Kingussie to Insh Loch

Distance Walked: 12.32 Miles

Distance Overall: 88.2/82 Miles

What can I say, I think we both fell in love with Kingussie town, it's charming cute and close to mountains, but perhaps, I am getting ahead of myself slightly. Let's go back.

To Walk or Not to Walk

We both awoke in the dodgy but cheap and cheerful room, awaiting the news of my legs. To my surprise, the deep stretching I had done the night before had clearly worked miracles as my shins felt fine. I had so much guilt around getting injured and I was scared of ruining the trip but I had to remind myself that I had never done anything like this before, Although physically fit, I was not walking 82 miles with a huge backpack fit.

We decided to pack up and said we would walk to the coffee shop that we had our hearts set on, and if I felt any discomfort during this time we would get the train to Aviemore. Then hire bikes and ride back to Kingussie to complete the East Highland Way by any means necessary.

Packed up and ready to check out we headed to the reception and went to look at the breakfast they had available. It said there would be grab-and-go breakfast in the lounge and that there was. Sarah grabbed a takeaway coffee, we both grabbed apple juice cartons and then found there were packet pastries of which the Pain Au Chocolats were plant-based!!!!!!!!! I swiped two for tomorrow's breakfast while Sarah carried on looting everything in sight.

On the way to the Coffee shop, we stopped by the local shops to pick up extra snacks, as we were running low, outside there were children selling baked goods to raise money for their local school. So we decided to contribute and grabbed them home-baked brownies. Granted they're unlikely to be plant-based but I’m not that fussy.

Sugar Bowl of Dreams.

We arrived at the Sugar Bowl. The café was looking busy, but we managed to find a table. It was so cute inside and was selling all sorts of wonderful knickknacks. We both bit our tongues trying not to buy anything… although I did end up leaving with a fridge magnet of a highland cow and socks with a big D on them (hehe) to match Sarah's pair with a big S on them.

We both ordered coffee and a hummus salad sandwich. My gosh, this sandwich and coffee set the mood right for the rest of the day. It was fresh, tasty, and just downright incredible.

Fuelled and still feeling fine, we set off for the next ten-mile stretch.

Bye Kingussie, hello slight wilderness?

The first part of the walk allowed us to pass the old barracks in Kingussie, which must be a rather popular tourist attraction because, although it wasn’t peak season, there were a fair few visitors around. We took some photos and walked on. The walk was now going along a main route for some time, which seemed to be part of the RSPB reserve, so there were lots of people and also signs of birds nesting.

Just a little Risqué

We were not too far into our day when the first wee hit me. Why did it have to hit during a busier section? I tried to hold it, but it was one of those post-coffee wee's where you just have no choice but to go; otherwise, you're dancing in your pants. I turned to Sarah and said to keep a lookout, as we had passed an older couple a few minutes ago, but I believed I had the time if I was quick. I found the most hidden place, which was not so hidden, and then went for it, almost weeing down my pants and shoes out of pure panic. Thankfully, I did not. Wee crisis over and almost spotted by the couple we passed, we carried on.

Cute Rivers, Weird Trees and more Coffee?

We approached a cute river, and I was so happy that my legs were feeling fine. The weather was nice, and we both seemed to be full of life again. We decided to take a photo and saw people hanging about the river reading and just being at peace. It was nice to see as we walked past. We then started coming back to the forest path. I was already starving, so I said, "Brownie?", and we both started to tuck in. They were certainly not vegan because they tasted incredible (sorry if this offends you!).

As the forest path started to come to an end, we ended back on a road. This road was next to forestry, which had some of the weirdest trees and reminded Sarah of Vancouver Island.

We had both clocked that we could go to another cafe at Insh Lodge for our dinner that evening, so we put our skates on and headed down as quickly as we could. To approach the lodge, we were put back on a forestry path, but not the fire road kind. The terrain and scenery were lovely, although sadly, we didn't take many photos. Towards the end, we were walking along Insh Loch, which was beautiful and seemed crystal clear, reflecting the sky above.

Soup? Yes Please!

We approached the cafe and walked in. As we did, we both became unsure that we would be able to get food. It looked like it was closing down for the evening. We sat down and decided to just try. The woman behind the counter apologised and explained they were no longer serving food, but I think she seemed to be concerned about us and said, "But we do have some soup I could heat up!".

Me and Sarah beamed from ear to ear as she listed the soup choices. Of course, we both went for lentil again. I think the lady knew we had travelled far and seemed to care for us as she saw the complete excitement in our faces about the soup.

Not only did we order soup, but we both also got hot chocolate and cake. Yep, all of it being plant-based. Ya gal was very happy.

Time for Our Final Wild Camp

Bellies full, we waited for the rain to stop while in the warmth of the cafe, charging some belongings and making full use of facilities before heading back to the wilderness. We left the cafe grateful for their service and for feeding the both of us with actual food when they didn't have to. Then we walked on to find somewhere to camp.

We wanted to make sure that this camp spot would be epic because it was going to be the very last time we slept wild for the rest of our holiday. So we had to be fussy about it. We decided on a spot right by the loch but opposite the lodge; we were unsure if we could camp there as we could not tell if it was farmland or a public pathway, etc., so we decided to wait to pitch up until sunset.

Once pitched, we examined the state of our bodies and were both excited that we were now extremely close to Aviemore, with 10 more miles or so to go. What we didn’t realise was that tomorrow would be harder than we ever thought, with very little reward.

Stick around for next week's closure of our walk and find out if we made it to Aviemore to complete the East Highland Way!