Scottish Fairytale
Are you missing motivation, inspiration or relaxation? Do you want to experience something thrilling? Go to Scotland, go!
How did it happen? I've always wanted to go to Scotland. But for Czechs it is not so money-friendly trip. Last year my cousin moved to Scotland - Dundee and I was welcome for a fisit. It seemed to be a great chance to experience Scotland and skipping any accomodation payment. Unfortunately, she didn't plan to be in Scotland in late August. But me and Jyri got offer to stay in her apartement. Great! For a while...
Jyri found out that terrains around Dundee are not any wooow for runners. Basically, no forests at all. I asked for help our Scottish ex-coach from Mora, Graham Gristwood, for a help. He recommended us to stay in the little city Aviemore, located just at the border of the Cairngorms national park. Terrains looked 2488374983789x cooler so it happened our trip changed from Dundee to Aviemore. It was the best decision ever and I wanna thank you, GG, super much for this tip!!!
We decided to fly to London and then take a bus. Why? To save money. Ok, 12hours in the bus are maybe not the best experience, but return ticket London-Aviemore-London for 10pounds per person?!?!?!? No neber to!
And also to enjoy a tourist day in London. Fortunaly, no attacks that day.
We did chill a lot in city parks in order to recover from a long journey and an early morning. Jyri tought me to meditate.
And also ate ice-cream O:-)
In the evening, we moved to the Victoria Station. Our Megabus bus was there. All good, good night, see you in Aviemore.
The bus journey took actually some two hours longer. We were supposed to change the bus in Perth. But some days before the journey we were informed we are supposed to change one more time. This caused we didin't catch the our bus in Perth (actually we arrived just in time but our upcoming bus left two minutes before scheduled departure). Pecka. Fortunately, there is a bus service person who told us we need to wait for another bus coming one hour later. So we waited. When the bus arrived, we were not allowed to go inside. The woman told us we have to wait whether there will be a place in the bus for us. Like really? We were supposed to be in Aviemore already. All these busses were from one company and they had such a mess in time schedules and places. It turned out there is only one place in the bus. We were two. What to do? The driver brought some spare seat looking like a dětská sedačka and welcomed us inside. That's what super cheap travelling is about.
When we arrived to Aviemore, it was raining. It is said it is raining two out of three days in avarage in Scotland. So we didn't come with any sunny weather expectations. Believe it or not, we haven't experienced any further rain (except from one 15min shower) during rest of our stay here! What a timing!
We stayed first five nights at Aviemore youth hostel. The cheapest available accomodation in Aviemore, 25pounds per night. Last three nights we will probably stay pod mostem. The location was great. Only about 20steps to the forest. And lot of "wild" animals in the garden. It was really cool to stay at the place where lot of travelers meet. Most of them were followed by very inspiring stories. Great place to make you look at things differently, to get another boost of inspiration. The only negative place about this accomodation were rooms. Ok, rooms were good but we couldn't stay at the same room. A teď se podrž, I was not even allowed to visit Jyri in his room when no one elso was there. Návrat do minulosti..
DAY 1
Easy afternoon jog after a tough journey. Exploring the city and its surrounding.
DAY 2
Morning jogg. Running in the natural national reservation makes me jump out of the bed!
Finally, it is time for a proper run. The reality surpass all expectations. I love it here! Pinky hearther makes me feel I am in some fairy tale.
But the real beauty was about to come. When we made it out of trees, a huge fjell area appeared in front of us. Runnable hills covered by grass, moss and hearther interrupted by ponds and marshes. The official path stopped at the top of the hill, the real off-road just began. Really tough terrain for running, great practise for orineteering.
What more would you wish? Sun? Rainbow? As you wish, here it comes!
We would believe this is just an amazing dream. But Jyri's wrong step brought us back to reality. Fortunately, he didn't twist his ankle properly and was able to move after couple of minutes of resting. Since that we enjoyed the running freedom but were more responsible about our steps.
DAY 3
Pro velký úspěch morning run to the lake. Pro velký úspěch afternoon run to the similar places as yesterday.
DAY 4
And now the real stuff. Cairngorm parking place- Ben MacDui - Cairngorm - Cairngorm parking place, I feel like I could run forewer. Have to persuade myself there are more trainings to come and I can not be totally done after this session.
We've learnt one thing today - always take some extra and waterproof clothes with you despite it is hot and sunny at the starting place. Luckily, we were running in the cold clouds only for about 30min.
Just few metres in front of the top Jyri took my hand and we ran together to the top. Best moment ever #alltheselittlethings
Top of Ben MacDui was covered in clouds. We had to use our imagination to believe all those mountains ripped in this stone were really around.
Since here we got seperated. Jyri decided to ran all tops around. I planned only one more top - Cairngorm. It was a pure happiness to run through this beautiful landscape.
Jupííí, Cairngorm is so close.
Where has those 45min gone?!? It's gonna be "a bit" longer run than I expected. Time runs up here so fast.!
Back at the starting place. Back to the summer outfit.
13:15. Great, bus to Aviemore goes in 10min. Lucky me.
10min later. Where is the buss?! Another 10min of waiting. Something is wrong. Uncle google will save me!
Not so happy to find out the bus leaves every hour but just THIS hour is a blank hour with no bus. It would mean another 50min of waiting. I am too hungry for this. Looking around. It's a big parking place, lot of cars. It means a big chance to get a ride by hitchhiking. It took about 30sec till first car came. And stopped. And I got a ride. Love Scottish! Ok, the woman was actually from Spain. Love Scotland and Spannish!
DAY 5
Morning recovery run and core. Afternoon orienteering. FIrst Scottish o-experience. Mixed feelings. Panths and road are my best friends. Off-road is a prickly enemy.
DAY 6
Another I-love-it-here run. The weather is unsecure so we decide not to hit the mountains. Loch an Eilein is my today's destination.
In the afternoon we give a second chance to orienteering. Jess and James Tullie fix some maps for us. As they recommend us, we go for Loch Vaa map.
The map seems to be about 4,5km from our accomodation. I didn't feel like 5km warm up, 5km of orienteering and 5km of cool down would make me ready for tommorrow's total brutal. So I persuade Jyri to hitchike. It wasn't so difficult as we both had a very positive experience from two days ago.
But hitchike from the town turned out to be more difficult. Aviemore never ended. More and more houses coming. No good place to hitchike. We felt like we've walked ages and decided to make it by walking to the Loch Vaa. After 45min of walking we reached a cross junction of motor roads. This places was stilll about 2km far from our o-place. Walking next to this big road didn't seem to be a super safe idea. I tried the luck when first car stopping at the cross junction. And it worked! A girl of my age offered us a ride! Great!!! At least until she speeded up to 140km/h and said lovely "sorry, i'm a very bad driver". Fortunately, it took only a minute or two and we pulled over at a map start. The terrain was really awesome. And much more runnable friendly comparing to the yesterday's experience. Thanks so much Jess'n'Tullie for this tip and map!
Hitchiking back went great (despite we had to smell like proper orienteers). First car stopped and we jumped in. The guy was not even supposed to drive in Aviemore, but he was happy to give us a ride. All thumbs up for hitchiking in Scotland!
DAY 7
Fiinally back to mountains! Weather looks promising. Today's route is planned by Jess (UK national team o-runner) who knows the best routes for running as she and James are living just behind a corner. My goal is to reach a watterfall. She, Jyri and Mitch (dog) aim to follow me to watterfall and from there to climb up to Cairn Toul or Sgor an Lochain Uaine. Then around the massive to Braeriach and back.
Jess hits off in pretty good speed. I'm thinking "at least the run will not take so long!.
Nope. It took far longer than planned to reach the watterfall. But how could you turn back when it is nadosah?! I couldn't!
We made iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit! But from down here the waterfall looks quite boring...
What's next? I wanna go up the massive! I wanna see the lake where the waterfall comes from! The route of Jyri and Jess is too long for me. But I decide to climb the valley up on the other side straight to Braeriach. Not sure if I will be able to climb the highest part. It's hard to say how un/crossable those cliffs will be.
Those 600m of climb are never ending. I have doubts wheter I will be able to climb the final part. I have no climbing equipment. But I have a phone. Phone will save me! I keep positive mind and rather don't check if having phone signal or not. These views are amazing!
Made iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit! F*ucking amazing here!!!!!! I lay down and enjoy the moment. For a while. The forecast promise a rainy afternoon. Just reach the Braeriach. "Do you have compass? No? Be careful and don't get lost" Those are last words Jess told me. No problem I'm an orienteer. A bad one! I don't know how could it happen but I appeared to climb to a wrong top! Fortunately, the visibility was good and I got to see some people. Climbing to another top! This is weird! There is not supposed to be any top on my right side! My brain starts to work and I realize I am wrong.
Usually, I would be happy to prolong my training. Not this time. The session takes far longer than original plan. And I'm running out of food. How much do I regret I didn't take more food or some Enervit gels? Much! At every single step! JIDLOOOOO. I'm thinking about asking some tourists for food. No, I'm not that hungry. Yet. But soon... SOOOOON. This is the price for being too excited to see the waterfall and lake, to climb up the massive, to reach Braeriach. And I don't regret. It is super beautiful here. At least as long as I don't die. I hope Jyri and Jess catch me soon. And I hope even more they will have some bars left. And I hope absolutely most they could give me some!
Jess saves me! One huge bar gives me power to make it back to the car!
What was then? Then we ate. We ate a lot. Lot. Lot. lot. We were full. But we kept eaitng. Why? We could eat as much as we wanted for fixed price. Jako správná Češka I had to eat as much as I could. Pizza, pasta, salad and three times again. Or four times? I was too tired to count. Anyway, if you wanna tip after a long run, restaurant La Taverna offer luch till 4pm for 7,5pound per person. And you don't have to finish your meal by this time, you just need to get starteed! I think we stayd almost two hours. Neber to, If you wanna one more tip, ask for a tap water. TAP water. If you ask "just" for ater, you get a water in charge of 5pounds! To fakt neber.
And what was then? Then we moved to Jess'n'James lovely accomodation just 8km far from Aviemore. They were so kind and offered us stay when we were searching for any accomodation for our last three nights in Scotland. The problem was, that during those days there was a Harley division happend. Aviemore was totally crazy about it. And fullbooked. Once again, thank you Jess'n'James! It was so great time to stay with you! :)
And then? Then we died. At least some of us.
DAY 8
I need a rest. I know this since yesterday's last kilometres of running. Great option to visit some Scotland-the-must-see. I do puppy eyes and we are going to Loch Ness. it's just an average lake (ok, loch). But I'm happy I made it here when staying whole week so close.
And we got to see two monsters ;)
We planned to have a picnic at ruins of Urquhart Castle. The price for entry to the garden ruined our plan. We found another grassy place for our lunch.
In the afternoon we headed to the orienteering where WC middle distance was held. We went throught the town where sprint and sprint relay were held. Jess pulled over and we took photos and tested the sea water. Really nice place for a competition arena.
Last stop on our journey was at Carrbridge Old Bridge from 1717.
And that's enough sighteesing for one day.
DAY 9
Morning orienteering. Another great experience.
Afternoon easy run nearby. Our bodies are tired. Our minds too.
Last morning in Scotland, time to go home. Bye bye Scotland, thanks for showing us this beautiful side of you!
We are happy to get to London even some minutes ahead of scheduled arrival. It was větší oříšek to get to the Maryleboun train station. After some orienteering mistakes we made it. At High Wycombe station my swedish clubmates Nastia and Jegor are waiting for us. We get a super beautiful accomodation in their appartement and the best home made burger ever! It was sooo delicious I didn't have time to take a photo to show you. Great reason to come back again!
We are really happy to be a part of an orienteering community. We didn't know Jess or James before. Jyri didn't even know Nastia and Jegor. But it so nice to be welcomed everywhere. orienteers are really like a one big family! And generally people are far kinder than media say. Don't be afraid to leave your coutry and travel. Explore. Live! Do what you love. We love to travel and do sport. This combination works perfectly. And it idoesn't have to cost you a fortune.
