The Best Backroads Day with Highland Games, Pipes and a Certain Golf Course

My favorite day of the Backroads trip was this one. The hike was a grand, wide open hill climb (see photos in previous entry), plus Backroads does a fabulous job bringing the most interesting, excellent and well-known locals to their trips. The highlight was 31 year-old Kyle Randalls, who has won the Braemar Highland Games five times and who appeared on Men In Kilts, teaching Sam Heughan (Jamie Frasier of Outlander fame) and Graham McTavish (Dougal McKenzie, ditto) how to throw various things at the Braemar Highland Games Centre. And so this morning our group found ourselves at the very same field (although not being famous ourselves, we were off to the side) with Kyle, who was delightful, sweet and insanely strong and graceful. He can throw all kinds of objects a very, very long way.

This post has a lot of videos, do turn the sound on if you’d like to hear Kyle’s voice, which I would recommend.

The hammer throw is also my best event and thus was my favorite. I have to say I threw it straight and a satisfactorily long way. On my first try.

Everyone in our group did this one. We all took a turn, and then Kyle announced that a woman had never thrown either of the stones on a Backroads tour. I don’t know about you, but I find nothing more inspirational than that sort of comment. My intrepid compatriot Margot, a former rugby player, threw the first stone, and I was right behind her.

And that brings us to my absolute worst event which I think falls into the frisbee category because I can’t throw that either. It’s called a weight throw, and you can toss it for height and/or for distance.

Kyle demonstrated the “weight for height” event where you pick up this giant kettlebell thing and throw it over a bar with one hand. Again, it’s fifty six pounds.

And here he is at the age of 23 to give you an idea of what throwing it over a bar looks like.

As for me, on the other hand, my first attempt (with the small one) resulted in the weight skittering over the ground like a bowling ball. It was so very sad that Kyle granted me a mulligan. However, the second one (and mind, I was doing weight for distance, not height) I released way too late so it went sailing up into the air pretty as you please. Our leader Fiona said later she almost had a heart attack because from her angle it looked like its trajectory would have brought it crashing down on my head.

And of course we ended with the caber toss!!! This one we weren’t allowed to try and I think you’ll see why.

This visit with Kyle was everyone’s favorite non-hiking activity of the entire trip. It’s hard to believe this, but the leaders told us that former Backroads groups were, for lack of a better word, totally lame. Many folks didn’t try anything and also didn’t seem that interested in the entire situation. Fiona said Kyle was pleased as could be with our group and way more animated than she had seen him, and shared some things she didn’t even know, like juicy stories about his main rival in the sport.

Not only did every single guest in our group try at least one event, we all took photos with Kyle and stood with him to hold up the caber – don’t have that photo yet.

We then drove to the Cateran Trail and hiked a six-mile section. The first bit was steep as we crested the hill, and then we dropped down into an expansive moor complete with a bothy to shelter hikers. (See last spring’s blog for an overly-detailed explanation of Scotland’s bothy system). I posted a few pictures in the last blog entry and totally forgot about it so for those who receive this blog via email, apologies. Yeesh.

And as I said, Josh unveiled a Highland Park 10 from his pack at lunch, which almost everyone sampled, even folks who were reluctant earlier in the trip. Something about the Scottish air, and perhaps due to the fact that the night before we had enjoyed a whisky tasting with Frasier at a local cafe, followed by a scrumptious private dinner for our group.

That afternoon we moved from our lovely B&B in Ballater to the Old Course Hotel in St. Andrews. While not a huge golfer, I appreciated the Holy Grail status of the birthplace of golf. Had I been unaware, the rapt, nay, ecstatic expressions on the faces of all the men wandering around the hotel in a daze would have made it pretty clear.

We ended the best day with a bagpipe demonstration from Finn Moore, who is considered one of the best pipers in Scotland and also builds pipes with his dad (if you want a set of small pipes, it’ll set you back a few grand and there’s a 3-4 year waiting list). We sat in a snug above a restaurant (with a whisky) while he walked us through all the different types of pipes, played a few tunes and answered questions. He was lovely. His wife plays the fiddle and their 3-year old daughter is already showing some musical talent. We reluctantly left the snug and walked down to the Old Course where Finn busted out the Highland Pipes (eardrum-blowing if played indoors) and played a tune written by his dad called Farewell to Decorum.

I might note that Finn recently played the pipes (onscreen) in an upcoming episode of Outlander. Just to bring it back around.

A perfect end to a perfect day.