I decided to head from the Moray coast inland following the Spey valley, a couple of stops on Speyside, firstly at the Telford bridge at Craigellachie, lit up in the winter, it's a stunning tribute to Telford.
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I then stopped in Ballindalloch, just down from the Delnashaugh hotel, at the gate house to Ballindalloch castle! It might look familiar to some, this gate lodge was used as a back drop in the release photo shoot for the land rover Discovery!
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I then branched off, up to Glenlivet, where I had a bit of fun with a Mitsubishi EVO X! Damn! That car could go!I had a brief stop to take a pic at the Pack horse bridge in Bridge end of Glenlivet then pressed on to Tomintoul where I stopped at the Old Fire station cafe, where I had said I would have a break, just in case someone came up to meet me.
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As usual, I couldn't resist having a play in the snow! I'm almost convinced the Honda XRV750 Africa Twin was not designed for the snow! The lardy arsed Honda sat down in the snow and refused to move unless dug down to the hard! This made moving the bike in snow covered areas and tracks pretty hard going! But good fun none the less!
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A brief stop and then onwards and upwards to the Lecht Ski centre. The mist was pretty thick heading up above 2000 feet, so the pic from the ski centre's not up to much!
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I continued down to Corgarff and Cock bridge. Well, call it schoolboy mentality but had to stop and take the pic of the sign,,,, "COCK Bridge"!!! Fnar fnar! LOL!
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I could see why the snow gates were closed last weekend, the drifts were pretty tall, possibly 6 feet in places! I continued into Strathdon where the snow cleared as I got into lower land so found a picnic area to have my brew!
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I passed by the gates to Candacraig, Billy Connolly's property on Strathdon, but he wasn't at home today!
I then headed back into the hills, up the Clashindarroch and over the hill to the Cabrach, where some snow was quite deep.
Back down into Dufftown, across to Craigellachie, Rothes and home via Orton.
120 miles for the afternoon, great fun was had! It's brilliant to see Scotland at this time of the year, the trees are bare and the snow makes it all look a bit winter wonderland!
A brilliant day out on the old Africa Twin, what a stunning old bike! Over 20yrs old but still gives me hours of fun and never lets me down! I hope you enjoy the pics!
