TraceysTrek

See my whole journey and donate at TraceysTrek.uk

Best bits: Debs company and lunch

Worst bits: the missing steps

Distance: 23.2 + 1 miles

I was up early this morning as I was meeting Debs at the train station to catch the 8:30 train to Stonehaven and it was a mile to walk there.

Debs and I had not seen each other since we climbed Buachaille Etive Mòr with Girls On Hills back in September last year. So much has happened in both our lives so there was a lot to catch up with including the fact that Debs and Gavin got married last weekend.

We left the train at Stonehaven and headed down the road towards the coast path. Unfortunately, I didn’t see much of Stonehaven itself.

After a short way along the Esplanade by the beach, we had to turn in land and walk along a road. This led onto the main road and we were supposed to take a path down back towards the railway line. However, the path was completely overgrown and so we had to walk a little further before turning off. We were just walking down a small track when we came across apeacock and peahen. They were very tame and photogenic. A car was coming up the track and we asked them if we could get to the coast path. They were tourists from Southport so didn’t know either.

The coast path was completely overgrown with bracken as high as ourselves. We joked about needing a machete to get through the combination of bracken, brambles and nettles. This was the path!

After plenty of what seemed like walking through jungles it was time for lunch at Skateraw café at Newtonhill. The food here was absolutely excellent.

Two brothers who were working on a roof saw what was written on our high viz jackets and shouted us back and gave very generous donations.

Once we got back on to the coast path, we came across this sculpture of Isabella which perished in a storm in 1888, but the locals saved all of the crew.

We walked through a grassy field and then along farm track that looked like it was a graveyard for tractors. It became quite wet and muddy after awhile and we had to be light on our feet to keep them dry.

Then somehow we managed to end up in England.

We hadn’t seen the sea for awhile and so we’re glad when we finally got a seaview.

Then there was the remarkable case of the missing steps. We had to head downhill which was reasonably steep when we came across what should’ve been steps. All that was left was the framework, the soil had been completely eroded away. It looked more like a structure ready to put decking on rather than steps. It required extremely delicate and careful foot placement to negotiate them. The picture really doesn’t do it justice.

There was a bridge at the bottom of the steps where we caught our breath and acknowledged our relief in successfully managing the steps without injury.

When we crossed the bridge and got to the other side of the hill, we saw this sign which was a little too late for us!

It’s amazing what strange things you see while walking. Our next encounter was fields full of life-raft containers, there were hundreds of them and a short while later a field full of life boats. This whole area was on top of a cliff with no direct access to the sea and so we have to assume that all of these were brought in by road.

We were ready for another cup of tea which we managed to get in the hotel at Cove Bay. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any cakes, but we did get a small chocolate by way of consolation. 

There was more cliff top walking and fighting through bracken as we left Cove Bay. We managed to take photos of the view, practising placing objects in the foreground.

There were a lot of fisherman standing on the rocks and we saw one catch two fish in one go. We even saw a seal. We were told that there was a pod of orca in the area a couple of days ago but unfortunately we never saw any.

The sun came out and it became quite hot and we continued walking towards the new harbour at Aberdeen. It’s interesting how quickly the scenery can change from gorgeous views to highly industrial areas. The smell also changed from the salty seaweedy smell to that of sewage as we walked past the sewage works. 

The rest of the day was walking along roads into Aberdeen and around the sides of the busy docks. We crossed the bridge towards the town centre and the area where the tall ships had been the week before.

Eventually, after a few wrong turns we managed to arrive at Asda where Gavin was waiting for us. We had a cup of tea and a catch up before Gavin and Debs departed. It was a long walk today.

It was quite late when I had my dinner followed by a shower and a quick shop in Asda for provisions. Then I had to write this blog.

Just as I wrote that sentence, a humongous bang went off. It was so loud it made me jump as I thought something had landed on Priscilla right above my head. It also disturbed all of the seagulls in the area which all started squawking very loudly before they finally settled down again. Oh no there goes another one and another! It’s 11:30pm. I hope that’s the last.