JOGLE Day 54 – Dunkeld to Blair Atholl. 23.04 miles Cumulative 982.23 miles.

Dunkeld is a town geared up for wealthy tourists who are happy to pay £3.70 for a coffee and buy Smoked Pheasant crisps. Fortunately, the campsite owner pointed us in the direction of the only pub which accepted riff raff. It was very busy but served excellent food. The town also had a community orchard, which we thought was a brilliant idea.

A bright start and on the whole a good day with two short heavy downpours.

Our walk took us through Dunkeld and past the back of the mainly ruined Cathedral. The first hour was spent in the vast immaculate grounds of the Dunkeld House Hotel, following NCN 77 on a traffic free path, beside the River Tay.

Next came our only section on the A9, walking southbound to cross the River Tay before continuing on the NCN 77 on a minor road, with amazing views of the Cairngorms ahead. Just as we were about to re-cross the River Tay, via a community owned bridge, a large military aeroplane flew very low down the valley immediately overhead.

The route then took us to Pitlochry, where we stopped for lunch and stocked up on supplies to see us through the next two days. We were impressed by the town Pitlochry and decided it would be worth a future visit.

After Pitlochry, the road was busier, for the first couple of miles we had pavement which came to an abrupt stop. The last four miles to the campsite there was intermittent pavement, the remainder was spent grass verge hopping.

Our accommodation tonight is at Blair Atholl Castle Caravan Park, a large very well maintained site, with excellent facilities. Blair Castle will be hosting a Highland Games on Sunday. It’s a shame we will miss it. Lynn muttered something about Steve being good at tossing the caber. Steve may have misheard.