Made in Scotland from girders...

...and heaven knows what else.

What a remarkable achievement. Sixteen. Sixteen. When I was that age I thought I was hard because I could go to gigs at the Apollo on my own.

Scottish schoolboy climbs Ama Dablam

Gaun' yersel', Calum.

Taysiders In Space

I'd forgotten about this one.

:0)

Halloween XXV - When Labradoodles Go Bad

I tell you what's mildly amusing...

...it's how last week I used up the title "Drookit". Hell's bells, if I'd known then what I know now, I'd have saved it for today.

There had been vague rumblings about putting our daft "Do Ben Wyvis As A Day Walk" plan into action this weekend, but for a variety of reasons that didny happen. So, as it transpired, as of 8pm on Friday the choice was either walking on my own on the Saturday, or (and after checking the forecast this was the clever option) no' bothering my tail going anywhere.

Swithering, I had a wee look at Robin Howie's stuff in the Scotsman. The self evident joy of his walk of the week is that it's designed so you can do it THAT PARTICULAR week! (Or within a scientific tolerance of a fortnight. Honest.) So, the decision was made that to try and keep in focus the target of 142 Munros by the end of the year, I'd have a go at Stob Coire a'Chairn in the Mamores. It made sense because it's a short walk. I couldn't face too early a start, and there's not, of course, an abundance of daylight about at this time of year, so it was fitting into the timescale allowed.

What can I say? Well, wet. I can say that.

You set off from the Mamore Lodge - one of the finest hillwalking start points in Scotland, as far as I'm concerned - and head left out the car park. Past the stalker's cottage muddy detour then down to the bridge. For the first time ever (well, my first time ever), it's a left turn and then follow the path up into Coire na Ba.

It was pouring.

The path is always pretty obvious. Shin deep muddy, but obvious nonetheless.

The rain started to get heavier.

As you near the corrie proper, the path takes a right turn and starts to rise a bit more steeply. This means that the rainwater flowing aff the hill uses it as an escape route, so the path is now a fairly vigorously flowing burn. Still, the increasingly violent rain, coupled with the rising wind, takes your mind off the water flowing into your boots.

Actually, I'm sure you get the picture about what fun it was as I got higher and the weather conditions got worse and then I broke from the relative cover of the corrie path onto the ridge proper. I'll therefore not labour the point, other than to say that I don't even think the Wee Black Dug was enjoying her walk.
;0)

Still - only took four hours. And five hours driving. See hillwalking? See carbon-neutral?
:0/

Undeniably Better Looking than Brian Johnson

Drookit

Saturday's planned walk was called off at the last minute for domestic reasons. I can't usually get away on a Sunday, but good old Martha agreed to forego the dubious pleasure of her son keeping her company this afternoon, and came over to see to the dugs while Marion was at work.

So, me Andy & Cara headed off to the nature reserve at Creag Meagaidh, with a view to having a go at Carn Liath. Part of the reason that I didn't take either of the dogs (I'd normally have one, even if my mum was dugsitting) was that given the weather conditions, I rather suspected that we'd end up driving for two hours and then walking for twenty minutes before turning round all depressed and driving for two hours back down the road. However in the event, although it was indeed wet, horrible, windy and surprisingly cold...we got to the top.

You leave the big car park, walk up the signposted hill path, pass the visitor centre lean-to thing next to a big hoose, and keep on going. It's an excellent path, and you can see it stretching away into the distance up through the corrie, en route to the other Munros. We were hanging a right up heathery slopes towards Carn Liath. There's supposed to be a fainter path, but we missed it so a bit of a steep trudge through boggy, shrubby, heather-covered slopes ensued but it was over after about 25 minutes and we came across the elusive track. It then runs all the way to the summit, pretty much although you can lose sight of it among the regular rocky patches. Very very slippery rocky patches, for future reference. I don't know if my boot soles are just past it entirely, or if someone had been out greasing the boulders up earlier on, but there was a fair degree of dancing on ice-type flailing about ocurring.

Two and a half hours to the top, some respite from the weather behind the cairn, sandwiches and hot tea (the first flask-accompanied trip for months) and then about 80 minutes back to the car.

Nae photies. One's camera would have got soaked. Good to get out again though - it's been a while.

Hmm...

With the increasingly later-dark mornings I've taken to putting my wee emergency headtorch into my pocket for our jaunts down to the castle. Essential for locating missing tennis balls and the like. Of course, what's going to happen at some point in the winter is that I'll be out on the hill desperately searching through my rucksack for it, only to realise that it's still sitting in my dugwalking jacket in the hoose.

So I decided it was a justifiable expense to get another one, for canine related activity and nowt else. Surprisingly they didn't have one at Go Outdoors at lunchtime, but I'd to go to the supermarket tonight anyway, so I wandered up to the Glasgow Fort where there's a branch of Blacks as well. I knew they were closing branches, but I kind of assumed that they'd be keeping a big flagship one like that.

Wrong. In truth, it was a wee bit sad because the last time I was in there, it seemed like all they had was TNF sports casual(!) gear, and you couldn't get anything that you might actually want to go hillwalking. Tonight, the place is stripped half bare - but everything is half price and its piled (fairly) high with useful bits & pieces. I've aye got mixed feelings about real closing down sales, but I suppose they're better selling off stuff than giving it back, so if anybody's passing, you can get a litre of that Nikwax Techwash for £5 (it's £14.70 at Hike Lite), and 4 rather smart titanium tent pegs for £7.50.Ultimately, I didny resist the bargain.

:0/