My first Scottish event as a Scottish resident 😊🏴
The event was run by Moray Way Ultras, and started at Grantown-on-Spey, to then follow along the Dava Way (the route of the old Highland Railway line) to Forres. The railway line is about 24 miles long, so the route had an extra about 10km around Anagach Woods and along the River Spey by Grantown-on-Spey at the start, then another couple of miles around Forres at the end, to make it up to being 32 miles.
It was a leisurely Saturday morning 03.15 am start to drive over to Forres, where there were buses waiting to take everyone over to the start at Grantown-on-Spey. It was still dark, and got colder as we headed along the winding roads towards the Cairngorms and away from the coast.
There was plenty of time once we got to the start and registered, to warm up and wake up with a coffee from the Grumpy Mule coffee van, and have plenty of safety wees, and meet Liz!
At 7.30, everyone went out to the car park, and it was off!
The first few miles were freezing and foggy, and it was beautiful by the River Spey.
It soon started to warm up when the sun came out, and it was the most beautiful day.
The route was lovely. I've done parts of it before on some runs with Andrew, and also on the LDWA Laich o'Moray 50 miles last year, and on the Speyside 100 miles this year. Speyside is a beautiful part of Scotland, somewhere I'd never been until about a year ago, and I am it's new biggest fan!
The Highland Railway was opened in 1863, to link Inverness to Perth, and closed in 1965. From Grantown-on-Spey it crosses the Dava Moor, passing the Summit at 1052 feet, the "halfway hut", then dropping down to the coast at Forres, crossing the River Divie on the old railway viaduct. Lovely views crossing the moors on a sunny day like this, and plenty of miles through magical forests.
The event was excellent. Really well organised and friendly, and the marshals and volunteers were amazing. A great medal and goody bag, too! Thank you to Moray Way Ultras and team - looking forward to trying out some more of their events next year!
