Day 12 - Macduff to Fraserburgh

We made it!!!!

It was a tough last day, with a tonne of road walking but just before 17:00 this evening we arrived in Fraserburgh on the east coast of Scotland to some wild cheering from our good friend, Moira!!  We spent no more than three minutes on the beach dipping our toes and taking a few photos before we were ready to get into Moira’s warm car to drive to her home in Stonehaven, where she would spoil us all evening!

Our Finish Line

Traditional Post-Crossing Dipping Of The Toes In The North Sea

Two Happy Campers 😊

We were able to set off  by 7:00 this morning, as planned, since we knew it was going to be a long day.  The first half of the walk seemed to be never ending.  The scenery was pleasant but it was hard not to think about how far we had to go…  We really had to dig deep to keep pushing on.  

With the exception of a 7-8 km section sometime after the halfway point, we were on roads all day.  This took a serious toll on our feet.  Shortly after we took a lunch break with about 20 km, we found another gear and the kms started melting away.

The cows really took an interest in us as we passed by today.  We had multiple herds get up and follow us along the fence line, or run over from the opposite side of the field to escort us as far as they could.  It was very entertaining and was a well-needed distraction from our legs and feet.

Curious Coos 🤣

With about 6 km to go we stopped at Mounthooly Doocot, more because of the picnic tables than anything.  A doocot is a structure built to be able to harvest pigeons and their eggs in the winter.  This particular one was built in 1800.  While we were resting and checking it out our good friend Sarah D. video called us from Ontario at the perfect moment when we needed a boost.  Awesome timing, Sarah, and thank you so much!! ❤️

Mounthooly Doocot

Another amazing pick-us-up came just after a tough spot of walking when we ran into Cham about 1 km from Fraserburgh, and 3.5 km from the end of the crossing.  She had her camper van set up in preparation for when Duncan and Charlie come through in a couple of days.  She really picked up our spirits with her encouragement and kind words. ❤️

After that we just put our heads down until we made it to our final destination.

Somebody Let Fraserburgh Council Know We Were On The Way! 🤣

Since then we have been completely spoiled by Moira.  The drive back was so relaxing, and we really enjoyed catching up.  Moira has secured us a guest room in the complex which she lives in.  After showers and clean-up we headed over to Moira’s for snackies, ciders and mocktails, and an absolutely delicious curry dinner.  Mandy even got to try Moira’s heated neck massaging device, which almost put her to sleep.  We called it a night at 9:30 and are now back in the guest room for a comfy night’s sleep.

Final thoughts:

We feel lucky to have chosen this particular route this year.  Being in the mountains would have been very tough with all of the snow and cold weather there the past two weeks.  Being on the Moray Coast and only dealing with rain and wind was more manageable and allowed us to finish our crossing.

We haven’t been in this part of Scotland before and we are glad to have seen it.  The people here were just as kind and curious as everywhere else we have been in Scotland.  Having said that, there were a few drawbacks to the route that we both agree on.  First, this route forced us to do a lot of road walking.  Road walking is hard on the feet, and puts you in close contact with cars, which isn’t really our ideal type of TGOC.  The coastal views have been beautiful, but I think the mountains are where our hearts are.  We don’t regret doing this route at all, but if we had to rank all of our crossings in order of preference, this one would probably fall to the bottom of the list.

At the end of it all, we had an amazing trip, and will never forget this experience.  We have met some amazing new people, reconnected with some old friends, and got to spend some quality time with loved ones.

Thank you everybody who has followed along, reading the blog.  Knowing you were out there pulling for us really made a difference!  We are very thankful, and are looking forward to getting back home and catching up with all of you!

That’s it for tonight!!  

Day 12 Route - 32.8 km, 472 m ascent