Today would be the day when I eventually start walking southwards again, as the last 6 or 7 walks have been eastwards. I had no concerns about today’s walk other than a few possible river crossing which may have required a slight inland diversion. It would be a very early departure from my hotel room, because I had to catch the first of two buses to get to my start point. This meant driving to the shore car park about a mile from St. Fergus and walking back into St. Fergus to catch the 5:53 #69 bus to Fraserburgh. As I drove to the car park I passed the large St. Fergus gas terminal, with its thousands of lights lighting up the early morning sky. There was little traffic about at that time of the morning and I passed a Police car in a lay-by. About 400m later I turned down the single track road to the beach. As I got out of the car and started getting my stuff ready, another car appeared. It was the police, or should I say Ministry of Defence Police, the equivalent of the Civil Nuclear Constabulary who I had come across before. There were obviously checking me out as the car park is about 1km from the huge gas plant. They soon disappeared back up the road without stopping.
After catching the bus into Fraserburgh, I then caught the 06:55 #74 to Rosehearty. It was still drizzling with rain when I got off the bus and because it was only 07:05, still very dark. I had checked beforehand though and I knew there was a good footpath all the way back into Fraserburgh. As I walked out of Rosehearty and through Sandhaven, the rain ceased and it gradually began to get light. By the time I had reached Fraserburgh I was able to remove my hi-vis vest and turn my head torch off. I passed a bakery and popped in to get a bacon bap, it was really nice and perked me up as the drizzle began to slowly return.
I walked through Fraserburgh and out past the harbours full of boats, mainly to do with the fishing industry. I transferred down onto a lovely beach that swept around Fraserburgh Bay. About half way along the beach I spoke to a chap who was exercising, I asked him about crossing the burn further up the beach. He confirmed my suspicions that I would have to divert inland due to the high tide which was now underway. I cut across the golf course to the B9023 road. I crossed over the Water of Philorth via a road bridge and continued along the main road for another mile before continuing down a minor road into Inverallochy. As I left Inverallochy, the sun came out and it stopped raining. I walked alongside another golf course and into the village of St. Combs.
I got speaking to a local dog walker who advised me of the two bridges I needed to cross a couple of miles further up. I already knew about the bridges, but it was still reassuring to know they were still there. I now entered a dune system that would be with me to the end of the walk. The dunes were covered in Marram Grass and difficult to walk through. I picked up a couple tracks that ultimately led me to the two wooden bridges I needed to cross. One of the bridges was over the outfall from Loch Strathbeg, Britain’s largest dune loch and an important winter feeding site for many birds.
I could now see the towers from the large St. Fergus gas terminal. Composed of three plants, each having three offshore pipelines coming ashore, the site receives 25% of the country’s gas supply. I decided to cross over the dune system again and drop down to the beach. This took a while as the dune system here had two ridges which took some effort getting over. The beach was beautiful with amazing surf causing a fine mist to form. The sand, however, was a bit of a pig to walk along though. Try as I did, I could not find a “sweet spot” to walk along without sinking into the sand. I decided to cut back into the dunes as the effort of walking over the beach sand was sapping my energy. I cut back through the dunes and walked along the dune fringe. I could now see the lighthouse at Rattray Head which I was heading for. I passed the Lighthouse cottages, which was a bit of a misnomer, as the “cottages” appeared to be a large and well-built house.
I got back onto the beach and stuck with it until I reached the Gas Terminal. I knew at some point I would have to cut through the dunes again and follow the fence line of the gas terminal, because of a water course at the far end of the site. After walking along fence line past the multiple signs warning me that armed police patrol the site 24hours a day, I arrived at the old ruined Annachie bridge that got me over the last water obstacle of the day. The last kilometre was along a dog walker’s path past the dunes to the car park and my car.
NB: I also publish all my Scottish Blog entries on the excellent Scottish Hills website, I use the same narrative, but larger photos and a few extra ones. They can be found here:
http://www.scottishhills.com/html/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=24806
Distance today =20 miles
Total distance = 5,728 miles
Walking the Coast of Great Britain 