Day 13 19th July 2009 Tomatin to Moor of Alvie

At the B&B in Tomatin had the best English breakfast so far. It set me for the whole day (I needed it)!

The walk was harder than I expected - it was uphill all the way to Slochd, the highest point on the A9, I think. I took a photo and also one of the railway's highest point, also in this area.


30+ cyclists passed me, the track being National route 7 for bicycles.

I deviated at one point and took a short cut on to a mountain biking track - at least 4 mountain bikers passed me including Alan who stopped for a chat. Alan, normally a hill walker, had a day off mountain biking.

Having taking the detour, I climbed approx 600 metres and walked along the ridge hoping to see the path to the east - I didn't find what I was looking for, but could see Aviemore in the distance. I didn't want to head directly there as I thought it would add a few more hours to the days walk. I put a couple oy way points into my GPS and headed off country. This was reasonable streneous alternating between bog and heather. I did finally come across where the path and track crossed but decided to carry on cross country. I crossed a river , climbed another hill and when I got to the top of the saddle I saw Moor of Alvie. Just two more hours!

Really good campsite - Darradale - when they heard that I was trying to raise funds for a charity, gave me back my camp site fee (to go to the charities). I had about a 30 min walk to the nearest pub for my evening meal. Made sure I filled up as my next two nights are planned to be in bovies!

It was great to have navigated across country using the GPS (gave me a bit of a high!) - but I was a little anxious that I may have made the wrong decision. All that ends well etc. !!!