When I woke in the morning the temperature outside was below freezing, so not unnaturally I chose my outfit accordingly. After breakfast, when I got round to setting off, it had risen to three degrees, and the forecast was for a top temperature of 12, so I was more bothered about nippy fingers and toes at that point. I set off out of the hotel and chose my route on the bike computer, however I didn't realise until I set off that the reverse route I'd created hadn't synced! Not a problem I thought, I'll just follow the original but going backwards. I set off along a B road out of Grantown On Spey, past the golf club where a few hardy souls were teeing off. It was a quiet road, and I was only passed by one car in the first half hour. The road undulated in a fairly benign way, nothing too strenuous too start with. I passed several fields with sheep and cattle, and there new offspring, I also came across a couple of sizeable rabbits playing on the road.
Shortly after this, I came down a left handed descent and was presented with my first view of the River Spey, and what a glorious sight (and sound) it was! A little after, the road rose up and presented me with my first stiff challenge of the day. I puffed up it, noting with a little concern that my chain was making a right racket in bottom gear. At the top of the climb and looked backwards and drank in the view of the Spey plain with the mountains behind. The road continued to undulate with the Spey always on my right hand side, and at a turn off for Advie I took a quick detour to snatch a couple of photos of the river from the bridge. Further on I passed an entrance to something that I had a feeling I should have taken, as it looked like it dropped onto the Speyside Way, however I continued on the road and eventually picked the Speyside Way up at Blacksboat, I'd been here in September last year, and bemoaned the state of the surface, and it looks like they are still working on it, as a couple of little dumpers were beavering up and down. It looked like they were dropping something onto the rocky surface with a view to flattening it, however at one point the way was barred by a skip with a dumper behind. I prodded the newly flattened surface to see how it stood up, and I left an impression of my foot! I decided to walk on the side for a few hundred yards to avoid ruining the new surface, but eventually it firmed up so after further testing I hopped back on the bike and rode on. After a short while, the new surface stopped and the old ballast-like surface returned. Fortunately it wasn't long before this too disappeared and the Tamdhu cooperage came into view, and here I left the Speyside Way and headed up the hill towards Cardow. Passing the Cardhu distillery, I turned onto a bumpy farm track just before Knockando Primary School and rattled on to a lovely quiet road, where I turned left.
From this point, the thing that struck me was the amount of gorse that was flowering, there seemed to be yellow flowers everywhere for miles along the road. The trees were also producing copious amounts of blossom, making for a very scenic ride indeed, particularly as the road undulated and as it was quiet I could flow down the hills into the corners nicely. Eventually I came to the junction with the road for Forres where I turned right and started climbing again. My chain started it's infernal racket again so I stopped and managed to fix the issue, climbing became quiet again (apart from my laboured breathing of course). I was getting very warm at this point, as my winter clothing couldn't cope with the sun which typically shone when I was putting an effort in, and when I was coasting downhill it went behind the clouds! After a long bit of climbing the road started undulating again, and after a while I came across a village called Dallas! Sadly there was no South Fork farm around. Soon I turned left at a junction and started dropping down towards Forres, through a lovely village called Rafford. In Forres, I came across a brightly painted Highland Cow statue, one of which I'd seen in Grantown the previous evening.
Further on I headed to Sueno's Stone, a 7m Pictish cross slab featuring carvings of a battle. After I took a couple of photos I headed back into town and treated myself to a coffee and sandwich at Cafe 1496, a little pricey but given the size and quality of the sandwich I had no complaints! After lunch I found the start of the Dava Way, which follows the line of the old Highland Railway for 24 miles between Forres and Grantown On Spey. Like a few disused railway lines, the surface varies considerably, in some places hard packed dirt, in others it seems they have left the ballast lying around which makes it tricky, and in others it is soft grass which sucks at your wheels. There were a couple of deviations from the original route on the Dava Way, and at times it turned off into the forest at either side onto forest tracks. There were great views on either side at times too, although at other times trees obscured the view (or hid the railway I guess). Shortly after the start of the Dava Way it goes past the disused Dallas Dhu distillery which still offers self guided tours. There are many informative Way Points which give information about interesting things along the way, including a wind farm trail, a viaduct, a bridge which allowed livestock to cross a river underneath, an old croft building and a couple of lineside buildings, all of which gave me opportunities to take a break from the long uphill plod to the highest point. I was looking forward to a downhill stretch into Grantown when the signs unceremoniously pitched cyclists and horse riders off the track and onto the A939. Although not a busy road, cars were still speeding past and while it didn't bother me a great deal, I could imagine horses and inexperienced cyclists not enjoying it. As it was, the lack of return signage to the track meant the last few miles were becoming a boring road slog, when out of the corner of my eye I spotted a blue finger post in a turn off.
This, it turned out, put me back on the Dava Way albeit through a forest switchback for a while until it seemed to return to the 'proper' disused railway. This crossed the A939, and headed into Grantown On Spey through what appeared to be a rock cutting, at one point a waterfall was turning the right of the track into a stream. I reached the end of the track by Grantown Caravan Park and dropped down into town to head back to my hotel where I treated myself to a hot bath, a pint and fish and chips. Heaven.
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