Scotland - Day 13 (Lossiemouth)

A lazy day yesterday saw us travel back up from Grantown to Elgin to visit more friends in the area and, with Mick having a get-together with some ex-colleagues tonight, that left us with a day free in the area.

“Do you fancy another walk?” we asked Louise, and she said “Yes please!”, and so it came to be that in the middle of the day we parked Colin very neatly in a suitably wide bit of road in Hopeman and set off up the coast to Lossiemouth.

What a spectacular bit of coast that is! It looks good on the map and the reality is even better, particularly under the stunning blue skies which are, incredibly, still with us.

The first twenty-five minutes did see me a little distracted (and rudely ignoring my companions) as I attended to a phone call from work, but even whilst talking I could appreciate the surroundings and managed to whip the camera out one-handed to take a few snaps (I say like I usually use two hands to hold the camera…).

It was the colourful beach huts which first caught my eye:

As did the ruggedness of the coast:

Lunch was nearly had on a bench by a watch-tower, the white of which was quite startling in the bright sunlight, but with the bench being in the shade, we opted to press on to the next sunny bench. No such bench appeared, but a grassy patch did, so down we plonked ourselves. Moments after lunch, down onto the beach we went walking towards the landmark of Lossie Lighthouse, which flashes no more:

What a huge beach it is!  That section to the lighthouse is only a part of it, as around the corner it continues on for another long stretch (in fact, the map tells me that we walked over 2 miles along the sand), this one featuring anti-tank defences:

Firm sand gave good walking – no ankle-shaping soft sand for us today.

Louise can’t be faulted in her walk planning. Aside from the stunning coast-line she showed us, she had planned an outing which ended at a rather nice cafe, right on the harbour (which Mick tells me used to be full of fishing boats, but now is a hub for leisure than for industry).

A bit of a blip in the weather – a band of high clouds was coming in.

David soon joined us as we supped coffee, to provide our transport back to Colin (thank you David – much appreciated).

Another fine outing, this one being something like* 7 miles long with a few little bits of up (often involving steps designed for people with unnaturally long legs) thrown in.

(* I switched the Garmin Gadget on before we left, but the phone call did distract me enough to make me forget to press ‘start’. Louise did record our route, and I think she said that it was around 7 miles.)