A royal encounter by Loch Muick

I may have been really bummed that we did not get the Easter bank holiday at my company, but boy did the replacement day off we got today make up for it!

I love going for scenic walks, however not having a car it can be slightly tricky getting to some of the places, so when a colleague at work asked if I wanted to tag along for a walk on our day off I jumped at the chance!

Armed with some cinnamon rolls from the freezer, and some bars of chocolate I got picked up early this morning, and we set off for Loch Muick (pronounced as Loch Mick)

Originally the plan was to bag a munro (climb a mountian if you don’t speak scottish) and head up Loch Na’gar, however as I have pretty much no experience hillwalking I was glad we settled for Loch Muick instead, and 8-mile walk round the Loch, and fairly flat – slightly easier than going up a mountain. But after I found out that Loch na’gar translates to the loch of the goat, I am almost regretting it. Ah well, there will be other days!

I am warning you right now if you don’t like pictures of the Scottish countryside you might as well look away now!

It was such a stunning day – around 15 degrees, and hardly any clouds! Made for a pretty warm walk, but we had a bit of a breeze at some points as well to cool us down.

After a quick stop for lunch, we walked past this little “bothy” which was built for Queen Victoria as a cottage in 1869. Love it when someones summer house is bigger than your parents!

A couple of minutes after taking this picture a landrover drove by and I thought nothing of it, then shortly after another one followed and we had to step out in the road and wait for it to pass. Just as I was thinking I recognised the woman driving it, Sarah just went “that’s Camilla” and Claire who didn’t believe it then saw it too and went “yeah look it’s Camilla” and started pointing. Sure enough, it was Camilla Parker Bowles, The Duchess of Cornwall out for a drive with a friend.

She must have seen we recognised her as she just waved and smiled at us as she drove past. We were all a bit starstruck and dumbfounded, and at one point I think I even considered a curtsy whereas Claire actually started doing this royal wave at her. She must have thought we were right crazy, but who cares – we saw Camilla and she was so lovely (seen from a car) one of us may have described her as “having hair like a mermaid”  – that wasn’t me – but as I say, we were all kinda starstruck…

We also saw loads of deer, but they were not as exciting.

All in all a great day, definitely something I’d like to do again, and I think we may have some plans for some more walks this summer if things work out! Fingers crossed!

How has your Monday been? Ever seen anyone famous? How did you react?