Note: 18th August 2012.
We docked in Aberdeen at around 7:30am and were picked up by the car rental company to get our car at their office at 8:30am. By 9:30am, we were heading out of Aberdeen, possibly the grey-est town, due to the almost exclusive use of granite in buildings, I have ever seen.
The three towns, Banchory, Ballater and Braemar are charming little towns within the Cairngorms National Park. Rather touristy. But a welcome change from Orkney and Shetland.
Landscape-wise, the seaside of cliffs and beaches were now giving way to mountains.
It was in Banchory that I discovered I had somehow misplaced my rear lens cap. In these parts, these camera accessories are hard to find. I had no choice but to leave the lens in the bag and hope nothing would happen to it in until I returned to Singapore.
Through these towns, the Strathdee River (“Deeside”) passes.
Between Ballater and Braemar, at Crathie, we found the Balmoral Castle. By this time of the year, it is already closed to the public as the Queen spends her summers there. There was a crowd and news crew outside waiting for news. The Queen was in the castle as the flag was flying outside.
Nearby, is Crathie Church where the Queen goes on Sundays when she is in the area. It was here that Sunday prayers were offered for the Duke of Edinburgh as he was back in hospital in Aberdeen. We did not stop at Crathie Church.
Instead, we headed beyond Braemar, to find the u-turn in the road, the Linn of Dee.
Here, further upriver, the Dee River’s erosive powers are seen better. A bunch of lads were climbing up the walls of the side of the river and jumping into the cold water churning below. Nearby, there was a little memorial for two teenagers who had lost their lives accidentally doing the same stunt.
The adventurous boys told us about the waterfalls on the River Quioch, if we continued driving on to the end of the road.
We decided to drive on and it seemed further than described. We did find the river with some small falls. It was a very pleasant walk and we saw punchbowl, a natural hole carved out by the water.
It was getting late and we had to head toward Grantown-on-Spey for the night. We had booked our first proper B&B. As in, this room would come with breakfast too.
The drive toward Grantown-on-Spey was uphill and downhill and had a lot of bends. I was in a rush and didn’t stop to take photos, as we were losing light. But the hills were filled with patches of purple heather. It was a lovely drive, but I was driving fast. I felt like I was a novice out-of-control skier down a steep slope.
By the time we got to Grantown-on-Spey, the sun was gone. The B&B was a little out of town and hard to find, but it was a lovely large room for 3 and we were very comfortable.
Heading out at 9pm for dinner, we went into town and ate at Garth Hotel and Restaurant. They were so popular it wasn’t till 10pm that we got our table. We were starving and ate fast. But it was good food. We had broiled pork with crackling, the salmon had a sauce that was just a tad too sweet for my liking, but it wasn’t overcooked, the third dish was the collops of veal, which was very tender.
The crackling was really crisp.
Actually, I had wanted the rack of lamb, but they were out by the time we were seated.
