Last week I headed up to Aviemore in an attempt to grasp the last of this summer (although it seems the weather has already given up on that idea for a few weeks). One of my very good friends works in an activity centre at one of the lochs so it was a good excuse to come visit her and also get my very own personal tour guide. Laura is such an explorer so she was buzzing to be able to share some of her finds with me and we did some things that were new for her too so enjoyment all around!

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We can split the trip into three main categories and the first is hiking! Laura and I went on a few different adventures with our bagpacks, water and hiking boots in tow. On the first day she took me to see the magical green loch Lochan Uaine and the Ryvoan bothy. We had planned to climb up Meall a’ Bhuachaille that day too but the cloud of fog meant our view wasn’t gonna be worth it. Nevertheless the views along the way of trees, the mountains in the distance and the warmth of the heather along the path were all super lovely. On another day we climbed up Glen Feshie to visit the wee waterfall, which leads me on to part 2…

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Chilly loch dips and wild swimming! Every day was a swimming costume under my clothes and a towel and spare socks in my bag. We took a dook in Loch Morlich and the Glen Feshie waterfall and both of these were pretty brief cause it was freezin! But we had a lot of fun and it was really refreshing. We spent a fair bit more time in Loch Vaa thanks to wetsuits and although I don’t have any photos to show you from that activity it was a lot of fun. Wetsuits aside, the water was weirdly warm at Loch Vaa so we spent quite a while just swimming, paddling and floating about but Laura also took her paddleboard so we went on a bit of a journey.

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Then on the final day, the squad from Edinburgh drove up and we had a day of activities at Loch Insh! As part of the day pass we had access to a whole bunch of activities but mainly spent our time canoeing, tubing and paddleboarding before fannying about in the water being silly. It was so much fun to have this bunch of pals together again and to be doing something different! That said, Nathalie and I had pitiful skills as canoers (ha) but we crushed it on the paddleboard. It was only my third time paddle boarding but I’m quite chuffed at my progress – didn’t even fall in this time!

It was so nice to get away for a few days and really escape my wfh screen dominating life. We were pretty lucky really with the weather cause it wasn’t cold and barely rained on me. A couple of midge bites are a fair exchange for all the fun of being outside for three days. Super grateful that I’m able to go and do things like this and that Scotland is so dang beautiful! Also very grateful to have Laura as my guiding light and for the time spent with all the pals on Saturday, and with that I guess we say cheerio to the summer of 2021.