Your invitation |
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The intimately small, snug and colourful, larch clad bunkhouse hostel has been carefully prepared for you. You settle in with your gear and take a steaming mug or a glass of the amber stuff into the covered garden where you nestle in a sprawling basket chair close to the open fire with the red squirrel and crested tit haven beyond in the sapling birch wood. |
You may be travelling through or traversing the plateau of the wild Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland solo or with a partner. You may be the first of your group of friends to arrive here at The Lazy Duck Hostel where you have chosen to spend a few days in a Highland homestead renewing old friendships. |
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Either way, when you reach the end of the mysterious track to us which winds from the village boundary through the wood and you open the gate to the forest clearing on the edge of the 100 acre heather moor, likely you will recognise immediately the resinous scent from the two hundred year old Caledonian pines surrounding the ancient travellers' camping ground just inside the entrance. |
Maybe there is a trace of wood smoke or burning peat even from the house, cottage or hostel or from one of the outdoor chimeneas that give comfort, pleasure and warmth to us and our guests. |
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In the morning you can throw open the top section of the stable door to the pond below - |
- where whistlers, widgeon, pintails, mandarins, carolinas and aylesburies, the true 'lazy ducks', are already cavorting on the compact sheet of water, mirror still or blown into spews by a breeze. |
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Up and beyond the wild flower grassland in front of the hostel, a riot of yellow hawkweed laced with native orchids for much of the summer, is the heather and juniper moor leading through the Abernethy forest to the Tulloch Hills and Cairngorm |
In winter it could be just one of those lowering dark days when ten minutes of true daylight is a rare gift. Maybe then you should stack the wood-stove, pull up a chair and enjoy your book in the company of some imaginatively chosen music from the CD player. |
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On the other hand you might be better getting into that bad weather gear and taking a low level route by river or forest track or setting off up Sgor Gaoithe, the 628 metre Corbett just up the strath on the General Wade road to the Lecht ski area and Deeside. |
If it's a sparkler of a day it's a different matter altogether. You have arrived in the dryest and, in winter, the coldest district of Scotland. The snow here can be crisp, exhilarating and fun for ski touring. On the tops of the Cairngorm Mountains though, it can be challenging even for experienced mountaineers and skiers. |
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In Spring, at the entrance to the hostel garden you will be stilled by the trilling call of the nesting curlew sweeping low over the moor. |
In August the nectar from the heather reaching to the door of the hostel itself will rival any sensory glory you have experienced. Deep yellow broom, honeysuckle, clematis, iris and alpine lupins make regular appearance in the garden throughout the summer. Birch, rowan, aspen, juniper, pine, larch and willow are everywhere. |
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On winter evenings geese wing nobly to and from Loch Garten nearby and in the gloamings of late summer the lone woodcock flies croaking, low and direct to inspect his territory and have us shut up shop for the day. |
For children helping to feed the ducks or collect hens eggs there is the added surprise of seeing the grown ups with the bow-saw preparing timber for tonight's barbeque where, they know, there will be toasted marsh mallows for 'afters' . |
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Meanwhile, there's the adventure swing, not to mention the hammock hidden in the heather and reached only by the bold and the brave via a secret path dedicated to little people |
When they travel with you on their own or on locally hired bikes the forest tracks are easily covered and many new discoveries made. On nearby waters too, grown ups and children kayak and sail or just get plain wet in the fun area of the nearby forest theme park or giant new-look swimming pool. |
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Then there is always the Lazy Duck for you and your party to return to in the late afternoons to prepare for the evening's feast you will enjoy making together. Its the kind of place you thought didn't exist anymore . . . . . |
And a couple more pictures...
The 2 Fionas and their 3 sturdy trail horses stop by on their way from the Moray coast to Glen Clova in the Angus Glens |
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its not just ducks you'll find on our pond! |
this pair of Bahamian Pintails have been entertaining us throughout the Spring |
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