TraceysTrek

See my whole journey and donate at TraceysTrek.uk

Best bits: Donation total passing £42,000, tea and scone at the Corner Bistro in Macduff

Worst bits: walking on the road

Distance: 17.8 miles

You will be pleased to know that I didn’t fall out of bed last night. I was rolling towards the edge because if you recall Priscilla was parked on a hill. However, I utilised the ‘stop the baby falling out of bed’ technique and popped a pillow under the edge of the mattress. Job done.

The local seagulls had a wake up party at 4 am this morning some of which included stomping around on the roof of Priscilla! After about 30 minutes or so they calmed down and I was able to get back to sleep.

I had breakfast at the hotel with Eric and Ann this morning. I had a fabulous vegetarian breakfast with toast and marmalade very yummy.

We looked at the donation total and it was just over £42 thousand. A massive thank you to everyone who has donated. This is absolutely amazing.♥️♥️♥️

My waterlogged shoes that had been in the boiler cupboard in the hotel overnight were actually dry along with all of my other clothes that had been hanging up in Eric and Ann’s room.

We jumped in the car back to Gardenstown and Eric joined me for the morning. Unfortunately, it was road walking all the way back to Macduff. Ann insisted that Eric wore the hi viz vest, so we looked like twins.

However, the weather was much improved and we could actually see the sea, which was very blue, and some of the scenery, including the cliffs around Gardenstown which yesterday were just a blur in the mist.

We made a good time and arrived at the Corner Bistro in Macduff in a little under two hours where we met Ann. Akira and Carol the owners were lovely along with another couple who were eating there and we had a great chat. Our tea and scones were on the house thank you so much.

Onwards again through Macduff I passed the little harbour which looked lovely.

Then across the bridge into Banff.

The view from the bridge of Banff Bay was very beautiful.

Once round the headland and harbour at Banff I came out onto the fantastic Boyndie beach with a caravan park right at the very edge of it. I took the opportunity to walk on the lovely flat sand before crossing a little stream and onto the headland at Whitehills.

I stopped at the little shop on the caravan park for a Mackie’s ice cream and had a chat to a few people there.

There was another little harbour and all the boats were moored. There is a weather forecast for a large storm coming in on Monday so I hope everything’s battened down.

It was great to be able to see where I had come from yesterday. The cliffs looked quite dramatic, although I didn’t get a chance to walk on them.

As I continued to walk through the little village of Whitehills the streets became narrower. There was washing out on the green and a towel had blown off so I picked it up and pegged it back on the line.

From the hotel we had been able to see some hills in the very far distance across the water. These seemed even closer today. We asked the staff at the hotel what we were looking at and they said it was the Black Isle. I’m still not convinced.

I walked past field after field of barley, which apparently is for the whiskey industry, before arriving at Portsoy my final destination for today. What a lovely little harbour it is too. Eric and Ann were waiting for me. They had been back to Pennan this afternoon and said it was completely different to yesterday!

So back to the hole and the bag of washing. This was the contents of my carrier bag of dirty washing that Ann took to the laundrette yesterday. Ok guess how much it cost? There were 9 t-shirts, 2 pillowcases, 2 shorts, 1 small towel, 2 cloths, 13 pants and 8 pairs of socks. Basically one load in the washer.

Ann was shocked! Never mind at least we won’t be going back there. Next time it’s hand washing!!

After a gin and tonic to recover from the saga I took the opportunity to take another bath. Then we had dinner and a long chat before retiring to bed.

The seagulls decided to have another party while they roosted. At least they didn’t roost on Priscilla.