Newtonmore to Kingussie

Distance Walked: 10.16 Miles

Distance Overall: 75.88/82 Miles

Before I'd even opened my eyes, I was met with the damp smell of soggy camping gear and clothes, reminding me that we'd absolutely covered the room with all of our stuff. Today was a rest day, but we still had to be out of our room by 10 a.m. So, we had our work cut out for us when packing everything back into our bags. We'd also both done a bit of washing, and, despite our efforts to hang it all over the place to dry, it hadn't dried at all. Our solution was to hang it off our backpacks, so I had socks and pants literally hanging from every strap.

The breakfast of champions.

Breakfast was included in the room rate, and after the interesting meal last night, we were excited to find out what was on the menu. We entered the breakfast room and were greeted very loudly by Kim (one of the managers or owners, we think). She let us pick our table and then proceeded to list the many vegan and veggie options they had on offer. We were half asleep and therefore rather overwhelmed by the long list and also by the volume at which this list was delivered by Kim. As well as the usual cooked breakfast options, we were delighted to discover that vegan haggis was also a breakfast food, along with vegan black pudding. Yes. You read that right. VEGAN black pudding. It was delicious, and we stuffed our faces.

There was also a substantial continental buffet that included waffles and muffins, which I stocked up on to eat later in the day. They even had soya milk sachets, so we took a few to use at the next hotel.

Strolls with Strangers.

Feeling satisfyingly full, we left the hotel and began plodding up the road towards the mountains. We had decided to skip a section of route that followed the road between Netwonmore and Kingussie when the mountain path was too boggy. So instead, the plan was to follow the original route back towards Laggan to see what we had missed by taking the alternative route the day before. We were walking at a leisurely pace, taking full advantage of the fact that we didn't really need to cover any set distance today. Two older guys, who were also heading up into the mountains, caught up with us and matched our pace as we began chatting. Little did we know that we'd actually end up spending a good portion of our day in the company of this friendly duo.

We discussed our walk and why they happened to be in the area too. To our surprise, we discovered that they were also staying at the Glen Hotel and had actually been in the dining room the night before and the breakfast room at the same time as us. We laughed about how Kim didn't seem to have an inside voice but also agreed on how lovely our stays had been at the hotel. The two guys were good friends that had met when they were young and stayed in touch doing walking weekends away and outdoorsy things together, not that dissimilar to Dani and me. We told them how we'd met, and they thought it was brilliant that we'd formed a bond over our shared adventurousness. They also loved the fact that we'd just willy-nilly decided to do such a long walk with little prior experience.

We talked about a range of subjects, including building igloos to camp in and nerding out about camping gear, before reaching the point where our paths diverged. At this point, we didn't expect to see them again, so we said our goodbyes and wished them well.

The uncrossable river.

The path took us across a very boggy stretch of land that was surrounded by the most stunning mountains. We followed it for a while, trying to dodge the bogs and admiring the views. Eventually, after a few hours of walking, we came across the river that our guidebook had warned us about.

We wanted to cross it and carry on further along the path, but unfortunately, the author hadn't been lying when they said this river could be difficult to cross. We spent a good hour trying to find a spot that was safe, but neither of us felt confident about boulder hopping with giant backpacks on.

We were pretty tired and cold by this point, so we decided we could do with a rest and a cup of tea. Dani pulled out the trusty Fire Maple, along with some Buttermint tea and biscuits.

We contemplated camping here for the night, but there was a creepy, ruined house within sight that Dani did not like at all. Although absolutely beautiful, this spot alongside the river that we couldn't cross, surrounded by dark snow-dusted mountains, looked dramatic and intimidating. And I remember feeling very small and vulnerable as the cold wind chilled us to the bone. On top of this, our gear was still wet, so, as tempting as it was, we decided to walk back to civilisation for the night.

Strolls with strangers continued.

We timed our walk back perfectly because, as we picked our way across the bogs, guess who we bumped into... The friendly duo from earlier! They had been up a few Munros and had decided to call it a day, joining our path a bit further up from where we stopped for tea. We walked in pairs, chatting away again about our experiences of the day. The guys had seen deer, and we were very envious until, almost magically out of thin air, a small herd of deer appeared before us. We watched them silently for a little while, trying to take photos.

As we strolled on, they told us about a couple they'd encountered while staying in a bothy a few nights before. This couple lived a very alternative lifestyle, cycling from place to place and carrying everything they needed on their bikes. The guys were in awe of how happy they seemed, despite how little they had. This made absolute sense to me. They were trading materialistic things for experiences. This led to a conversation about how Western culture is built on consumerist ideologies and whether this actually brings people true happiness. I'm aware that my opinion on this matter goes against the majority, and there is no judgement on my part. But from my limited experience, memories and relationships are far more valuable than any expensive phone I've had. I must admit I've had this materialistic mindset at times, buying fancy camping equipment and mountain bikes. But it's the people I've been biking or camping with that make the experience memorable.

Anyway, I'll stop rambling now... Just as we approached Newtonmore, we saw more deer and we stopped to watch them for a while.

The guys offered us a lift to Kingussie, where we were planning to stay for the night. We didn't want to inconvenience them and were keen to continue using public transport, so we decided to get the bus. Before getting on the bus, we sat on a wall to book a hotel room. Dani told me that her shins were really hurting and had been the whole time we'd been walking back down the lane into Newtonmore. We didn't discuss the possible effect this might have on the rest of the walk at this point. Instead, we distracted ourselves with food from the Co-op by the bus stop. While we ate, an old man talked incomprehensibly at us, and we nodded and smiled, pretending to understand.

Hotel from hell (just kidding).

The bus only took about 15 minutes, and soon we were in Kingussie. To save money, we decided to go to one of the cheaper hotels in town. We arrived at the hotel after a long slog up a hill, and we were not shocked to find that this room was quite a downgrade from the Glen Hotel. It had a working shower and toilet, however, so it was still more luxurious than camping. This place definitely gave off some dodgy vibes that I won't discuss here, as this blog is meant to be suitable for all. I will just describe it as seedy and leave it at that.

We made some tea and coffee, had showers, and collapsed on our beds. At this point, Dani explained the full extent of her injury. She'd been in agony walking on the hard tarmac down into Newtonmore, but she hadn't wanted to say anything while we were with the guys. We really thought this might be the end of our walk and began planning other ways that we could complete the remaining 20 miles to Aviemore. Our plans after also involved more walking as we hoped to explore the Cairngorms, so we came up with an alternative way to spend the rest of our time in Scotland. As both of us enjoyed the train ride up from Glasgow to Fort William so much, we thought we'd catch another scenic train from Aviemore to the Isle of Skye and spend a day exploring the island. As for the remainder of the walk, we decided we'd wait and see how Dani felt in the morning. Still absolutely exhausted despite our rest day, we headed to bed early and fell asleep almost instantly.

Reflections on the day. 

Although I knew Dani had still enjoyed the day, I'd had quite a different experience, pain-free and enjoying conversations with more strangers. We were both very pleased with our new plan to explore the Isle of Skye, and although I knew Dani was putting on a brave face, she appeared optimistic about our chances of completing the route on foot. If you'd like to find out whether we did decide to continue or not, keep your eyes peeled for next week's post!