Sights Around Scotland

A very small portion of the reindeer paddock

Before the overnight walk into the Cairngorms we had some extra time around Inverness.  Driving along the road from Aviemore I noticed a sign announcing reindeer tours, how could we go past that!  It turns out that they are trying to reintroduce reindeers to the Cairngorms, apparently they used to be native there, but were all killed somehow.  They don't seem like they would be that fun to hunt, so not sure what happened to them.  But now there is this massive pasture where they keep some of the reindeer, though a lot of them are just free to roam the Cairngorms where they want.  These are Swedish reindeer, so I imagine they can take whatever Scotland throws at them.

The lone, deaf, albino reindeer

The herd charging

So the reindeer tours go twice a day, and seem to consist of the group walking to the paddock and then feeding them by hand.  When I say paddock it's more than that, perhaps a small national park by itself.  When we got there though there were no reindeers to be seen, perhaps a downside to giving them so much room.  Eventually one pure white reindeer appeared.  This thing would never have survived in the wild, pure white, and completely deaf.  Two of the more junior workers were sent off up the ridge to try and rustle up some reindeers for us to feed, and rustle them up they did.  If you have ever seen the storm trooper alpacas, if you haven't I highly recommend it, but just imagine the imperial march from Star Wars playing in your head as this massive herd of reindeer appear of the ridge line and then start charging down at you.  As they started running at us, the lead guide tells everyone to stand completely still and that as they run through us, they won't gore us so long as we don't move.  Slightly scary.  But they aren't super big, and nobody got an antler through anything, so all well that ends well.  And now that they had all appeared it was time for foooood.

Some nice antlers

Whilst we were waiting for the reindeer storm troopers to appear, the guide was giving us some info on reindeers.  Apparently their antlers grow back every year, and they always grow back in the same shape, they are like reindeer fingerprints.  Also because it is so cold in a Swedish winter that they don't want to open their mouths to make any noise, since heat escapes with their breath.  So instead they have this weird tendon that snaps over their ankle as they walk, making this clicking noise.  And that's how they keep track of each other in the mists and snow storms.  When we were out in the Cairngorms the next day we actually saw a few wild reindeer, and even more cool was that we heard them in the fog.  We couldn't see them, but we could hear them clicking away at each other.

As well as the reindeer, highly recommended for a visit, we couldn't go to Inverness without seeing Loch Ness.  I was actually a little disappointed with this loch, I'd seen so many movies about it, where it always seems so wild and remote, but it's only a 20 minute drive from Inverness.  And there are heaps of boats out on it, and just people all over the place.  Not to say that it isn't a pretty loch, it just didn't have that air of mystery that you imagine is necessary for such a place.

Loch Ness