Saturday, 2 July 2016

Angus #Microadventure

 
 
With summer fast rolling forward and Alastair Humphreys trying to get a microadventure in every county of Britain during the month of June I was shocked to see my new home county of Angus bereft of any #MicroAdventures. So with Angus pride (not sure if that's a thing) at steak Stuart and I decided to explore our home county, not the home counties of course. Angus is a county full of options. It has stunning beaches and beautiful glens but with ease of access a key, this was a midweek adventure after all we settled upon a costal walk from Ferryden near Montrose. The walkhighland route can be found here. Starting at Ferryden it gently rolls around the coast taking in a light houses and some cool coastal rock formations.


The lighthouse is actually the traditional finish point of the TGO coast to coast challenge which makes you want to set out on an even bigger adventure than we had time for. Another idea for another time.





I find a walk like this interesting because of the variety of landscape you find. Beaches to farmland in a matter of meters. If you ever decide to do this walk just bear in mind  past Usan the path deteriorates slightly getting a bit overgrown and you'll find yourself wishing you wore trousers instead of shorts.






 
 Just before you get to Elephant rock there is a great area for camping but with us having to get back to work tomorrow  and my dislike for early mornings we decided to head on past it a little further to make our walk home a little shorter (it's a circular route)




 
 We finally settled on a small patch of beach land next to some salmon bothies. Next comes the bit on every microadventure I love. The cooking and eating. It seems odd to say it but there is something magical about cooking and eating outdoors, it calms you down and makes you look around. A watched pot never boils and all that.




Given that next month we are heading into the cairngorms for two nights we had decided to use this as a tasting test for our future trip and used the ration pack foods, which I'm happy to report have really improved. I can wholeheartedly recommend the chickpea curry.  As the evening light began to settle behind us we reviewed the route that Stuart had prepped for next month we turned in for the night. I am getting better at this bivvy lark and with my now practiced routine I slept really well, only waking up a couple of times through the night because of the wind (real wind not chickpea wind). I woke with the sun, I always set an alarm but this far north in summer it really isn't needed. We packed up in record time for us even with Stuart making a coffee and me enjoying an extra doze in the morning light.

We headed back along the road completing the circular route quicker than we thought, getting us back in Dundee easily before work, though for me that meant painting the house. I might have snuck in a wee nap at lunch but that's what holidays are for...



If you want to do your own #Microadventure you'll find lots of inspiration on twitter  using the hashtag or on the website here.

If somehow this has inspired you to try your own let me know how you get on, or if you have done others near Dundee let me know where and how it went.

Woop Woop.

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