After another great stay at 'Strawberry Bank House' and we set forth, but only a few miles on as far as The Kelpies on the edge of Falkirk. The Kelpies is a fabulous piece of public art created by Andy Scott, depicting two horses, and was opened in 2014. The sculptures form part of a parkland adjacent to the extension of the Forth and Clyde Canal. We got there fairly early, so there were few people present and we just avoided a coach party.
We had a lengthy journey to make so it was now largely a case of motoring with few extended stops, but we did stop off at Dunblane to photograph the first of our gold post boxes on the trip - each British gold medallist at the 2012 Olympics has a post box painted gold in recognition. The one at Dunblane is in honour of Andy Murray, who comes from the town and was a survivor of the school massacre there in 1996.
We turned off the main A9 at Aviemore and headed off to Loch Garten and the RSPB reserve there. This was a follow up to my visit from 41 years ago - my Dad really wanted to pay a visit back then as after all, this was then the only place you could see ospreys in Britain. Now, almost 300 pairs summer in Britain and that nest, first established in 1954, is still in use by the current generation.
From Loch Garten, we headed out on the road towards Grantown-on-Spey and then on to Forres before ending up at Lossiemouth, but on the way we discovered this preserved AA box at the A939/A940 junction at Dava, serving as a reminder when there were few ways to contact a mechanic to fix your car when deep in the countryside.
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