Around Britain

I took the train from King's Cross to Aberdeen – a 7 and a half hour journey. The Summerhill Best Western Hotel boasted an aggressive Scottish menu. Every single main dish was accompanied by chips. The one daring exception (my choice) was Chicken in pepper sauce with chips or rice or 50/50. I could see that many diners would not be bold enough to abandon chips altogether.

My first course was garlic breaded mushrooms. This was served with an apology of a salad and a bowl of white sauce. The idea was to dunk the mushroom balls into the sauce. The trick was to penetrate each ball with a fork. Mine kept glancing off the hard crust. My perseverance was rewarded when I was able to place the ball into my mouth covered with sauce. The casing then dissolved to release a liquid carrying solids with a flavour of mushrooms. All this was washed down with a pint of MacEwans.

My hotel was three miles from the centre so I took a cab to Aberdeen Station for breakfast and the papers at Costas. I considered alternatives but Costas had 4 staff who didn't seem to mind being busy. Other places looked sleepy.

My taxi driver was aged 61 and had driven cabs for 42 years. He had no complaints as it had been a living. My ride cost £10.60 – a bit steep I thought so I just rounded it up to £11.

The weather was fine and I wore shorts. I hit a fastish pace and maintained 3.5 mph for at least 14 miles. My route followed the A956 over the Don where I could see two ships out beyond the river's mouth. Helicopters buzzed back and forth, no doubt serving the rigs. There was much new housing on the periphery. The prosperity of the town was reflected in the hotel prices. Mine at £72 without breakfast was the cheapest of a large number I saw on a website.

At a roundabout where I joined the A90, I opted for a parallel road which wound through an industrial estate. This accommodated many engineering companies. As I emerged from this estate I saw the Premier Inn I'd tried to book several weeks ago but which by then had already been full.

Off the B99 there was a pond in a depression well below the level of the road. A red deer hind raced uphill away from the pond followed shortly after by a youngster. I had a good sight of them leaping through a field of wheat. I was quite a distance away and no threat so I thought they might have been running just for the exhilaration of doing what they were best at. Twice today I heard skylarks and once I saw one hovering high above a field. I could not keep it in view but its song continued.

I turned off the B road to pass through Potterton and Belhelvie. After a short spell on the B977 I took a minor road to Minnes. The country was now farmland with fields of sheep and steers. The latter chased up towards me and then didn't know what to do next. I turned to confront one persistent herd and we stared at each other for 30 seconds. Then I flung my arms up and they shied away.

More new houses were being built at Foveran and soon after I was in Newburgh, a small town with a post office and one or two modest shops. I stopped at a bench to drink my blackcurrant juice and eat a flapjack and some yogurt coated raisins. Then I pushed on over the River Ythan where fisherman were standing with rods in the river. I saw a dead seal washed up against the sea wall. It has lost most of its fur to reveal a reddish skin. Its teeth were visible.

I had to stick to the A975 for a while but it was very quiet for a main road. At this point I realised the backs of my legs were sunburnt. I escaped the A road onto the B9003 which went to Collieston. A minor road with a view of the sea took me past a series of farms and a small oil terminal to re-join the A975. I followed it into Cruden Bay and the St Olaf's Hotel. B & B £47.

Today I covered 25.7 miles in 7:39:50 Total 1539.87

I left Cruden Bay in weather quite different from yesterday – overcast and damp. After a couple of miles I found that I still had the hotel key. I rang the hotel to say that I was outside a restaurant called ‘Little Gem' but no one seemed to be up. The hotel told me to post the key through the letter box and they would collect it later.

On the road to Peterhead I passed a Works Site from which lorries seemed to be removing soil. A large area had been excavated and I thought that they might be digging out a reservoir. Later I met a farmer who told me that the work was connected to a nearby quarry. This was being used for landfill to take rubbish from Inverness. Clay was being taken to seal the landfill site. He expressed amazement at the number of lorries bringing rubbish to the landfill.

The farmer was on a bike and had been cycling round to check his stock – mostly cattle but some sheep. He had steers which lived for between 2 years and 30 months before being taken to one of the three local slaughter houses. Two of these were in Inverurie. His farm and one or two local dwellings were supplied with water by a nearby well. The level never fell more than two feet. There was a tank by the side of the road and the water was pushed around by an electric pump. He asked what I was doing and told me that others were doing similar things. A German on a bike had travelled all over Europe and had a website to recount his activities. He had looked like a tramp and slept out.

Later I met a girl out running although her run was little more than a fast walk.

I crossed the A90 and entered Peterhead via the A982, passing through an industrial area to the south of the town. I came to a large harbour and proceeded to the town centre. The shops looked poor but I found a very good coffee shop. The milky coffee, a tiffin and a raisin scone was enough to keep me going for the rest of a long day.

I left the town on the Formatine and Buchan Way created from a railway which had been a Beeching casualty. I followed this to Longside and then headed north on minor roads. Again I crossed the A90 and rejoined the F & B Way for the final stretch to Fraserburgh. I did 30.28 miles in 9.37.37 today. 1570.15

My B & B (Abervale) was a modest Guest House. My simple room had a basin but the WC and shower were separate. Jackie, the proprietor, recommended that I should go the Leisure Centre to eat. It had a bar and a large restaurant. An area was taken up with 10 pin bowling. I had more food than I could eat and retired to my room quite stiff and with sore feet.

There were two other guests at breakfast. A quiet man had been born in Fraserburgh, left at 3 years old with his family who eventually settled in Canada. He was back on a nostalgic visit. The other was a wind turbine supplier. I'd seen a lot of these (often singles) in the countryside and wondered why. The man explained that, although turbines cost £180,000 each, the Government paid the installer £50,000 a year. This was regardless of whether any of the electricity produced was returned to the National Grid. I didn't take to the man particularly. He had arranged to meet someone in a town 10 miles away, had risen later than planned but didn't bother to ring to say he'd be late.

Jackie deplored the loss of some local hotels which had been bought by the Council to accommodate the homeless. She said that Fraserburgh was best known for carpet bowling, a vintage car rally and the Blue Light festival. This was a celebration of the emergency services. She charged me £30 for my stay.

At Peathill I asked a tough looking old man with a wheelbarrow the road to Macduff. Despite my map I was temporarily confused. He put me on the right road. I learnt he had been a fisherman and had then lived in New Zealand. He said he lived off the land and could carry an 80 pound pack 15 miles in a day. He mentioned a number of NZ place names. I asked him whether he was building as an area close to his cottage looked like a timber yard. He said he had to keep busy although his knees troubled him. He was in his early seventies.

Near New Aberdour I took to a path over high ground running parallel to the B9031. I rejoined the road and passed near Pennan. The road was quiet so I stuck to it although there was little alternative. I passed close to Gardenstown and reached Macduff where I was booked into the Knowes Hotel. This was high up above the Harbour close to a war memorial tower that rose above the town in a small park.

I hurried to the Bus Depot to confirm that I didn't have to pre-purchase my bus ticket to Aberdeen next morning. Back at the hotel I had my best meal this trip – fish cake followed by venison. The manager/owner was very pleasant and the staff friendly. I shall probably return here when I undertake the next stage. 20.47 miles Total 1590.62

Monday 19th November 2012

Caught 10 am train from Kings Cross to Aberdeen. Once there I transferred at once to the 35 bus in Union Square next to the station. After another two hours I reached MacDuff and checked in at the Knowes Hotel. I was in time to have dinner there.

Over breakfast I talked to the only other guest, a freelance engineer working with Ace Winches. Their winches are used in the oil industry. Four, weighing 54 tons each, had been flown to Canada in a single Russian plane. This plane can take payloads up to 250 tons. Ace employs 250 people locally. Our discussion ranged over the welfare system. He said that in Jersey and Guernsey, the jobless received unemployment benefit for 6 weeks. Thereafter it was subject to the condition that claimants did work allocated to them. What a good idea! It might also cut down on fraud.

Before leaving I had a pleasant chat with the proprietor. She claimed to remember me from my visit earlier in the year. The waitress who served me dinner last night was equally pleasant.

I set off at 0830 in dry weather although the news had been about flooding in England. My luck held all day – just as well as the zip on my jacket doesn't seem to work. I crossed the River Deveron into Banff and stopped at the Co-op for the paper. I walked near the beach through Scotstoun and joined the cycle route, part of the National Cycle Network. A building marked as a church on the map turned out just to be the surviving end wall of an old church standing in a cemetery. From the B9139 I could look down on Whitehills on a headland called Knock Head. No time for a detour as today was to be an easy day to keep me fresh for harder days to come.

It was notable that the sun never rose much above the horizon, casting long shadows throughout the day. At least the sun was there to be seen most of today. Late in the afternoon, the clouds departed and I finished under a blue sky.

I made an inexplicable error before Portsoy which left me on the A98 some way short of the town. There wasn't much traffic so it wasn't too troublesome. In Portsoy I enjoyed a pot of tea in a large café at the back of a general store. I would have had something else but the none of the cakes with icing on top appealed to me. I left Portsoy on the A98 but was able to turn off it into a housing estate just before the pavement ended. This took me to a path along the old railway. When the railway became elevated on an embankment, the path ran alongside but eventually abandoned me in a wood. After negotiating the wood and a field, I rejoined the railway track. I could see the A98 to my right but wanted to avoid it as there was no provision for pedestrians. Instead I took the road to Fordyce. There was an old church where there had been Christian worship for 1000 years until the new church replaced it in 1804.

At Birkenbog I saw the perfect walled enclosure for a walled garden. The walls were substantial and buttressed on one corner. Inside I could only see grass. Of the two houses that separated it from the road, one was derelict. Shortly after I met a man on the road (without a dog). In answer to my question he conceded that he was local. The Birkenbog enclosure had been a walled garden in the days of the Birkenbog estate, he told me. P would have been excited by its possibilities but deterred by the climate.

At Lintmill I took the lane towards Old Cullen but then returned to the A98 and into Cullen. Every café offered Cullen Skink. I took the railway route high above the town to Portknockie and arrived at the Victoria Hotel at 1545.

I completed 18.82 miles in 7.14.20. As I had a couple of stops amounting to about an hour, I was walking at close to 3 mph when I was on the move. I need to do that to avoid being out after nightfall on Day 3. Total 1609.44

John (the Landlord) cooked me my breakfast at 0730. He sat down to talk to me after I'd finished. He said that Portknockie had once had a fishing fleet. That was the justification for the expensive railway with its viaduct on the approach to the town from Cullen. John was opposed to independence. He thought the Army would leave Lossiemouth and that would be bad for the area.

I set out on another fine day – cool, calm and sunny. I'd intended to walk along the railway again but, not seeing it, I kept to the A942. When I was level with Findochty, I left the road and continued on the railway which had been asphalted for the next stretch. I passed through Rathven and entered Buckie. This looked like a substantial town with numerous churches. I bought my paper in the Co-op as the Independent had not been stocked at Costcutters in Portknockie. There were a couple of places serving coffee but I kept going, hoping for better. Not finding it, I did without as I wouldn't retrace my steps. In any case it was too soon to stop as I'd not yet completed 5 miles.

A spell of beach walking on a decent path led me to Portgordon. Just before reaching the town, I heard an odd cry – half human, half bird. I stopped by a notice board describing Portgordon's resident seal colony – a mix of East Atlantic Common Seals and Atlantic Greys. A seal had made that noise. I looked out over the rocks covered with dark brown seaweed. There were about 20 barrel-like objects lying on the rocks. They appeared to have been lifted there by the tide and then left stranded as the waters receded. Apparently seals need to rest and these were resting. Most of their colonies are on remote coasts and islands but these were displaying their trust in the citizens of Portgordon. The town itself was not immediately impressive. There were lots of small dwellings, at least one church but I couldn't see a shop (at least not in the main street).

I sat on a bench to eat a snack. Whilst doing this I worked out how to zip up my jacket. Almost as soon as I left the town, I was on the railway again. It always follows the straightest possible line with the minimum undulation. I came off the railway and took a path through a wood, stepping over a tree that had fallen on the path. When I reached the road, I was addressed by a man struggling to hold back a Dobermann Pinscher on a lead. “How did you get past the tree?” he asked. “I stepped over it”. The Dobermann took against me and strained at the leash, barking loudly. The man said he would report the matter to the Council.

Soon after I crossed the Spey on the old railway bridge. The river was multi-channelled and ran strongly. I stopped at a pub in Garmouth which served me coffee and a cheese and tomato sandwich. It wasn't on the menu but they made it up for me. “Did I want it with chips?”

It had turned into a fine afternoon. The sky was blue and the sun so brilliant that I had to stuff my map underneath my hat on the left side to avoid its glare. I passed a stone circle marked on the map a short distance from the road. There were several boulders almost hidden by vegetation in an uncultivated area. Nearest the passing road there was a flat stone between two boulders that looked like an entry point.

I had a long walk into Elgin on a minor road from Easter Calcots lined with trees on either side. It was dusk and birds were settling on the branches above my head. Some were disturbed by my approach whilst others remained in position.

I arrived at The Lodge at 1645 and was shown to my room by a man, bent at the neck, who explained everything in detail. They did not serve dinner so he recommended a pub with a restaurant nearby.

Today I did 20.8 miles in 7.57.30. Total 1630.24

My room was small but adequate. The breakfast was the best I'd had on this trip. I chose two Buckie kippers and these were proper kippers not fillets. There was also a good choice of cereals with yogurt, prunes and fruit, none of which was available at my first two breakfasts. The guests of this Guest House were not polite. Neither of the two single men nor the female couple said “Good morning” on entering the breakfast room. The couple who ran the place were elderly and quietly polite. I sensed one could have enjoyed a conversation with them but there was no opportunity.

Today rain was almost guaranteed but the forecast gave a hint that my area might be lucky. As it happened, there was no rain all day, but almost everywhere else was drenched.

I lost some time finding a paper and some tissues. Then I got orientated on the Gordon monument. I learnt later that this commemorated the Duke of Gordon, a local landowner, not General Gordon of Khartoum.

The only way I could reach my destination today in a reasonable time was to walk non-stop so that's what I did. A farm shop serving coffee and a pub in Kinloss tempted me but I stuck to it, averaging over 3 mph. I left Elgin on the Cycle Route (part of the National Cycle Network). I left this route to take the B9089 into Kinloss as the route followed minor roads and added too much distance. For most of the morning, as I closed in on Kinloss, I'd seen Tornadoes in the sky, black and noisy, sometimes two together. As I entered Kinloss, the noise levels reached a crescendo as the planes took off and landed. This was very much an army town. Apart from the farm shop and pub, there was nothing for the general public. I saw a few soldiers making their way towards a Services Club. There was lots of housing set back from the road, some of it behind the MoD barbed wire fencing with an overhang at the top. This fencing had begun before I reached the town. It protected a wood that separated the road from the air strip.

I approached close to Forres but didn't enter the town as my route turned back away from the town at the junction next to the distillery. I had passed close to Findhorn Bay. The River Findhorn flows into it. Much of the bay is mud and sand at low tide. After Forres I was close to Culbin Forest, an enormous area of woodland. A road followed the edge of the forest and led me at last to Nairn. For mile after mile I was walking into a bright western sky and this endured until about 1700. I reached the Albert Inn on the A96. Much the longest day – 26.73 miles in 8.48.19. Total 1656.97

I started my last day with a good breakfast. I talked to the chef who'd also prepared my vegetable curry last night. He said that he only got asked for veg curry once a month so the veg was stuff he's use with other dishes like onion, mushroom and potato otherwise the veg would be wasted. He was a serious man. When I said I was going via Culloden, he suggested I looked at the tombs nearby that pre-dated Stonehenge. The chef had a very strong upper body with huge arms. He told me that his wife objected when he analysed meals they ate out. He couldn't help doing it.

I left Nairn on the A96. As I left the town the pavement ended, forcing me onto a grassy verge. I escaped onto the B9092 to Ardesier. This is a village on the Moray Firth that thrived for a while with the oil industry. The place was a decent size but a hotel was boarded up and I couldn't find anywhere serving coffee. There was a MacColls and a Pharmacy.

I continued on the B9039. A cheese pantry on a side track just outside the village tempted me. But it was too far off the road and I thought there was little chance of finding a coffee there.

A driver asked me “Where you going Jock?”. “Inverness”. “Are you walking?” “Yes, but thanks anyway”. He never offered me a lift but I assume he would have done. Soon afterwards I passed Inverness Airport where there was modest activity. I had to walk along the A96 for almost a mile as there was no alternative. It was the main road for the district with plenty of lorries but only two carriageways. I turned off the A96 near Balloch and made for the Culloden battlefield. A big new centre had been built near the site but it was some way from the road and I had no time to visit it. The field had two rows of four flags, one red and one blue, with a cairn in the middle. Shortly after I passed the site, I saw a stone marker beside the road showing where the English cavalry went after the battle.

It was cold and, at last, it started to rain. It took an age to get into Inverness on the B9006. Then I struggled to find the hotel. Whilst walking in the wrong direction away from the hotel, I bumped into Fiona Forsyth. She guided me to the hotel and I enjoyed two cups of tea with Richard and Fiona, old friends of mine that I'd agreed to meet.

I did 22.32 miles today in 8.01.14. Total 1679.29