To wrap up a very busy August, I spent the bank holiday weekend up in the Cairngorms, taking in the annual ‘Thunder in The Glens’ event. It was being held near to where I stayed with Steve, Tanya and Alison back in February, and this time we all stayed just north of Aviemore at the Macdonald Lochanhully Resort in Carrbridge.

I took the train up to Glasgow on the Thursday afternoon, and of course that wasn’t a smooth journey. As I was on the the train from Stockport to Manchester, I discovered that my next train – the one to Glasgow –  had been cancelled, so I had to get on a train to Preston where I could then get the next one to Glasgow, arriving in just after 8pm – only two and a half hours later than planned!

First thing Friday morning, me and Steve set off ahead of the others (who had to work), taking a scenic route past Loch Lomond and up to Fort William where we planned to grab a quick lunch, but both ended up having a roast dinner in hotel restaurant!

After lunch we visited Neptune’s Staircase, which is a staircase lock made up of 8 locks on the Caledonian Canal, and looks pretty impressive. You can also see Ben Nevis from here, but I could only see half of it as the top was covered in clouds!

We got to our lodge at about six o’clock, and waited for Tanya and Alison to arrive, and then just chilled out for the rest of the evening.

The next morning, we went for a walk in Speybridge, near to where all those taking part in Thunder In The Glens would be arriving later. We went down to the River Spey where Liza did a bit of paddling whilst retrieving tennis balls Steve was throwing for her, and then we took a stroll through the Anagach Woods. It was a really sunny day, and the woodland looked beautiful, and I even got to see a red deer, although a blurry photo of it was my only proof to the others!

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Last weekend I spent a few days up in Scotland, way up north in the Cairngorms. Steve Black had mentioned a while back that he and Tanya were heading up there this month and invited me along… so I thought ‘what the heck!’

It was a bit of a trek up there – I was making the journey up to Glasgow by train on the Thursday morning to meet up with Steve at lunchtime, and then he was to drive the rest of the way up to where we’d be staying just south of Aviemore. However, as the date got closer, there was news of three major storms hitting the UK – Dudley, Eunice and Franklin – which meant travel was a bit of a nightmare! All the train companies were basically telling people not to travel north on the Wednesday evening until after about 9am on the Thursday, and not at all on the Friday! I managed to get the train from Stockport just after nine to meet up with my connecting train at Preston (which was running), and for a time, all went to plan.

However, when we got to Carlisle, we didn’t move for a while, and then were eventually told that a train had recently fallen onto the overhead cables – the train before us had just managed to get past it, but our train was basically cancelled from that point onwards!

So I then had to stand in a queue to wait 3 hours for coaches to turn up to take the ever-growing group of people to Glasgow! I was the last to get on my particular coach, which meant I had no choice of where to sit, and of course that meant I had to sit next to a guy who was so large that he basically took up half of my seat as well as his own, so I was having to perch on the edge of it! Not ideal for a two hour journey, and not helped by the fact the guy was chain-drinking bottles of lager!

I was supposed to meet Steve at 1pm, but I eventually got into Glasgow at five o’clock. I found Steve parked nearby and we started the 125 mile journey up to Kincraig in the Highlands. When we got there, we unloaded our bags before going into Aviemore for a much needed meal at the Cairngorms Hotel. Weather-wise, it was pretty cold and icy, but there was no sign yet of the snow that had been forecast.

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