Last race in Sweden and first day in Scotland

Last race was another beauty.
We had long walks to our starts.on the way to mine I had time to admire the little square houses ( Maybe a retirement village ) with approx 12 x 12m houses with lovely well kept gardens but very close together. Also beautiful orchid type flowers with large "bellies" a bit like some of the insect trapping flowers I've seen pictures of.

This is my course-which presented plenty of challenges-especially in the second half when the brain got a bit dry. I managed to make a mess on portions of leg 5-6, 10-11 and 11-12.  It was certainly easier to see the contours after a few days of reading the same type of maps-and I was particularly impressed with Trev's effort on a much longer course than mine. Some of his tricky legs I'm not sure I would have managed. 

The arena had much more atmosphere as it was held on a large open area and in the sunshine the crowd could sit on the grass gently spreading out around the finish chute. They had constructed a wooden fence for the finish chute. The grassy playing field area was also surrounded by the common brick red buildings seen all over Sweden... we surmised that these were probably club rooms for various sports.

The finish chute was coming off of the bend of a forest track and a lovely gentle downhill run. We did feel a little sorry for the people out for their usual Saturday run who found their usual running path blocked by this huge event. Some turned back, others braved the path and the cheers of the onlooking cheeky spectators. 

We took advantage of the showers which were available after the race as we were heading straight to the airport and onto our flight for Scotland. The showers were a cultural experience in their own right.  Set up inside a large area enclosed with tarpaulin walls was a single pole with 8 shower hoses hanging from it.  Everyone strips off and takes turns under the shower-you push the trigger on the hose and hold it over yourself, take advantage of the special environmentally friendly soap, rinse off and get out so someone else can have their turn. So many variations of body on display with no  noticeable shy behaviour. Somehow it all seemed pretty  normal. Apparently this is something often on offer after an event in Sweden.  You can order the truck of hot water and tell them what time you want the showers to be used.  They calculate the temperature so that the water is right when needed. I guess if you get in earlier it is slightly warmer.

The flight was fine-not as much fun as I had imagined it might be, being a group of only orienteers.  I think we were all pretty weary. As we flew in to Aberdeen we could see the patchwork of brown and green spread out below us.

We enjoyed a reasonably early night.  Trevor's ear ache has turned into a sore throat, so he is  not feeling crash hot right now. It was a bit of a pity that I had not planned a two night stay for us, as he could have done with a day off.

As it was we had a late breakfast ( including black pudding and haggis with our bacon and egg - Trev says he has had them once and that is enough) . Then we took advantage of the hotel shuttle back to the airport to pick up our hire car.

A brief detour into the center of town to visit the tourist office and find a Scottish cache, then off we went.

We followed the river Dee for much of our drive today, heading up into the Highlands within the Cairngorm national park. Many of the homes are built of grey stone, or rendered with grey. The effect of this is one of drabness- with many chimneypots.  Even the display village we passed had houses which looked like those we might have had in the sixties.

We stopped at a little town for lunch, bought some essential travelling supplies, strolled down to the river in various scenic spots and walked some paths we read about in various pamphlets.

We were amazed to see the bare topped mountains of the highlands staring down at us like old monks with their tonsures.  Brown and bare on top where just heather seems to grow around the granite, then some other heath type plants, then pine trees once it gets down a little lower ( Maybe below the worst of the snow line?)

Finally our brave little car struggled over the last stone bridge of the day and into a tiny scottish village where we are staying tonight.

 The weather is apparently unseasonably cold-but the slight misting of rain and clouds slowly closing in  didn't stop us from finding the local pub for our first pub dinner, before tucking ourselves in for the night.