Moray Coast, Day 1: Forres to Findhorn

Day 1 began with a short walk to the edge of town and a "detour" off trail (about 30 feet off the trail) to see Sueno's Stone, a carved Pictish slab of rock now safely housed in a glass box.

From there, the walk to Findhorn was an easy amble

Orhan said this is whiskey in its embryonic state.

Unlike last year, when our first day on the Great Glen Way was a foot-brutalizing 18 miles, we decided to take it very easy this year. From the start point in Forres to Findhorn is about 5 miles, but we had already gone past the start point the night before.

For most of the way we were on a bike path, with the promise of water eventually off to our left and mostly farms to our right.

Sometimes there were interesting non-scenery sights, like this nice painting on a garage...

...or this baffling sign in the yard of the same house.

Every time we saw a tractor, Orhan announced what class it was. I believe this was a 3.

In town (such as it was -- I think we walked through in under 10 minutes) we saw the Abbey Inn, which is neither in a former abbey nor even made with some of the same rocks. We assume the connection is simply location.

Perhaps this similar to naming housing developments after whatever was removed to make way for them. 

As for the church count, we were pleased to see that Kinloss had resisted the over-churching of its environs; this was the only one, and according to the sign the Reverend Louis Bezuldenhout serves both Kinloss and Findhorn; in fact, this week he appears to be in Findhorn... or so we thought. We return to the reverend later.

In the meantime, back to the path, and a distant view of the mudflats:

And onward down the road.

The next items of interest were all related to the RAF base we passed. It was noteworthy for its airplane-related traffic signal and warnings against stopping in the road (because the low planes will flip cars over? because the exhaust would peel the paint?):

We also found it curious that the base has "crash gates." Orhan speculated that they are where the troops come crashing out in case of war, assuming any enemy doesn't figure that out and simply fail to follow instructions (that is, blocks the gate).

(Also, how appropriate is it that military site is named Kinloss?)

The site also houses the Duke of Edinburgh.

At the time we mainly noticed its chunky proportions and its narwahl-wannabe horn, but we have since learned from an article in The Scotsman that it's a 1970 Nimrod that has been purchased to be part of a future aviation museum. One might think the human Duke of Edinburgh would not be pleased to have his title associated with a "nimrod," but it turns out that doesn't mean the same thing here as it does at home.

We also speculated about why the buildings had grassy roofs. If it's to fool people into missing the fact that the're a big old airbase there, they seem to have overlooked the problem of the enormous runway.

Next up was the bird blind -- here called a bird hide -- on the left, promising a view of shore birds. Alas, the hide was locked, and the birds were hiding, probably because it was midday. Dev was especially disappointed; I think he was hoping for a game of hide-and-seek.

At least the scenery was good.

By this point we were at the edge of Findhorn, but it was only 12:30 so we decided to stop at the Findhorn Foundation to have tea in their cafe. Gün had told us about the foundation, an intentional community of new-age types founded in the 1970s.

They like plants.

They like them so much they put them all over the landscape...

...in their ponds...

On the tables in their cafe...

...and, in what I am sure is their only point in common with their RAF neighbors, on their roofs.

The community itself is described as having to specific faith or creed; they also built a UFO landing pad near Nelson's Tower in Forres. (No UFO landings have been reported.)

We popped into the gift shop briefly to see what it was like, and found it generally of a piece with new age gift shops everywhere -- incense, crystals, faerie art, the usual...

...and also, well, these:

Maybe they're hoping the aliens will appreciate fart humor.

Back on the main road, we walked the last few steps into Findhorn.

As far as we saw, this is Findhorn's only church. The question is, where is the Reverend? According to this sign, services this week are in Kinloss.

Missing reverend aside, it's a very pretty town.

We got the hotel, checked in, and after a brief rest headed out to explore the town.

Since it's now pretty late, though, the explorations will have to wait for another post.