Holidaying in Aviemore - Wednesday

A regular forrest visitor - the red squirrel:

A magnificent osprey

[image courtesy of Loch Garten Reserve website]:

Wednesday we paid a visit to Loch Garten Osprey Visitor Centre to see the osprey chicks at the famous osprey nest. Magnificent to watch – not only did we see the chicks at the nest and some in flight, we saw lots of other birds visiting the bird feeders situated in front of the visitor centre. There is an RSPB blog set up for keeping up-to-date with the ospreys who will be preparing for their migration to Africa. There is also a 'live' feed from the cameras filming the nests here.

On the way back to the car, Ali and I need to use the loos. Well, if you haven’t been before, they aren’t your traditional toilets. There were the usual ‘ladies’ and ‘gents’ loos. However, once you got in your cubicle, it was a raised platform with a regular toilet seat with lid. Once you lifted the lid, it revealed a hole in the platform. These were ‘environmental toilets’. I shant explain – I think the photo will!

We were going to visit the reindeer centre but we were advised we weren’t wearing shoes suitable for the very muddy conditions as there was a 20 minute trek up the hill [following a short drive] before we actually got to see the reindeer. We decided not to borrow their wellies which were kindly offered and alternatively went for a spot of lunch at the Italian restaurant at the end of the main street in Aviemore called “La Taverna”. We spent a good couple of hours there before heading back to our lodge – we could have done with a sleep as we had full bellies LOL!! [image courtesy from La Taverna website]

Having had the equivalent of a lunch combined dinner, we popped home for a coffee before setting off to the clubhouse for a wee tipple for both of us and also to let the kids play in the ‘games’ room. It was “Scottish Evening”. We had no idea what that would have involved. All was revealed when a rather surprising younger-than-us chap arrived and set up with an accordion, which we actually thoroughly enjoyed as he was excellent to listen to and shared his good humour. He had an assistant arrive a short while after he played the accordion. His assistant was Jordan - an 11 year old piper who was excellent in his performance, though a little shy. It was revealed that he had taken part in regional competitions and was about to take part in another competition last weekend.