TGOC'26 Day 7 Balgowan to Kingussie

 Today is a day of several parts, or at least it seemed to me like several parts. It will also be picture heavy. Take some time with these photos as they really are a great representation of how beautiful Scotland can be. After waking up and gathering all my gear, that had been scattered about to dry, Emma made coffee and breakfast, which was much appreciated.

Finally packed and ready to head out for the day. We wave goodbye to "Mom and Dad" and off we go. Thanks again to both Emma and Carl for coming out, but don't think this is goodbye for good, just stay tuned.

Literally, Up the hill, 100 yards from our Hobbit Hut and we enter a truly enchanted forest. This is part of the grounds of Cluny Castle (not the giant castle near Aberdeen, but a more modest house, that was once the seat of Clan McPherson 

Internet Photo 

This whole place might as well be out of the grounds of Hogwarts 

The whole area is covered in moss and looks like it has been left alone for hundreds of years. 

Even Muffin has stuck her head out to take a look

I was right, it is enchanted. We stumble upon a nest of the Woodland Haggis. We move quickly and quietly as to not wake them! 

We see an exit and move toward the light

We break out into the open again. We blink and count ourselves lucky. A rainbow confirms it

We turn our attention and sights on Dalnashallag Bothy on the banks of the Allt Madagain and River Calder

The picture looks like we would be walking on pathless ground, but this like many areas with large estates has many improved roads put in for hunting deer and grouse, so this is a nice gravel track

The first really good look at the Monadhliath and the amount of snow cover. It does not look really bad and certainly walkable, but as you can tell from a few of these photos the visibility comes and goes completely. I have been trying to justify my foregoing my original plan to walk the Monadhliath ridge, but I have had a great time walking with Andy and seeing friends I only get to see in person once a year, if I am lucky. The mountains will be there again for me on another Challenge 

Looking down Glen Banchor

Monadhliath being swallowed in clouds 

Dalnashallag Bothy

The River Calder can be really tough to cross in spate (Gaelic for flooded) but today, even with the rain over the past few days, it is not a problem. 

It is going to rain on us now (and hail) 

We will cross several tributaries walking down Glen Banchor

And rain again

Ruins of Glenballoch

We pass out of the Glen and into the outskirts of Newtonmore after one more really hard rain. 

Just a few hundred feet past taking the photo above, we ran into Ali, one of the coordinators of the Challenge, she and her husband Adrian live very near and invited us in to their home to dry off and have a cup of tea. 

and cake! ... yum

Ali needed have a chance to say hi to Muffin

After tea, which was much appreciated and a bit of drying out. We walked the rest of the way into Newtonmore. Along the way we discovered the "wild cats" of Newtonmore

There are 132 painted ceramic cats located around town and there is a map to try and see them all.

you can get the map and other details at the Wild Cat Center in Newtonmore 

I think we spotted about a dozen on our walk into and out of Newtonmore

We still had a few miles to go as we were not stopping in Newtonmore but continuing on to Kingussie.

More snow covered Monadhliath Mountains. 🤷

We are now officially on the Spey Side Way. Muffin definitely looks worn out. 

We made it to Kingussie and look who we found. We literally can't shake them, Emma and Carl. To be fair, I wouldn't want too and they had reservations in Kingussie, as they were all suppose to walk in a group with Andy this year. 

We met at the Sugar Bowl, a superb coffee shop. I had a nice latte and more cake.... 

I will definitely not be losing any weight on this Challenge. 

After coffee and cake, I needed a few items from the CO-OP grocery store, while everyone checked into their respective lodging. Carl and I had rooms at the Avondale Guest House, a very nice B&B.

Internet Photo

My room was just right

It was decided that we would go back to Newtonmore for dinner. A hotel called The Glen. The fish and chips were very good!

And this time we would be joined by everyone's favorite Challenger, Humphrey. It was an excellent meal, not that I needed to really eat anymore! 😁 

As I said, this day seemed to have multiple parts; finishing up in the Hobbit Hut, The Fairy Forest, The moors and main walk in Glen Banchor, tea at Ali's, meeting up with the gang again in Kingussie and finally dinner with everyone including spending time talking with Humphrey.

So, I will leave you with this little tale of the mouse on the bar room floor. Tomorrow I will see if I can resume my planned route and go up into the Cairngorms.

Day 7 Summary and Stats:

needed to make a few additions as my watch died in Newtonmore.