TRAVEL Porsche Haggis, hooves and horsepower: A Christmas adventure in the Cairngorms with Porsche’s Macan
By Jack Evans, PA Motoring Reporter
It’s a brisk minus-four degrees Celsius as we waft silently out of the gates next to the Ness Walk Hotel. Sitting on the banks of the river with which it shares its name, it’s a five-star hotel which doesn’t just offer 47 rooms but is one that has also partnered with Green Tourism to ensure that it’s operating in as sustainable a way as possible. It has even committed to achieving net zero emissions for energy use by 2028. And when you look around into the hills and rivers surrounding, it’s not hard to see why you’d want to protect things.The hotel even has electric chargers on-site, which are handy for our particular trip – taking the new electric Porsche Macan on a very special journey to make an equally special delivery. So after an evening of food in the Torrish restaurant, we’re off on our adventure.The Macan has a range of up to close to 400 miles and even as the temperatures continue to fall as we drift away from the heart of Inverness along the A9 past Moy, we’ve still got more than enough in the ‘tank’ for a day’s worth of driving. The scenery unfurls around us as we head south towards the famous Cairngorms National Park with the Macan’s readout indicating minus seven degrees at certain points.Trees crackle with frost in the distance and we’re rewarded for our early start with a magnificent sunrise that sparks some energy into the dark skies of the winter morning. Given the time of year, it’ll come as no surprise that the main focus of our journey has antlers, hooves and a particular tie to the festive season – reindeer. It’s in the Cairngorms that you’ll find Britain’s only free-roaming reindeer herd, made up of 150 animals that traipse the mountains and hills in this staggeringly beautiful part of the country.
We’ve come equipped, too, prepped with both carrots and reindeer feed that is easily handled by the Macan’s boot. Guided trips to visit the reindeer run daily – weather depending
Continued on following page >
mccartthyhollden..co..uk | 59
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs