The Highlands, Day 8

The Deeside Way.

OK, a genuinely easy day this one.  A mere fifteen miles, all of them pretty flat.  As it turns out the route I've planned follows a marked path, the Deeside Way, all day.  It wasn't on the map so I think it is new, and I must say I approve, I spend the morning walking beside the river, then follow logging tracks through pine forest to today's endpoint, Banchory.

Here I am grateful to be able to leave my tent in my rucksack, as tonight I am staying at the four star Tor-na-Coille hotel.  It is rather excellent, I have a comfy room, and enjoy fine dining - smoked haddock chowder with a smoked haddock scotch (quail's!) egg, then monkfish with pancetta and crushed potato, washed down with a nice chenin blanc.

The excellent Tor na Coille hotel.

Monkfish!

Given there wasn't much walking to write about today, I guess I could address the burning issue of the day up here, that is the independence referendum.  It is certainly dominating the newspapers I see - most of which seem to be in the no camp.  For me... well, I would be sorry to see the Scots go.  While it seems kind of un-British to say so, I think that Britain is a great country - and that is partly because it has Scotland in it.  I cannot help but feel that if they leave, Britain will be a smaller place, not just geographically but culturally, even spiritually.  All that said it is their decision, and reasonably for the Scots a more important question is, will Scotland be better as a sovereign country?  Well maybe it will, it is hard to say.  Certainly all the negative stuff coming from 'better together' seems so much nonsense, I am sure they would be far better appealing to a sense of tradition, and indeed patriotism.  And in the final analysis it won't make that much difference... an independent Scotland would just be one more European country which we'd be able to visit, reside in, work in, and find pretty much the same legal system, welfare provision and so forth as at home.  Well - until such time as the rump of the UK votes to leave the EU of course.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.