Now, are you sitting comfortably? Then let me recount our Highland tale. We were on our way to the Cairngorms for a wedding and a bit of walking. The flight to Inverness was a bit rough at first, but got steadier nearer Scotland. BA (British Airways) look after you quite well and we were no sooner browsed and sluiced when it was time to descend.

Inverness airport is surrounded by pine forests on a couple of sides and the setting sun and clear air made for a real welcome to the Highlands. We had trouble with the car-hire at the airport. They had not been informed of our arrival. That was put right fairly quickly and to be fair, the reps there were very good and helpful.

Our hotel for the duration was once the home of the former Governer General of Jamaica. Located in Grantown-on-Spey, it was very spacious, clean and comfortable, but there was a drawback.

We were treated to a lecture on the rules of the house. We had to be in by 12am. The key was to be left when we went out and the television was to be turned down low, late in the evening. We laughed like a pair of giggling teenagers as we left for the evening. No, the owners were not a couple of crusty old biddies, they were in their twenties.

We met up with many of the wedding party at the Muckrach Lodge Hotel and had supper there. The Muckrach was once a hunting lodge and retains something of it's former incarnation. The rooms were very Edwardian and luxurious in character, with hunting and gun-dog prints on the walls.

The food was excellent. Tommy Riding, the head chef at the Lodge has a very good reputation.

On Saturday, the day of the wedding, we decided to go walking straight after breakfast, as the wedding was not until 2pm. We wandered down to the Spey and walked along it's banks for a while.

There has been so much rain this year that the river was running like an express train. I don't think you would get out again if you fell in. The Spey is one of the premier salmon rivers in Scotland and generates a lot of wealth in the area. We then took a shortcut through a remnant of the ancient Caledonian Forest to Grantown. We bought a book of walks from Rae Donaldson of the tourist office and listened to her explanation for lending a friend a witches cloak. "Nothing sinister you know." After prising ourselves away from her clutches, we got a good tea and scone at the the ice cream parlour and headed back home in an icy rain shower.

Back at Muckrach, we picked up Louise's sister and drove for an hour to Newtonmore via Kingussie. The journey was beautiful and magnificent. The Spey valley on our left and tree clothed hills on our right. Most spectacular of all, the Cairngorm mountains in the distance, topped with newly fallen snow. The rain had gone and the day shone bright and sunny.

The wedding service was conducted by a lady minister who was quite in control until the bride, her father and the groom started to shed tears. The minister joined in the tears and declared that no one had ever done that to her before. It was quite moving to see a couple as much in love.

The rest of the ceremony back at the lodge involved photo calls in the lovely grounds, a bag-piper and lines of staff serving whisky and other drinks. The meal was excellent and the speeches were really funny. The bride's father told a risque joke, hoping the minister wouldn't mind.

Apparently a young girl from the Outer Hebrides (where they still don't allow television) was invited to a wedding on the Scots mainland. She decided to decline the invitation as she did not know how to conduct herself. Her brother, however, persuaded her to go by telling her that she would not go wrong if she copied everything the minister did.

The young lady managed to get herself seated by the minister and watched his every move. The minister liked a drink or three and so the poor girl had to keep up with him, drink for drink. After a few hours, the minister finally declared, "If I'd had another one, I'd have felt it."                  The girl replied, "If I'd had another one, I'd have let you."

After the meal, we retired to the lounge until the tables were cleared and then went into the marquee for the dancing, some traditional, some country and western style and some modern. We deserted after a while as I am no dancer and the band was a bit loud. A couple of little children were very entertaining with their own version of the dances.

Sunday morning was lovely to start. We could see the mountains turning from black to deep purple in the morning light. The weather forecast was for unpredictable conditions, so we asked our host for ideas on a walk on the hills. He was appalled, I think, and advised us to keep well off the hills. The walk he chose was on the Glenlivet Estate. It would only mean an ascent of 1,866ft (570m). It turned out to be a beautiful walk, but a bit of a Sunday afternoon stroll for us. It was only 6½ miles (10.5km) and the ascent was very gentle.

The weather conditions were extremely variable. One moment we were nicely warm, the next we had freezing showers. The start of the walk was very wet. Twice we had to ford the track, as a swollen stream ran across it. All the footpaths and even the Landrover tracks were transformed into tiny raging torrents.

After passing an abandoned, derelict farmhouse we disturbed three roe deer and watched them bunny-hopping over the hill above. On the summit of Carn Daimh we were caught by a jet stream of freezing air. It was difficult staying on our feet, so we took a couple of photos of snow covered peaks nearby and scrambled back down the heather bank into the next valley.

Heather is hard work to walk on. You can't always tell what it is covering and it is tough and springy, so you need to keep your knees high to get over it. In my farming days, the shepherds used to wear 'heather loupers,' boots with the toes pointing to the skies so that they would not trip on heather stems. Louise, however, was not wearing them and managed her usual party piece by going arse over tit into a boggy bit of ground and getting her trousers wet.

The final descent into Glenlivet is so enchanting. Before you are the high heather-clad hills and below, the valley dressed in hues of green, gold, orange and blue of the many trees native and introduced to the area.

The Scottish autumn is more vivid than in England. The mountain ash turns brilliant red and silver birch leaves go a bright gold. Then there are the greens and blues of the Scots pine, Norway Spruce and Sitka Spruce. The Larch and Sycamore give a more delicate yellowing effect.

We ended the walk by the whisky distillery and then found a smashing tea shop in Bridge of Brown, all by itself. We had a chat with the lady owner there, an Englishwoman from Lincolnshire. She loved it there, but admitted that when the days shortened to five hours of daylight, it got depressing. They open all year round as they get people coming here for the skiing, mountaineering, walking and shooting in winter. Winter conditions can be severe. The Cairngorms cover about 300 sq miles (777 sq kms) and you can sunbathe on the sandy shores of Loch Morlich (1000 ft, 300m, above sea-level) and yet there will be a blizzard four miles (6.5km) away on the plateau. Fast lowering mist, snow hidden gullies, blizzards and cold can make this a very dangerous mountain range. The Cairngorms kill more people than the whole of the European Alps each year. It is an Arctic region and supports populations of Arctic hare, ptarmigan and reindeer.

We managed another dinner at Muckrach. This time they asked us what we would like as we had tried the other dishes on the menu. I asked for hill lamb and they had some. It was saddle of lamb and tasted of mountain herbs. It was the best either of us had tasted, lean and so tender.

We were due back on Monday, but managed a trip to Boat of Garten, a small village which was named after a ferry that once crossed the Spey. It also boasts a time-piece railway station with steam engines.

Even better, we got in another walk through the Abernethy forest to Lochs Mallachie and Garten. Again the colours of the forest trees were a wonder to see. The lochs were lovely in the bright sunlight too.

Loch Garten is famous as the only known breeding place in Britain of the Osprey, a kind of fish-eagle.

We left the Cairngorms and went back by the A939 to Nairn, stopping by Cawdor Castle, which I think was mentioned in Shakespeare's Macbeth. It was closed and hidden from view. Disappointing, as it is meant to be a fairytale style castle.

On then to Nairn, another tea and scone and a final drive to the airportalongside the Moray Firth, following the sunset. We'll have to go back again to do some proper hill-walking.