Bold Ben Vrackie

Another fresh and beautifully sunny morning. Decided to do our stride repeat running training after our first coffee. Our training session took us back to the recreation grounds were we watched the Highland Night. The perimeter trail was perfect for the interval sprinting 🏃💨

On the way back to the hostel, we stopped into the visitor center to obtain local hiking information. The fellow happily provided a few helpful suggestions.

With breakfast done, we geared up to tackle Ben Vrackie, a somewhat intermediate hike with lots of elevation gain; 840m to be exact. It was close to noon by the time we walked to the trailhead from the hostel in town, and very warm. By midway it was starting to cloud over, and at the top the wind was gusting and a wall of rain was headed our way ☔🙃 The friendly lady we swapped photography services with at the top is Australian, and will be on the same flight to the Faroe Islands on Thursday with us! Small world 🌍😀

While still dry, we found shelter from the wind for a quick lunch snack before descending the trail steps. The rain came upon us like a wave, and eventually ebbed into a splattering of sun and cloud. Maybe that's what the locals mean when they say "it's a bit scottish out"... A little of everything happening in succession. J was glad he grabbed his new rainproof jacket. While A was warm, he was looking pretty damp, but with a constant breeze we were dry by the time we reached the bottom.

We decided to take a right at the lake and loop around for the return trip. The detour route took us along a narrow and fairly muddy track through the Heather. Along the way J spotted blueberries amongst the Heather; very tasty and perfectly tart.

Still needing a few more items for dinner, we stopped at the grocery store on the way back to the hostel. For dinner, A made a very tasty stir-fry. After the extensive day's activities we decided on a quiet night in.Read more