a wander to a crag called Creag Far-leitire, marked on the map as a viewpoint. Far-leitire translates as Far Searches, so I'm not quite sure what this crag derives its name. The view down to the lochans from the top were fabulous, and the thin frozen surface of Uath had created an almost Paisley pattern.

The water from the lochan was of a colour that would have given a doctor cause for concern had been a "sample", so in failing light and drizzly rain we went in search of the small burn marked on the map. It was no better and so we made do. It certainly made dark coloured tea that evening.

The following day we took the same path that had come down form the crag and picked up the Badenoch Way. I was glad that Pauline had persuaded me to go up for the view the previous afternoon as now it was fairly misty with low cloud and drizzly rain at times.

The well defined path took us across moor and through forest, past Inveruglas and Insh, popping out at Drumguish. A little further on we crossed Tromie ridge, its waters raging with the recent rain fall and snow melt higher up, and entered the RSPB Insh Marshes Nature Reserve.

Friendly mules greeted as we skirted the reserve, following the narrow path edged in leafless trees decorated with lichen. As we rounded the hill on the southern edge of the reserve the ruins of General wade's mighty Ruthven Barracks, perched prominently atop a defensive mound.

Having hardly seen a soul over the two days, we ended our adventure passing under the chaos of the A9 and into Kingussie for our train home.