TraceysTrek

See my whole journey and donate at TraceysTrek.uk

Best bits: amazing dolphin display

Worst bits: very long sandy beach walk

Distance: 13.6 miles

It was a late night yesterday and I never found out what those bangs were, but fortunately they were short-lived. I struggled to get out of bed this morning. It was a cooler start to the day. I had just set off when I met a nice lady called Ann who had cycled from Lands End to John O’Groats last October and was planning to cycle around the coast of Scotland next year and dip in the sea at the many beaches.

The sky was full of clouds today, but the sea was very calm and there was no wind. Today would be a long beach walk. The first section of the beach was full of groyns which today had quite a haunting look about them.

Last night, I took a look at some other people‘s account of this stage. They mainly consisted of beach, beach, more beach so I took the opportunity to walk on the esplanade for as long as possible.

It’s interesting watching other people. They are either walking with purpose and striding out with focus or are clearly out for a stroll and just ambling along.

It wasn’t long before I was at the final groyn and at the mouth of the river Don where the route goes inland to cross over at the ‘bridge of Don’ before turning back on itself. The Aberdeen Park run was just packing up for the day. If I had not been so lazy this morning, I might have made it!

As I approached a busy roundabout, a little deer was just by the side of the road minding its own business. It didn’t seem at all phased by the busy traffic.

The airport is quite close by with a variety of aircraft passing overhead, the control tower was in the near distance. There were many helicopters taking supplies and personnel backwards and forwards to the offshore rigs.

Back down towards the beach some signs can be a little disconcerting, for example, this one Warning risk of tidal stranding’ that’s a new one on me. Fortunately, I had already checked the tide times today and the tide was low. This also meant that I was able to walk on the sand.

At one point there was an attempt to stabilise the sand dunes and then I realised that behind that section is the golf course.

The offshore wind turbines around here are on some sort of cage. I’ve never seen that before.

One section of the beach was absolutely covered in bird poo. It was like the birds had been using it as a bombing range.

Speaking of firing ranges, there was an MOD firing range marked danger on the map, however I’d looked that up earlier and fortunately it was now disused. I stopped for a rest and have my lunch right at the point of the beach that is going to be closed later tonight due to Donald Trump‘s visit. As I sat down and looked back towards Aberdeen, the sky was very dark and foreboding. I cut my break short in the hope that I could get to the finish without getting completely soaked.

Balmedie is where Donald Trump‘s golf course is positioned and it’s where I met Linda from BBC Radio Scotland who came to do an interview with me. She met me on the beach and we walked and talked. Linda did an interview with me in October last year just a couple of weeks before I set off on my journey. It was nice to see her again and do an update with me now I’m back in Scotland.

One of the questions Linda asked me was what sort of wildlife had I seen during my trek, for example had I seen any seals dolphins or whales? I replied that I had only seen seals so far. We had just finished the interview and we’re about to say our goodbyes When I was looking out to sea and save the unmistakable shapes of fins in the water. We were then treated to an amazing display by a pod of around 10 dolphins. I was so excited as these are the first ones I’ve seen on my journey. They were initially quite close in to shore but then soon went further out to sea but I could still continue watching them jumping and frolicking on their way to the distance.

A little further on there was a carcass of a dead adult seal on the beach. It gives you a sense of how big these creatures really are. 

Linda had said that there was a big police presence in the June’s and around the car park. It wasn’t long before I had a lovely chat to 2 lovely women police officers who were very interested in what I was doing. The poor things were having to patrol the beach as part of the security measures for Donald Trump‘s visit. They told me that the beach is going to be closed from 10 pm this evening for a couple of days so I had just made it through.

Every so often there will be a large flock of birds on the beach. As they saw me approaching, they would become anxious and fly away.

I was still walking along the beach by mile 10 and this time I was trying to beat the waves as the tide was coming in trying to keep my feet dry as the beach became narrower.

A couple of seals kept popping their heads out the water taking a look around. I’m sure they were looking at me and then bobbing back down again only to resurface a short distance further along the shore.  As I continued along the beach, the number of seals in the water started to increase in number. Then there were too many to count. I was almost at the end of the beach and this is where there is a seal colony.

Debs and Gavin were very kind enough to collect Priscilla from Aberdeen and drive her to Newburgh. They then walked along the beach with their two dogs to meet me and we managed the final mile together watching the seals. Of course we had to have a cup of tea in Priscilla followed by more chitchat before finally saying our goodbyes.

I drove to Port Errol Harbour where I had a fantastic view for the evening. This will be my finish point for tomorrow.

I have felt very tired today obviously yesterday was a very long walk and today has been very draining walking 10 miles on a sandy beach. However, I’ve also done three interviews in two days. These interviews always involve questions about Angela, our relationship, Angela‘s illness and subsequent death, my purpose for doing the walk, how I’m feeling, how I’m grieving, good days bad days, etc. All of this is emotionally draining.