Day 2: Dalraddy holiday park to wild camp past Drumochter pass - we've left the Highlands and heading downhill!

July 18, 2021

I'm writing this sitting on a rock by Loch Garry, near Dalnaspidal Lodge. It's beautiful, and peaceful, with a sandpiper (I think) calling nearby, two tents behind me, with some happy sleepy noises from one tent, and no sound from the other (hopefully sleeping). I chose a big rock, partly for the signal, partly for a bit of breeze. I'm surrounded by midges, but I have the relaxed feeling I get when I hide my head in a midge net. There's a constant background noise from the A9, about a kilometre away. It makes me think about all the cars journeying back and forth, and the effect on our planet - the resources used in production, the gases emitted, the impact of the noise on wildlife, the number of animals killed by cars, the effect of the roads that are built, and maintained. I can't imagine it changing. But what a difference if more people travelled by train, bike, foot. What if people took a moment before every journey to think "do I really need to make this journey?", "can I make it without using my car?."

I'm also looking around me at the bare, heathery hillside, just hearing the sound of that one bird, an occasional sheep, and the odd fish jumping in the water. And the constant car noise. It's hard to imagine that this flooded glen was once a thriving forest, probably cleared around two hundred years ago for grazing. And I guess the grouse are encouraged to breed so they can be shot for sport, and their predators, such as foxes, are shot to protect the grouse.

But I think things are changing. They need to change, or there won't be a decent future for our children.

I just heard a train pass, and suddenly the car noise has stopped, as if the train took them all away.

And I'm thinking about our journey today. And how proud I am of these four children who've cycled 52km today, and kept their spirits up all day despite tiredness. These children who love and appreciate nature, and want to do something to help save it.

(That was a pretend sulk by Heather!)

We set off a bit later than planned from Dalraddy holiday park this morning, but had a visit from Damian in his just bought campervan, so a nice chat and the kids got to play in the pop-up roof!

We made good progress to Newtonmore. Generally a quiet road, but we were a bit shocked when we were passed by about eight motorbikes travelling at about 80mph and overtaking dangerously. Our safety plan for the kids has been one adult at the front and one at the back for roads, and the trailers generally make people slow down. Plus we're very hiviz! So it generally feels OK. But I was half expecting we were going to have to scrape at least one motorcyclist off the road at some point.

Our litter picking has been sporadic. Sadly, there's too much, and we can't keep stopping for it. But we try to when we have our breaks.

And I was very impressed to hear that Heather and Olly had called a boy out for chucking litter around at the campsite yesterday. Go kids!

We stopped at the Highland Folk Museum in Newtonmore for lunch at their picnic benches.

And the obligatory ice cream. We decided tubs or cornettos were slightly more environmental, although plastic lids and spoons 🤔.. So difficult trying to be sustainable.

We went for a wander down to the 1700s Highland village and had a think about how people used to live with nature, not separate themselves from it. We chatted to a woman there who spins and dyes wool in the traditional way - a spinning wheel or spindle, dyes such as nettles, gorse, sorrel an birch bark set into the wool by heating in urine (it's OK, the smell disappears, and apparently the urine and lanolin are pretty good for eczema).