The time we went and stayed with the ducks
Jane and I went up to Nethy Bridge, near Aviemore, and stayed at the Lazy Duck in one of their Eco-Lodges. Which is a cabin built for two, with electricity, gas cooking, and (distant, wobbly) wifi, right next to a large duck pond full of a variety of different species of ducks.
Jane took this photo of the road you arrive up:
Here's a photo of the side of the lodge, as you see it when you arrive:
You'll note that there's smoke coming out of the chimney. Arriving to that was pretty awesome.
This is a video I made on the last morning, showing you around:
and this is a video taken about two minutes later of the ducks arriving to be fed:
The first thing that I did was try to feed them by hand. They were pretty skittish, but one of them would happily nibble my fingers:
And, of course, they'd also nibble Jane's fingers, when they weren't fighting over who got the most food.
There was a pair of red squirrels who would come right up to the feeder, about three feet away from us. On the first day they were slightly nervous, and wouldn't go into it - but would come and get some nuts if we took them out and put them on the "porch" bit of it:
A visiting squirrel
And it was lovely waking up the following morning and watching this out the window:
Sadly, it rained for most of the first two days. Which didn't stop us going out for an 8-mile walk through the woods, because neither of us minded coming back soggy. But it did mean that the views weren't as great as they could have been. Until yesterday evening, when the clouds started to clear and we got a lovely view up on the moor:
and from that bench:
And I got to see the most amazing stars when I went out to the composting toilet at 4am. Sadly, the phone camera wasn't going to show anything other than a black rectangle for that.
Then this morning we got on a bus back to Aviemore, had a delicious brunch at the Mountain Cafe (totally recommended to anyone who visits Aviemore), and got the train back home.
I shall miss this lot:
Original post on Dreamwidth - there are
comments there.
Jane took this photo of the road you arrive up:
Here's a photo of the side of the lodge, as you see it when you arrive:
You'll note that there's smoke coming out of the chimney. Arriving to that was pretty awesome.
This is a video I made on the last morning, showing you around:
Click to viewand this is a video taken about two minutes later of the ducks arriving to be fed:
The first thing that I did was try to feed them by hand. They were pretty skittish, but one of them would happily nibble my fingers:
And, of course, they'd also nibble Jane's fingers, when they weren't fighting over who got the most food.
There was a pair of red squirrels who would come right up to the feeder, about three feet away from us. On the first day they were slightly nervous, and wouldn't go into it - but would come and get some nuts if we took them out and put them on the "porch" bit of it:
A visiting squirrel
And it was lovely waking up the following morning and watching this out the window:
Sadly, it rained for most of the first two days. Which didn't stop us going out for an 8-mile walk through the woods, because neither of us minded coming back soggy. But it did mean that the views weren't as great as they could have been. Until yesterday evening, when the clouds started to clear and we got a lovely view up on the moor:
and from that bench:
And I got to see the most amazing stars when I went out to the composting toilet at 4am. Sadly, the phone camera wasn't going to show anything other than a black rectangle for that.
Then this morning we got on a bus back to Aviemore, had a delicious brunch at the Mountain Cafe (totally recommended to anyone who visits Aviemore), and got the train back home.
I shall miss this lot:
Original post on Dreamwidth - there are
comments there.