On Monday, Sybil and I set off on a short holiday to Aviemore, in Scotland. Having been through the Cairngorms on the train before, I quite fancied visiting here so booked a chalet for three nights. We set off on the early train to Edinburgh from Doncaster. I sat in my reserved seat, but realised that Sybil would not be happy scrunched under my seat for three hours, surrounded by lots of other people. So I decided to move to the entrance of the carriage, where she would have more room. I looped Sybil's lead around the seat's armrest, and as I was getting my rucksack down from the overhead rack her lead came loose, and she immediately headed for the open train door. Running behind her, shouting her name much to the amusement of the other commuters I managed to snag her lead just before she made her break for freedom.
Without further incident we arrived in Edinburgh. I had arranged for an hour gap between trains so I could walk Sybil around and let her "do her business". It was a scorching hot day so we sat on a bench in the shade. "Morning there" I heard from an American couple walking past. "Do you mind if we stroke your dawg?" Of course I didn't mind, and from here on until the end of the trip a theme started, where Sybil was continually proclaimed to have outstanding manners by all members of the public who stopped for a fuss. This was news to me, of course. She would obviously make a very fine actress!
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| Aviemore station |
Last time I was at Edinburgh Waverley, I got lost. This time, I got lost again. It didn't help that they were redesigning the whole station, so there were metal fences and JCBs everywhere. After asking a member of staff where platform 17 was, I realised I had no clue whether my train was actually leaving from this platform. Nevertheless I stood with a hundred other people, watching the departure boards as two trains got cancelled, and the trains that weren't cancelled were delayed. Apparently there were signal problems somewhere on the line. The train to Aviemore was not advertised as delayed, however the platform was not announced until ten minutes after it was supposed to have departed. A tad stressed we surged forward with the other hundred people to arrive in Aviemore half an hour late.
By this time and not accustomed to travelling such distances, Sybil was in a foul mood. In Aviemore she tried to eat two dogs, one of them a huge Husky on whom I would have placed my bets. An innocent man on the train also felt the brunt of her bad mood as she growled and barked at him for committing the crime of wearing all-white.
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| The entrance sign |
To cheer her up, we went on a two-hour walk around Craigellachie Nature Reserve. Apparently this site is good for spotting breeding Peregrine falcons. These I would have loved to see but unfortunately they never made an appearance. We headed up towards the viewpoint, and back down again after I realised how far it was to the top. Nonetheless I still managed to get a good view of the town from halfway up:
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| Aviemore from Craigellachie |
We then walked around a huge pond, or a small loch take your pick, which was blessed with tons of wildlife including little tadpoles swimming around the water's edge. At this point however, Sybil spotted two ducks and decided to dive in after them. I was not pleased as we had yet to meet the owner of the place we were staying, in order to get our keys. I gave her a good rub with her towel and hoped the wet dog smell would soon dissipate.
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| The pond |
We met a toad on the way back round to the exit, and after Sybil almost squashed it decided that we'd had enough adventure for one day and went to find out where we would be staying for the next two days. The cabin was to an excellent standard and a wonderful place to come home to after each hard day's walking.
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| The toad |
