We awoke the next morning feeling better with most of the place warming up but there's nothing like an icy cold bathroom to brush the cobwebs away! After some breakfast, local bacon and some huge sausages, we went out for a little walk, just around the surrounding forest. There were some people staying in a cabin about a hundred yards away from us but apart from that, we were totally on our own in the middle of nowhere.
Jumping in the car, we headed off to Cairngorm Mountain, there was still plenty of snow about but the forecast was for the weather turning milder so we wanted to get up there straight away. The views along the way were fantastic and we just had to stop and take some photos of the mountains in the distance. We arrived at the car park which was still covered in snow and we tried not to get blown over went we got outside! Lucy came with us for a little walk around. The shop and cafe there were undergoing refurbishment, the date for completion on the sign in the window was 18 December 2004, our wedding day ..lol.. The shop was open but there was still a lot of work going on in the cafe and there was no-one around.
We hadn't planned on taking a ride on the funicular railway but the temptation was too great so we popped Lucy back in the car and headed off up the mountain. The ride up the mountain was amazing, we sat at the back of the train so we could take photos as we climbed higher and higher. Reaching the top, we left the funicular and walked into the visitor area which has an abundance of useful information about the mountain. Making our way through the shop and cafe, we found the viewing platform and stepped outside to admire the view.
The scenery viewed from the mountain is fantastic and easily justified parting with sixteen pounds to get up there, it was however, fer, fer, fer, flipping freezing! I had my gloves off to take pictures but they were back on in minutes ..lol.. Apparently, this was the first day of skiing this season, how lucky was that! Not that we were going to be doing any skiing but it was nice to watch a few people whizzing down the mountain, we ought to have taken a couple of reindeer bells with us, then it would have been just like Ski Sunday.
We walked round to the other side of the viewing platform and were almost bowled over by the wind and snow blowing into our face. After we had taken a picture of every square inch of the landscape we headed back inside for a drink in the cafe. Debbie had a nice hot cup of coffee while I had hot chocolate with marsh mallows and cream, naughty but very nice!
The journey back down was just as amazing as the journey up but by that time we were getting anxious about Lucy alone in the car. We found her fast asleep and were relived to find that it was still quite warm in the car. Leaving the mountain behind, we headed off to Aviemore for a spot off shopping and ended up in Tescos ..lol.. Feeling a bit peckish, we popped into a fish and chip shop, haggis was on the menu but we chickened out and just went with the fish.
Back at the cabin, thoroughly exhausted, we managed a couple of glasses of wine before having another very early night, it must have been the Scottish air!
Paul
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