Essentially, this is "a page for relaxation". All I'll say is that we found ourselves in idyllic surroundings with not another soul in sight - and all the time in the world to share. The pictures tell a better story than I could ever imagine.

My favourite view from the Dovecote is of the barley in the fields, whipped by the wind to present a shimmering sea of green, rolling across the hillsides. I remember thinking: "If you had a boat, you could almost sail on it." Although the wind sounds quite blustery in the video, it was more of a warm, friendly breeze, and, sitting at the picnic table lower down the hill, the air was still, which meant we were in a perfect, face-filling scenario, fit for a king!

With the picnic done and dusted, all we had to do was to find our way back to base, which we did, via MacDuff, Banff, and the beautiful Sands of Forvie, the fifth largest sand dune system in Britain and the least disturbed by human activity. The sands lie within the ⁨Forvie National Nature Reserve, and it's quite a long walk through dunes (maybe a couple of miles) from the car park on the A975. However, the banter and the encouragement to continue we received from those on their way back from the beach to the car park bolstered our resolve and we continued on our way with fresh hearts. Anyway, we forgot all that the moment we saw the beach: it was beautiful!

Strangest of all, though, was the fact that we could almost see our digs from the beach as the city was clearly visible in the distance. We were only 10 miles away from Aberdeen, but we'd ridden nearly eighty miles to get there!