Photos

Took a short walk with a camera today. Tried a panorama from Blackford hill:

(Do click for a bigger version.)

Also here we have the radio mast on Blackford hill, and Liberton Tower.

Last weekend we were down near Buxton in the Peak district for the AFP camping event. There were tents, and people, and beer. And curry and tents and pie and beer and people.

Nice to get away and relax for a few days.

The weekend before last we visited my mum's. Was a nice trip, visited her mother's, played an interesting game Blockus (where players lay (1-5)-onimoes corner-to-corner and try to block opponents from doing the same), had a nice walk, a run and I did a bit of photography in the garden.

Playing with my new macro lens. Focusing is challenging particularly without a tripod, but while I had lugged a tripod up with me it was not suitable for any of the shots I took.

It was my birthday recently. My new toy, to go with the new camera, is a Canon EF-S 60mm macro lens. This arrived on Thursday, and aside from some playing about inside, I've not really had a chance to use it. First impressions are good, it is very nicely finished and unlike the 18-55mm kit lens, actually feels heavy enough to have some glass inside. So today I went out to play.

We went for a wander through the Hermitage of Braid. Very slowly. It really gives a different perspective on the world. 1:1 on this size of sensor is tiiiiny. Very rewarding for a first trip, I can see that I am going to have to spend a lot of time getting used to the depth of field issues, something which is very important in macro photography. Focussing correctly is hard, and I think a good tripod setup will help that, as well as allowing me to close down the aperture for a greater depth of field when required. Plenty to work on...

Anyway, I'm very pleased with my purchase, I think it will be well used.

New gadget for my birthday:

Taken with the other new gadget, see next post...

Ugh, update frequency ungood.

I've not been running recently, less than a week to my marathon and I'm hoping that some rest will allow some ankle niggles to clear up. So while I've been busy with work, I've also had a little time to go out with my new camera. I guess it's its first proper afternoon out, actually trying to take some pictures rather than just getting used to the camera. We had a wander in the woods around Corstorphine hill; here are a couple of shots:

There are some more in this gallery. As a general point of information, when I stick a photo up on this site, it will be linked to its full version in a gallery on my home machine, and from there you can go to that gallery and find some more shots that didn't quite make it here. I try to take a representative sample of my favourite photos, or those which illustrate what I'm rambling on about, so the rest will be somewhat similar to those here, will have been shots I think are slightly poorer or not included for space (whatever that means in the digital realm of infinite margins), or just don't come out well at a small size. Which leads to one question to the reader: how do you find the size of the pictures I do post? I originally chose this size for posts with quite a few pics (perhaps 5 or more), largely illustrative in nature, and I think it works for that purpose. I have been wondering if a larger size would be appropriate for posts with say 1-3 pictures, such as this one. Any thoughts?

Oh yes, and some day I may finally get around to solving the issue of the livejournal/RSS-feed alt-text haiku. In the mean time, if it looks weird, click through.

I went for my first ever 20-mile (32 km) run on Sunday. Seemed like rather hard work at the time (I felt tired to start with), but I finished feeling strong. Two repeats of an out-and-back course along the Water of Leith to Balerno, with about equal splits for each 5-mile leg, totalling about 2:52. I think that's about 3:45 marathon pace, so my 3:30 goal still seems soft... However, I still plan to aim for that as a first attempt on the distance, since I've not been able to get as much training in as planned.

The Water of Leith Visitor Centre was a nice place to finish. I arrived just as they were closing and had a cup of tea and bit of shortbread sitting out at a table in the sun. How civilised. I'm not really feeling any after-effects from the long run, other than the usual early-week lack of cycling legs.

Oh. Yes. Also. The weekend before last, I had a bit of an accident. Bought a Canon EOS 400D Digital SLR. Oops. Turns out I had more funds available than I had accounted for, so I gave in to a rather persistant temptation. Now I just need to start saving for the lenses I have my eye on...

I have taken only a few pictures so far to familiarise myself with the camera. I've been quite busy recently. Hopefully go out and take some more interesting shots soon. Oh yes, dearg bought a Nikon D80 at the same time. So we will probably be heading out for this purpose soon...

We've had a warm few days recently, and they're longer too... So I've been out a few times recently. The other evening I took a trip to the Pentlands on my bike, reminding me of my lack of mountain-bike prowess. Anyway, nice weather out riding in a t-shirt...

The ride must have sparked my imagination, as I went out yesterday for another ride, this time in a more flat but long way. From the flat, I rode out to Balerno partly along the Water of Leith path, and then spent a while riding around being lost near Balerno. When I found the NCN cycle route signs I proceeded to follow them to Broxburn to meet the Union canal there. Nice cycling on very quiet roads in the sunshine.

At Broxburn I continued along the Union canal towpath, which happened to be from the furthest point I have previously reached cycling out along the canal. From Broxburn the canal meanders around to keep on level ground, eventually arriving at Linlithgow. At this point I was already tiring, so I went into town for a coffee and slice of gingerbread, and had a wander around the ruins of Linlithgow Palace. The picture is of St Michael's church, beside the Palace.

From Linlithgow I continued along the canal to Falkirk, managing to arrive at the Falkirk Wheel as a boat was being raised. I stayed around to snap some pictures, then returned into the actual town centre a couple of miles away to take a train home. A good afternoon of supposedly 70km in t-shirt weather.

Today I went for a walk with dearg, from South Queensferry by the near end of the Forth Rail Bridge to Cramond for a nice pub lunch. The aim was a relaxed walk along the shore with photo opportunities, making the most of the continued decent weather, and that was certainly accomplished. We spent a while taking photos of the rail bridge, then wandered around the coast (mostly on beaches) with a few photo stops along the way.

This is a really nice walk (following the first part of a run described in this entry), mostly quiet and with the possibility of staying right on the coast. It passes through the grounds of Dalmeny House, and eventually arrives in Cramond Brig, for an anticipated pub lunch.

A wander up to the waterfront and back along the shore of the River Almond helped our lunch go down, and soon I was falling asleep on the bus back home...

It seems I overdid it a little, when I wrote my last post, as I developed a bit of a swollen right ankle. Mostly from too much running on cambered surfaces that week, I think, although there are other factors. A week's enforced rest together with an easy start to this week seemed to sort it. So after a lovely day wandering about Corstorphine Hill in the sunshine yesterday, I decided to shoot for 1:30 in today's Edinburgh Forthside Half Marathon.

I had to get up early this morning, for a quick breakfast and then a walk to Princes St.—the bus which usually runs from outside my flat to Ocean Terminal, the start of the race, doesn't start until about 9 on a Sunday morning. Well, the walk woke me up, and I arrived at the start a half hour before the race. Which turned out to be exactly enough time to get to the head of the queue for the toilets, and onto the course for the start.

Starting out slowly, I kept pace with the runners around me, completely missing the first three mile markers and thus being generally clueless as to my speed. At mile four, I had been feeling a little worried about my ankle, and found out that I was a little behind schedule. It is about this point I find the race starts getting hard. Then came mile 5... where I found out that either my mental arithmetic was wrong, or the previous marker was, as I was actually running ahead of schedule.

From this point on, I spotted and got an emotional boost at each mile marker, I was doing great... After 7 miles the course takes a U-turn at Cramond, so you get to see the runners ahead of you heading back to the finish. As we headed towards this point, a very slow trickle of fit looking runners went by; after turning back and running for a mile alongside the oncoming (slightly) slower runners, those on the other side were more like four abreast to our single file, providing a good illustration of the bell curve.

From about 10 miles it's a bit of a struggle, and while I keep up with those I am following, my quads feel knacked, and it's clear I have no hope of regaining a couple of runners I was close behind earlier. I held on, and soon enough came back around Ocean Terminal. A last dash up the finishing straight, and I came past the line in about 1:25:30. Rather faster than I intended.

Update: results are up, 1h25m30s, position 102/2756. Bed now.

Recently I have been taking trips to various local places for my longer runs, by bus and train. Enabled by a new backpack I have which is suitable for running, I suppose. Probably this has not improved the training effect of my runs—quite the opposite, as I stop for photos and so on. But it certainly makes life more interesting.

In particular, recently I've been taking various runs around the local coastline. Around water tends to be quite a rewarding place to run, I find, whether around the coast, along a riverside or even a canal. Actually, that is probably my order of preference. Firstly, there's a very natural feeling to these trips; running can feel a little pointless, just picking routes to get the miles in, but a river or coastline gives a little structure to an outing and a feeling that you're going somewhere. A straight-line rather than circular route helps here too.

Secondly, the physical geography is interesting and varied. Sandy beaches, cliffs, mudflats, wide gentle rivers, little meandering burns... Next, and rather a mixed blessing, there's the human factor. Civilisation developed along rivers and coastlines, and running along one you pass through the resulting settlements, the city, towns, villages and grand estates. Of course then there was the industrial revolution, and one tends to see remnants of earlier such developments along riversides, and more recent heavier industry along the coast. Docks, oil depots and power stations aren't very pretty, but when running you don't stay in an industrial area for very long, and the beauty of the natural coastline is enhanced by contrast. And last point, passing through towns on the coast and riverside, you get to use the little scenic paths developed for local use! Often some nice little scenic walks have been developed.

These days these short local trails have often been strung together to give a long distance route, together with a bunch of less interesting (e.g. roadside) bits and perhaps even some custom-developed paths. I wrote about the recent trip along the Fife Coastal Path, lately I have been running along the other side of the Forth, part of which forms the John Muir Way, although this is still in an earlyish stage of development.

Last Sunday I ran from the local end of the Forth Rail Bridge, by Dalmeny, around the coast to Cramond, which includes an amusing diversion of about two miles to go to the nearest bridge around the outlet of the River Almond (the Cramond Brig). The section before getting to the Almond is very pleasant, as is the path from Cramond Brig up the Eastern side. It is then a nice run along to Granton, at which point you are into the city. That day I ran along to Leith, and then followed the Water of Leith back to Haymarket to pick up my bike to ride home. No camera last weekend, so the pictures are all from the section described below.

This weekend I continued from Leith again, and ran to North Berwick. Okay, not all at once, it's about 40km, but over two days. About 14km on Saturday, I ran from Leith through Portobello to Musselburgh (nice from Portobello but too much time on a seaward-sloping promenade) before picking up the John Muir Way to Prestonpans, where I got a train home. On Sunday, I picked up where I left off at Prestonpans, running around the power station at Cockenzie, past Seton Sands and then by some nice sandy footpaths to Aberlady. I noticed as I set off from Prestonpans that the Pentlands had seen some snow on Saturday night in the advertised wintry event ("here for one weekend only!"). Some appears to have been dropped in town last night, as I can see a dusting on the Post Office roof opposite. Despite this, it was a great day to go along the coast, with some sun and a strong North wind off the water. There was quite high spray at points, with timing essential around the power station to avoid a soaking, but I managed to get thoroughly wet feet after about a mile from a later very-coastal path around to a harbour. Oops.

From Aberlady there are then some lovely paths through the Aberlady nature reserve, a site of sand and mud flats providing a habitat for some rare plants and birds. From here there is a good long stretch of coastline stretching to the town of North Berwick, destination for the day, my map reckons after 26km of running. With so much off road on beaches and sandy paths, I'm not surprised it felt like a bit more, the aim was 28km and it did feel like that.

Last Saturday night there was a lunar eclipse. Surprisingly the sky cleared for the event, and from my window I watched the earth's shadow chomp away at the edge of the moon. We did make a trip out to view it more clearly, but lunar eclipses are a lengthy business for a cold night...

As the moon became a crescent for the first time in the night, we wandered over to Blackford Hill for a better look. Standing on top of the hill (with a bit of a chilly wind!), we shared the view with a good smattering of folk who had the same idea. An interesting atmosphere, silent in the dark of night but united by our appreciation of the event.

Soon the last bright sliver disappeared, and the eclipse entered its total phase. In place of the intense bright disc earlier in the night was a strange counterpart, subtly illuminated with a deep red light filtered through Earth's atmosphere.

Intriguing to watch, although I don't have the equipment or skills to capture it on film (or CCD!). I did watch dearg take a few shots of the partial phase, but in a wind which kept threatening to blow SLR and tripod right over there will have been too much motion for long exposures. The slightly spontaneous nature of the decision to take a camera may be reflected in one episode I observed. In the middle of picking up camera and tripod to move to a more sheltered looking location, there was a click as the camera took a shot. Apparently there had been a shot still to go with the camera's bracketing function, and dearg will have a nice long exposure of the sky, ground, and everything in between... On the other hand, there are some nice pictures from around the world in this gallery. The three pictures above are from flickr, by turfcutter, keithmarshall, and piscochile. The current Astronomy Picture of the Day has a nice crisp composite shot. While I'm on the subject, it's worth a look at these pictures from the STEREO-B spacecraft of a transit of the moon in front of the sun from a couple of weeks ago.

Not been up to much interesting recently. This weekend, however, has been dominated by running.

Yesterday I entered the KB5, a local 5-mile road race. The shortest distance I've raced so far, with a bit of a faster field. The race starts from the University King's Buildings campus, and heads immediately downhill. I got caught up in a fast start, and supposedly did the first mile in 5'45, before soon starting to feel the pace. I was probably okay for the first 5k or so, but the last couple of miles rather took it out of me, and after holding out most of the way I let quite a few people past towards the end. Finished exhausted in 31'22, placed 69/218.

Today I recovered with a long slow run, along the Fife Coastal Path, from North Queensferry to Kinghorn, about 15 miles (24km). Rather pleasant, while I got soaked cycling both to and from the train station, once I reached Fife and got off to run it was dry, and it never really went past a very light occasional drizzle. It's quite warm for this time of year, so a little mist is just cooling... The Path was quite enjoyable, rather varied from sections past the industrial parts of the coast to paths by the sea, beside beaches and through the small towns along the coast. Certainly some sections I'd like to walk along at some point, only real problem is the sections which have to cut away from the coastline. I'd imagine the continuation of the path (it goes around the coast to the Tay) might have a slightly more coastal character as the industry is left behind.

Oh, and I dipped my feet in the sea while I waited on the beach for my train home. Got a strange look...

This was my first "official" week training for my first marathon, Edinburgh at the end of May. I hope not to go on too much of this, it's easy to become a bore when you spend so much time+effort on something, but I'll keep you updated. I've also been all motivated, and doing lots of other stuff too, so I've had a few runs at night with a head torch. An interesting experience... The start of this week was suddenly wintry, clear and crisp cold air, so I had a couple of excellent experiences there.

Yesterday I went off to climb a hill, for the first time this year (and in about three months too). When I changed trains at Perth, I met a couple of guys who were doing the same thing I was—cycling from Blair Atholl to walk up Beinn Dearg. We got talking, and subsequently spent the day together. Strangely, they were PhD students from Glasgow, one even knowing a couple of people from my department.

The weather turned out better than expected, and it was sunny for the cycle in. After fairly hard going up the start of the track, we soon reached snow, which proves difficult but fun to (attempt to) cycle in. After ditching bikes, a short walk leads to the bothy, and up the hill. Beinn Dearg is a flat rounded hill like most of those nearby, so as we neared the top the wind was consistently bracing.

The cycle back down was fast and fun, as you might expect. I do need to adjust my brakes...

Hello, I've been back home from Aviemore for a few days now. Time for a few pictures!

As I said the race was great. Times are now up, and I got 1:33:05 (65/598), which is a couple of minutes faster than the last one. Better, I felt much fresher at the end, and generally felt more in control. Should be able to improve quite a bit next year (and planning on trying a marathon).

The clear weather continued into Monday, and I went up Cairn Gorm with dearg. A nice day of great rewards for modest effort. Spectacular views. And then a nice dinner out in the evening.

On Tuesday I had a run around the woods behind the Youth Hostel we were staying in (rather nice), and we headed home. A very enjoyable weekend.

Last weekend was rather busy.

On Friday morning, I surprisingly managed to get up at 7, to go for a 2 hour run to Balerno and back, breakfast, shower, make sandwiches for the weekend, cycle to pick up some packages which couldn't be delivered and then back into uni (1.x hours). A few hours of quite intense and useful work, meeting with my supervisor, back home to grab bags and off to catch the EUMC bus to Glencoe...

On Saturday it was to be a "led" walk along the Aonach Eagach. Now there had been some nasty weather hanging out in the atlantic, and early on it had looked like it might be a wet and windy weekend, but nearer the time the forcast was rather good. So rain in the night was worrying but not necessarily indicative of bad weather over the weekend; the morning turned out cloudy, but not raining, and we set off.

It's very odd to see 30-odd people snaking up the path to Am Bodach... On the ridge, the party split up into three groups of about 10, which made for a decent social outing without too much confusion.

As we started scrambling down from Am Bodach, cloud atmospherically hung on the North side of the hill, while to the South it was clearer and sunny. The Aonach Eagach is a well-known scrambley ridge, so I wondered beforehand how hard I was going to find it. Fortunately conditions were very good, the cloud cleared off, and I was not at all affected by a sense of exposure. There are big chunky solid holds wherever they are required, and I was able to keep to the best line along the crest of the ridge and get the most of it.

However, the ridge is a serious place, and this was emphasised when a guy who had been walking behind the last of our party fell off the ridge from a path traversing below the last pinnacle. Some club members gave first aid, and very quickly a Royal Navy helicopter arrived with mountain rescue, and airlifted him to hospital.

As the group got to the end of the ridge, I split off to go up the Pap of Glencoe, which mostly seemed to achieve a photo and apparently a slightly better descent route.

Sunday was wet, so I slogged up some steep grass to Sgor na h-Ulaidh, which only seems really interesting for the big gully just by the summit, briefly chatted to a guy I met on top, and then trudged down to arrive back at the campsite in wet boots with about an hour before the bus was to leave. Off back home, grabbed a take-away curry on the way home (mmm!), and that was that.

Tomorrow morning I fly home... If everything goes according to plan (and that's a big iiiiiff) I will be home on Friday morning.

Since I last wrote, I've attended a whole lot of talks, and there's not been much else. I did go for a long run on Saturday morning, which was a whole lot longer than intended as I got lost for a while. Out before dawn, I went around Lake Union, and some of the University of Washington campus, before accidentally ending up at Green Lake, Seattle's popularly overcrowded running/jogging/biking/rowing/etc. spot, which was quite pleasent early in the morning. Unfortunately I'm still suffering from that over-long run on too much concrete; I had never realised how lucky we are to have such soft pavements at home...

I went for a wander today, again around Lake Union to take a few photos, in particular of the old Gas Works.

In Seattle!

Yesterday I got up at 5am to get to Edinburgh airport and catch a 9am flight. That was about 8 hours, a long time over boring sea in order to reach bustling Newark airport. After the fun of US Immigration (was okay), a shorter (under 6 hours) flight to Seattle. A young boy sitting next to me was impressed that I came from Scotland; he hurriedly imparted this information to the air hostess, and later drew a picture of the Loch Ness Monster. After flying over many hours of flat flat land divided into neat little squares in a variety of colours, suddenly there are mountains, and then soon Seattle. We arrived in around 5pm.

Lots of flying. I'm now a little past half-way through Quicksilver.

I checked into the hotel, had a wander around, ate some dinner at a cool little bar/club place, and flopped into bed exhausted around 9.

This morning I easily woke up and went out for a run around 6. I ran around Union Lake, as shown in the picture above. After changing, I wandered down to Pike Place Market for a look around, and a tasty breakfast.

I then headed over to the Seattle Center, and went up the Space Needle for a (cloudy) view. Then I headed into the Pacific Science Center. They are currently running the Game On computer gaming exhibition. They have a huge collection of machines set up to play; I was most interested in the old stuff they have from before my time. A myriad of space invaders (variations and clones/successors), and a version of Spacewar, the vector-graphics space warfare game that started it all. It seems they have a representative of everything you might think of.

I wandered into the Science Fiction Museum too, before heading back through town, having another coffee and read of a paper, grabbing a couple of new books, and heading up here to sort stuff and write this. The conference starts tomorrow, and I give my talk late morning; I'll let you know how it goes. For now I'm off for dinner.

I arrived at Corrour station at 9.20pm on Saturday night. In case you don't know, Corrour is in the middle of nowhere, a station not accessible by road. Well, okay, I suppose it is, because there were a bunch of diggers lying around as I walked past.

Anyway, I had a pleasant walk in the setting sun, and the twilight, and the light just enough to walk but not very well in the hour before moonrise, until I arrived by a particular ruin by the foot of a particular hill. Nearby, I lay down and slept intermittently; there were stars to look at, and the moonrise was quite pretty.

I felt lazier than expected, but finally dragged myself out of bed at about 4.30 when it was quite clearly and undeniably rather light. I proceeded to walk up a hill. There was a long a long day ahead of me—about 40km, 3800m ascent, 10 Munros. This was a walk I'd had in mind for quite some time (I mentioned it before), so my anticipation was considerable. It's just such a natural expedition, taking in a whole range of hills, from one end to the other.

By about 8am it was hot. It had in fact been hot for some time. It then continued to be hot. However, I couldn't have asked for better weather for the experience. Magnificent views, with the hills of Glencoe to the South and Ben Nevis and the Grey Corries across the Glen Nevis to the north.

It's nice to start out early. It gave this rather long day some variety. As I climbed the first few hills, the only sign of other people was a couple of tents pitched in a rather nice spot by a lochan. Later on, it was a more conventional time of day, and I was following a popular horseshoe-ridge walk, so many people. Later on, on the last two hills, I was alone again, with just a silhouette on the next hilltop.

I descended to pick up the West Highland Way, which I followed into Fort William for my train. I surprised myself after over 12 hours walking by walking sufficiently briskly for about 2 hours back to Fort William to catch the 7pm sleeper with 15 minutes to spare. It makes a change to think I can make a given train and succeed...

Unfortunately there were engineering works preventing the train going through Edinburgh as per the timetable, so I ended up being sent in a taxi from Motherwell...

As usual it has taken me a little time after the fact to get this post up. However, not a month like the last big walk, and in fact that has been true of my recovery also. My thighs have needed a couple of days to recover, but my feet did not suffer at all, dry as it was.

Another weekend passes. I've been enjoying running, but impatient to run longer and more often. Which probably means I'm not building up too quickly. Restraint is trying.

Saturday was my longest run of the week, supposedly 8km along the canal and water of leith, plus a wrong turning diversion component. In about 6 weeks that distance should double. Hopefully longer runs will mean interesting routes. Anyway, later on I relaxed with a walk, out to dinner and the cinema (Pirates of the Caribbean 2). Nice.

Sunday, relaxing? Well, I took a little bike ride. Shouldn't be too far, as I felt somewhat tired as I set off. The pentlands sounded like a good idea; somehow I ended up on top of Allermuir then Caerketton hills... Would have been much quicker to walk up the steeper bits though. I'm not very good with the uphills. Or, in fact, the downhills.

I popped up to Auchterarder to my mum's this weekend on the train with my bike. First time I've taken a bike on a train; it was nice and hassle-free. I still wonder what happens if there's already a full complement of cyclists though.

I went up on Friday night, on Saturday morning I headed off through Crieff and up past Loch Turret to climb Ben Chonzie. Loch Turret is a reservior for power generation, so there is a road from Crieff up to the dam at the end (bit of a climb on a bike). There is also a rough track along the dam up to a Lochan right under Ben Chonzie, which I cycled up. That was fun, but illustrated how useful suspension is on a mountain bike, as it really was a rough, rocky track.

Not much of a walk after that, the day was mostly a cycle. I took a wander up anyway, in shorts and T-Shirt in the slight rain, had a chat with the folk I met at the top, and wandered back down to cycle back. The great thing about a bike is, of course, that the energy which goes into slogging up a hill is returned when you go down again. The road down from the dam was fun!

I took a few pictures I like from under a bridge, just before the road up to the dam.

Finally, the story.

I may have walked as far as 75km on the weekend of the previous entry, with a little under 6000m of ascent... I started at Tyndrum, walked over to Killin and back to Crianlarich (the rail stop before Tyndrum going North, not very far away). About 50 hours, Saturday afternoon until Monday afternoon. For future trips, it's useful for me to note that the limiting factor seems to be my feet, not my legs. At a slow, steady pace, my thighs can crank out plenty of ascent long after I first think they feel tired, but my feet need care.

Behind all this was my recent purchase of a bivvy bag. Such an item comes free with a light-weight easy-going philosophy (I found The Book of the Bivvy inspiring). Pack bivvy-bag and sleeping bag in a small (25L) backpack, chuck in some dried food and a little water, and because it's Scotland and the weather looks particularly changeable, a full set of waterprooofs; pick out a route on the map, sling bag on back and hop on the train.

I started out on Saturday afternoon, heading off over a couple of Munros, with nobody to be seen. Having never bivvied out before, I was worried about the weather, whether I would comfortably sleep, and so on; rain heavy enough to get the waterproof top and trousers on for made me a little nervous. Being as good a place to get wet as any, I headed up a Corbett in the late evening. Before I reached the top, the rain had stopped, and I was able to sleep out on the very summit without so much as a drop of rain.

There's a lot of daylight in a Scottish summer's day, and when you sleep out on the top of a hill, you can make the most of it... I woke up when it got light (4am), and headed off. The first hill was a little cloudy, but the sun was out by the time I climbed the second. Then I crossed over onto the Tarmachan ridge, where I saw the first people since I started up the hill the day before. And what a different experience! From wandering alone over the hillsides to following a big well-maintained path, greeting fellow walkers every few steps. The sun was by now beating down, and many were out making the most of it on a very popular hill.

I left the beaten path at the end of the ridge, and descended directly to Killin. And found it a fairly depressing place. I bought a little fruit from the co-op, and headed back up the hill. With a couple of hours of daylight left and protesting feet, I wandered along a flat boggy area (these hills are all quite peaty) to an acceptable place to lie down just before the climb.

Amusingly, after such a hot sunny day (my skin has only just lost the colour from that day), it rained overnight. Surprisingly, a full night of light rain is not particularly unpleasent in a non-waterproof bag; I was tired enough to have a good night's sleep, and my sleeping bag was wet on the outside, but not inside. I was so tired I woke later this time; slept in until almost 4.30!

When it gets light, there's no point lying around looking at the sky when you could start off, so I did. I was very surprised to sit up and see white—it had snowed overnight! That morning I followed a pleasent and complex twisting ridge mostly above the snowline (which was at most 100m above where I slept). An icy wind is uncomfortable if you're slightly sunburnt... At points there was low visibility, but otherwise it was very satisfying to look out over the valley to the North, and see the long line of hills I walked over the previous two days...

The last few hours were somewhat painful, and I suspect if I wrote this entry earlier this would play a much bigger part than it does now. Memory is so biased! Anyway, I had the problem of walking a long distance with wet feet, which is damaging and eventually painful. Carrying spare socks is nice, but eventually the problem of wet boots catches up with you, and there was no shortage of wet, boggy ground on these hills. Descent from the last hill, over a vast boggy area and down along the road into Crianlarich was painful and pitifully slow. Keep going to get it over with... I crossed under the railway line in time to see both halves of the train I intended to catch go by, whereas if I could just walk at a normal pace I could have caught it easily.

Eventually I got there, had a coffee and cake at the station tearoom, and the long wait for a train I referred to earlier. I've not been out on the hills yet since then, but my blisters have finally healed and I've forgotton there's any hard work involved, so it's about time to do so again.

Wonder if it'll be too hot this weekend.

I started writing something and then lost it. About a week ago.

Further to the last post, I'm holding off running for a couple of weeks to get rid of shin splints, which I could probably feel coming on when I posted that... This is the second week off, and I've been cycling instead. Mostly around town, I went out along the Union Canal past Ratho last week, which was nice. I shall have to go right along to Falkirk at some point. Also, have the idea of cycling to Auchterarder some time, it's not that far.

Had a nice wander in the Pentlands on Sunday, along the ridge. Lovely day. And see the ickle lambykins!

I should learn to post less more often, as I used to. Now back to work, lots to do...

Last weekend I went off on my lonesome for a bit of a walk. Train up to Fort William on Friday night, stayed in a hostel, in order to get the first train down again to Spean Bridge in the morning. So at a quarter to eight on Saturday morning, I set off walking, doing the Grey Corries ridge and "wee Stob Ban", dropping down to bothy for the night. A good day all in all, with some views to be had in the morning from the first tops I traversed, and then a whiteout by the end of the ridge. It feels ridiculous to stumble along because you can't make out how far down you're about to put your foot...

Uneventfully made it to the bothy, which I shared with a few guys, a chat and the heat of their fire, and then got a good enough night's rest.

On Sunday morning I woke up in the dark, to the sound of wind still gusting outside, and gave up the idea of an early start to aim for the noontime train. It wasn't too hard to persuade myself to stay in a relatively warm sleeping bag, it being a cold enough night. At a more reasonable time I headed off over the Easains to Tulloch station, again a day without spectacular views but only briefly walking in the clouds. A reasonable and easy enough walk, to arrive at the station a couple of hours before my train home.

I did have a notion to catch an earlier train to Fort William, eat my tea and then get the train back down to Edinburgh, and fortunately I was on time for that. Unfortunately looking at the timetable in the bothy the night before I had failed to notice that the train in question, as well as the earlier train home, did not exist at that time, and indeed only ran twice in the entire duration of the timetable. Needless to say I was a little disappointed (although glad I had not bothered to get up early), and I spent the next couple of hours trying to stay warm on the open platform. I probably walked a few miles pacing up and down...

Anyway, I'm now home, rested and fed, and have finally found time to get this down... All in all a good weekend, and satisfying to have a couple of days walking on a satisfying route. Afraid no decent photos though.

Taken me a while to get around to putting this up, but last weekend I was in Glencoe again. Was another EUMC trip, this time redirected to Glencoe because avalanche conditions made Creag Meagaidh a poor choice.

Yes, this weekend the issue was too much (fresh) snow.

Saturday was a splendid day; I went on a walk with Tom and Guy along the Bidean nam Bian ridge, starting at the far (West) end, and coming down via Beinn Fhada. The weather was most excellent; clear blue skies with good visibility, and a good covering of snow. We had an early start (on the hill before dawn), so we managed to be the first along most of the ridges since the snowfall the day before. Clear skies and miles of virgin snow along well-defined ridges... lovely.

We were camping opposite the Kings House Hotel, which was chilly at times but not too bad; but the ground was frozen and the tents white and crackling with frost. After a few in the pub in the evening, and a cold feeling night, I wasn't up to more than a snow plod on Sunday, so went off up beside the Ski Centre and around to Creise, mostly for the exercise and something to do.

Sunday evening and it's off back home in time to not write this entry.

I'm a bad bad boy. Not updating for a month...

And things have happened, indeed. There was a fire in this block last week, one of the ground floor flats. We woke up at 6.40 on Monday morning to the smell of smoke. Firefighters were already there by that point, I think, and we sat in the front room with the windows open while they did their thing. Lots of smoke. We left a little later once the smoke had died down, and smelled very strongly of smoke all day... Still smelling it about the flat, and the stairs. The little old lady in the flat in question is apparently okay by the way, nobody hurt.

Other than that... I've been away for a couple of weekends recently. Supposedly for winter walking/climbing trips with the EUMC, but there's not been much winter... Two weekends ago, we went to Glencoe. Since it was far too warm, I went for a walk rather than attempting to climb something, and had a nice walk up Buchaille Etive Beag. On the Sunday I worked up to visiting a tearoom...

This weekend just past was meant to be Lochnagar, but since conditions are poor the club went to An Teallach instead. Left Edinburgh after 6 on Friday night, about 5 hours driving and we were there. Quite a few of us walked into the bothy in the dark, about two and a half hours on a landrover track then a path, on not-flat ground. Rather bizarre and strangely pleasent walking in the dark at one in the morning in February wearing a t-shirt...

Saturday was the day for the great An Teallach ridge traverse. And excellent it was. A big bunch of us went up with winter boots and walking axes just in case... In the event there was barely a patch of snow to be seen, and we scrambled along the ridge in summer-like conditions. Lovely climbing on nice sandstone pinnacles... Unfortunately for the general 'experience', there was sod all visibility on the ridge, but perhaps I would be less confident looking down a couple of thousand feet below. Luckily the cloud cleared as we reached the end of the main ridge, for some views and a bit of a walk in the sun.

Sunday had not much of a plan, apart from not doing much; in the end I walked out to the road the long way around, which was rather satisfying in the end. And off back to Edinburgh. A couple of days later, here I am writing this.

Pictures are in Glencoe and An Teallach galleries.

As promised I went off walking this week. I booked Tuesday and Wednesday nights at the Tulloch Station Lodge, a hostel on the platform of Tulloch station on the West Highland railway line. On Tuesday morning, however, I sat on the sleeper train from Edinburgh to Corrour, the station before Tulloch, by Loch Ossian, which I have previously visited. The plan, you see, was to walk over the two Munros on the East side of Loch Treig to Tulloch. So I did that.

Tuesday was a beautiful day. There wasn't a great deal of wind, and I was mostly rather warm considering; I had my arms bared at one point. The ground was icy from the station onwards after a frosty night, making for much prettiness, and there was a little snow on the tops. The hills were uneventful (although I did meet 11 people, in a group of 3, 7 (!!) and 1 dog walker). The journey to Tulloch was not, on the other hand. The path marked on the map was either not much of a path at all, or not where I was—quite possibly both—and I pushed through forest to find myself crossing the River Spean at a non-ideal point. Even that was some distance upstream from where I hit it (and the crossing was only possible with just wet feet via use of ice axe)...

The station lodge, when I eventually reached it some short time after dark, was a great little hostel, and I hope to visit again. The usual facilities, kitchen, drying room, etc, and a common room with a roaring fire.

Dragging myself out the next morning, I went up a couple of hills to the North of the place, Beinn a' Chaorainn and Beinn Teallach. Another good day, without the unpleasent forestry experiences. A good track through forest, yes, but that was pleasant. The hills were uncomplicated; after a hard frost everything wet was frozen, leading to some mucking about with crampons on walking up streams of ice, and making the boggy approach so much more enjoyable for its lack of boot-eating.

An icy wind up the top made me thankful for good gear, but the views were absolutely spectacular as they so often are in winter (that is, if you can see anything at all). More hills to see than it seems possible to count.

On the third day, I wasn't feeling up to much of an expedition, so I got the first train down to Corrour and made a dash up Beinn na Lap. A quicker dash than I was counting on, for I had to spend a chilly hour or two on the station platform waiting for my train home, instead of being at all pressed for time. Good job I didn't do anything big—the wind up the top was not only icy but of the hard to stand in variety, never mind walk. A day for a ridge walk it was not.

After 3 days of walking it feels strange to do nothing. I just want to eat lots for all the exercise I must be just about to do...

Oh, more photos here.

I'm about to pop off for a couple of days of hillwalking. I'll leave you with yet more photos.

Again these are up at the gallery.

On Thursday morning we went off early for a bit of photography—andrew with his SLR and new tripod (courtesy of me :) ), and me with my digital compact. The weather was cold, so I had suggested we head over to Blackford Hill, to take photos of Arthur's Seat if it was clear, and in any case to get the frozen pond by Blackford Hill. It was a morning of "freezing frogs", like the night before, but the cold weather had given us a mostly frozen pond. The far end was completely frozen and frosted or snowed over, the near end was frozen in a slushy looking ice, and a stretch of open water lay in the middle, filled with ducks and swans. Lovely.

My pictures are here, and andrew's here.

We wandered up the hill despite the expected lack of view due to the fog, and were rewarded for our slippy slidy efforts. We only just noticed some lovely frozen spiders webs on the gorse on the way up, and Arthur's Seat was in fact visible rising above a sea of fog.

Unfortunately this tale does not end well; on the way home, I managed to slip on a slab of iced concrete by a gate, and bang both shins in two places... I'm okay, but my that was unpleasant.

And back.

I went by train (with dearg) up to my mum's on the morning Christmas Eve, bearing gifts and my Christmas Cake, icing still hardening. We arrived in Gleneagles station, a small unmanned station near where my mum stays (Auchterarder) which seems to be busier these days than I remember it. The frosted greenery surrounding the station set the mood for the week...

The day passed with a few preparations for the next day's dinner (for 7), and I persuaded myself I was going for a run around dawn. I can't say it was easy to stick to the decision, but determination won out, and I went down the High Street and back up by the burn. A heavy frost made for a spectacular time, but running back uphill the cold air taxed my lungs somewhat... In any case, it was something a bit different for a Christmas morning.

And so to presents, and then people. Our guests arrived (my grandma+aunt+uncle+cousin), and a (tasty as ever) dinner happened. I suppose a moderately traditional Christmas dinner, modulo the "happy legless turkey". A good time was had by all, etc. Nice walk after dinner down the frozen High Street.

There are more photos here.

Boxing day. People left, we stayed. Nice quiet day... My uncle joined us in the evening. Nice to see him again.

Day after Boxing Day. Uncle left with my grandma—now just me, dearg and my mum left. While my mother was out questing for a replacement light fitting, I went off for a run to and up the nearest local hill, Craig Rossie. Very pleasent run (but mostly walking up the actual hill). While the ground was no longer as heavily frozen in Auchterarder, it was nicely frozen up the hill, and the ground had a nice thin dusting of snow (as it was snowing when I set off). I sat around on the top in my shorts and t-shirt for a short while, savouring the experience, before arranging via the wonders of mobile phones to be picked up by my mother, now returning from her quest, at the bottom of the hill. After some faffing and misdirection on my part, we met up and I was taken home; it would have been nice to look at a map to give directions (although the way up the hill was obvious), but to carry a map running would be annoying. Not sure what the general solution is to that one.

Wednesday. Home time. Got the train back to Edinburgh, unfortunately forced to go to Perth to do so. Lightly snowing again... The train back was nice; although we were sitting on the fold-down seats in the unheated area between carriages, we were reading good books, and as I gazed out the window on occasion I saw a frozen landscape, fields of white gliding past the train.

So back now. More soon, and I have some more nice photos to link, but this entry is getting too long.

As last weekend approached, I was obsessively checking views on webcams, and weather reports. The met office had been forecasting severe weather for Thursday to maybe Saturday, with blizzards and strong winds. Even Edinburgh had snowfall on Friday, and it was lying (for a while, at least). The plan was a EUMC trip to Knoydart; but with the possibility of roads closed, who knows where we might end up? I set off for the minibus with a bag stuffed with tent, food and gear to find out.

As it turned out the roads didn't seem very bad at all, with not much snow left, but by the time we got to the Knoydart turning I think the decision was long made anyway; it's still possible that the long single-track road leading to our start point wouldn't have been easily passable. Instead, we were headed for the club bothy, located below the Five Sisters of Kintail. We duly arrived and went off to bed, around midnight perhaps.

On Saturday I was up around 8. I could see snow on the hills, and waited impatiently to be joined in wakefulness, hoping to find some company to climb a hill or two with. In the end the entire party of 10 set off up Beinn Fhada, since an attempt on some of the sisters was (at least to my mind) likely to end in benightment by this point.

In spite of the poor weather forecast, it was a tremendous day. I set off expecting to be battling wind and perhaps snow/sleet/rain, but in fact it was mostly calm, and the battle was with the vast quantity of snow higher up the hill. I thoroughly enjoyed myself breaking trail through deep powder, although there was one tricky spot involving swimming a few metres up to reach a short rocky section. I obviously need to work on my technique for such spots; since I can't exactly lose weight, the best way to avoid sinking may be to learn levitation?

After reaching the summit ridge, and a pleasent stroll along that, we reached the top. Replenishments were briefly had, and then we were off back down the hill. Descent was relatively rapid, by bumslide.

Back at the bothy, food was duly eaten, drink drunk, and silly stuff done. Another night's kip, and in the morning I got up to find a couple of people about. I followed a couple of folk up into a corrie of one of the Sisters, which made for a very pleasent walk in the end, with nice views, and refrozen snow making for easy walking.

Subsequently we retraced our steps back to the bothy, gathered stuff up, and it was off back down to Edinburgh. A weekend as enjoyable as it was unforseen. More pictures here.

Saturday

With a bag on our backs and a carrier bag of additional food each, we headed to Waverly to renew our YP railcards and catch a train to Inverness and hence to Kyle of Lochalsh. This was my first trip on the Inverness to Kyle line; I found the scenery rather pleasent. From Kyle we took a bus over the bridge to Skye, in fact right along to Sligachan to stay at the campsite there.

Sunday

Staying a second night at the campsite, we took a day walk up the "Beinn Deargs". A marshy splodge took us to a ridge up which we walked, to Beinn Dearg Mheadhonach and on to Beinn Dearg Mhor, with only brief glimpses of views through the cloud. We descended probably steeper scree than required to the bealach, before more pleasently following the burn down, and finally splodging back to the start.

Monday

The firmest objective of our trip was to take a visit to Loch Coruisk. We would find that this indeed defined the week.

The walk out through Glen Sligachan over Druim Hain follows a well worn path through a small number of boggy patches, a couple of stream beds, a sloping slab or two and a generous surrounding of impressive scenery, to arrive above Loch Coruisk, at the heart of the mighty Cuillin ridge. We easily crossed stepping stones over the river (outflow from the loch) to camp looking over the bay opposite the loch.

Tuesday

After a night of continual rain and unceasing wind came a day of continual rain and unceasing wind. Andrew wished to escape from the remote location, and since the river was uncrossable (no sign of the precious stepping stones) we mad e an ill-advised attempt to go around the loch, and hence back the way we came.

Persevering in difficult conditions, we made it almost to the end of the near side of the loch before turning back due to uncrossable waters coming down off the hills. The net effect of the day was, in addition to our utter bedragglement, a short move to a better (but not sheltered) camping spot beside another pair of tents, and in view of the tent of a pair of sea-kayakers.

Tuesday night

After erecting our tent with difficulty in the endless rain and increasingly gusty wind, we endured a somewhat sleepless night in what one might term testing conditions. I am pleased to say that our Tadpole stood up to the test, and was stood all night with no repegging or rejigging required (but some support during the strongest winds). We later learned that water facilities were taken out at the campsite, and caravans were threatening to topple in the strong winds...

Wednesday

Mostly good weather greeted us on Wednesday, with the storm having blown itself out during the night. I spent much of the day reading Sir Ernest Shackleton's South, the story of the Endurance expedition, trapped in the Antarctic ice; we wandered over to the stepping stones throughout the day, but the river was still in spate, and would require a wet and possibly tricky crossing. We hoped for a sight of the boat from Elgol taking tourists for a day trip now that the waters were calm, and an easy lift back, but it did not show, and so we were to spend another night by the loch.

Thursday

With little rain overnight, we were able to make our escape, and walked back the way we came in brilliant sunshine. We were rewarded with spectacular views of the impressive geography which had kept us huddled in a tent for days, and I enjoyed the walk back (including detour up Sgurr Hain for a nice view), not needing the additional motivation of the few pints to come in the pub later to spur me onward.

Photos

There are many more photos in this gallery, and that is just a small sample of the many I snapped.

Home. I've put up a picture gallery on the flat server, http://riabhach.demon.co.uk/gallery/ccde05.

Interesting journey home. A train delay and funny business meant we ended up getting 5 trains home instead of 3, and arrinving an hour and a half later than intended. Here now.

Yay, shower and own bed.

On Friday, I packed my bag. On Saturday morning, at 5am, I rose, got ready, and eventually set off for the 6.40 train to Dalwhinnie. After reading The Grapes of Wrath for a couple of hours on the train (of which more later), I arrived at about 9.20, and proceeded to walk in to where I'd be staying and basing my walks from for a couple of days. About three hours of walking with a big pack full of weekend stuff (largely sleeping and cooking gear and food) later, I arrived at Culra bothy, which was a decent place to spend a couple of nights.

After lunch, it was off up Ben Alder via the Long Leachas, a grassy and then rocky ridge which involves a bit of mild scrambling. As on most Munros there's a path one can follow up the ridge, but it was in fact the narrow level sections which had my attention most fully; the ridge seems to catch what wind there is, and I didn't want to be blown off my feet (and the ridge) by a gust of wind. Anyway, I wandered up to the end of the ridge, and eventually to the top of the hill, by this point in cloud. Heading off for the day's second (and final) hill was a navigational experience, as for the first time I didn't really realise when I'd hit the bealach (it being ill-defined and still in cloud). Then it's up to the top, and back down to the bothy for a night's kip.

I was sharing the room of the bothy with a guy and his two sons (maybe 18 and 16, give or take a couple of years?), who had come over the hills from Corrour Halt, and would be heading back down and across to Rannoch Station. Seemed like a nice route.

I woke on Sunday to a sort of miserable gray outlook; there was a light misty drizzle, and the cloud base was very low (the bottom of the hills rather than the tops). After having swithered beforehand, I set off up the Lancet Edge of Sgor Iutharn. After getting a little bit wet on the approach and lower sections (my collection of blisters can testify to a long day's walking with wet feet), I gradually made my way upwards. The ridge goes from craggy interspersed with grass and semi-vertical bog to a pleasent path leading up along the rocky crest to a final flattish section.

This last seemed to be of reasonable length, and is really the interesting part of the whole thing. At times it seemed very interesting, hands gripping the rock in the wind and rain. Fortunately it was not as windy as I'd expected, much milder than the previous day/ridge, and while I felt the need to hang on to something in case my feet slipped on the wet rock, there was always plenty to hold onto with both hands. It really is amazing to see a big ridge on a huge hunk of a hill come down to a knife-edge, and walk along with feet on one side and hands curled over the top.

Unfortunately I have no photos of the interesting bit, make of that what you will.

After having gone on at length about that, I shall be brief on the less brief part of the walk. I went up to Geal Charn, and continued along to Aonach Beag, and over to Beinn Eibhinn, the last of which I had visited before from the other direction. On the top of that hill I met up with a group of three who had set off at the same time as me, going around behind the ridge I had just walked along and up the col before that hill, so that I arrived at my third top just before they arrived at their first.

After a chat I set off back along the ridge which was also to be their route. Backtracking over the pleasant well-defined ridge to Aonoch Beag and then Geal Charn, still in the clouds as I had been almost all day, I slowly worked back towards my temporary home. After refilling with water at a lovely tasting stream running off Geal Charn, I headed along to Beinn Dearg, down and up, down and up, and then finally down the steep hillside to arrive directly at the bothy.

It turned out that my first bothy experience was to be fairly interesting. The guy who (volunteers to) maintain the place arrived; I automatically offered my assistence, and found myself rummaging around in the loft, and cutting wood. Eventually everybody seemed to be doing something, always nice when people just pitch in. Another stereotype was also confirmed, as a couple of the guys who were supervising a bunch doing their Duke of Edinburgh's award left them in their tents in the rain, to retreat to the cosy log fire of the bothy and avoid putting their tent up/down in the wet. Of course they had to be told about the roaring fire :)

You'd think I'd sleep well from that, but apparently not. Anyway, on Monday morning I set back off up the track for my train. About 2 1/2 hours into the 3-hour walk a bloke in a landrover stopped by me, and offered a lift up to the station, which I gladly accepted. I feel the fact that I had to walk home from Waverly due to lack of bus service more than makes up for the extra distance not walked...

So, to sum up, about 65km unevenly split over three days, 5 new Munros and a pair of sore feet.

I feel that it's obligatory to post photos of shiny new things. Of course I just had to get my phone and camera to take pictures of each other.

Doesn't that middle picture make you want to start up the MovieOS graphics suite, zoom in and hit "enhance"?

So, on the birthday thing. I have new toys. Thank you, you know who you are.

So I will know where I am. And I shall take a photo of it:

A couple of pictures to test the new camera, in automagical mode. Firstly Edinburgh Castle from Blackford Hill, with the West Lomond and East Lomond hills just visible over the Forth. On the right is a view from the side of Blackford Hill.

Ow.

Last weekend was my first outing with my 1-man tent; my first time going up over hills with a big pack on; my first wild camp. So I knew I would be forgetting something. I wouldn't have guessed it would be suncream.

We had some stunning weather last weekend. The sun can be very hot on the top of a hill with no shelter, and seem hotter still going uphill with a big pack on. So I'm a bit knacked (even though I've been back a day!), but it was quite a weekend.

On Saturday it was over the three Munros of Beinn a' Ghlo. When I got off the train in Blair Atholl at 9am one of my fellow passengers asked where I was headed; since he was also going up the same route as I, along with a friend (waiting in a car in the station car park), I was kindly offered a lift. We all ended up walking the hills together, and good company, stunning weather and a nice route made for a great day.

After lazing around on the summit for a couple of hours, I descended to the sides of the amusingly named Loch Loch, and made camp within view of the loch. You will notice the loch's odd shape. After a decent hot dinner I went out for an evening stroll around the loch. Since I didn't want to be out too long, I turned back half way, and thus I had the bizarre experience of crossing the loch in the middle in order to return on the other side (there was a couple of inches of water, and not that wide a channel). Perhaps "Loch Loch" is merely two lochs side by side.

The (cheapo) tent seems to work, although I need to figure out how one makes the outer shell taut. In any case I had a good night's sleep nestled in my secluded glen.

On Sunday, the plan was to walk back through Glen Tilt, with a detour to bag Carn a' Chlamain. Glen Tilt is rather pleasent, and the sun was illuminating it to its full. I delighted in stopping to brew a cup of tea by the boulder shown, where a stream coming off the hill joins the River Tilt, this being the first time I've walked carrying a stove. A flask of tea can be nice, but it doesn't quite cut it.

The rest of the day was rather a slog, being rather too hot and tired carrying a big pack to appreciate the glorious surroundings. Sometimes the path seems to last forever. But it all seemed most satisfying sitting outside with my pint, waiting for the train home.

Today I spoke to my Dad. Apparently he was also off on a two-day walk starting from Blair Atholl on Saturday. Life is odd.

It is believed that this is an excellent example of the passive voice in action. It is wondered whether British Rail or the leaseholder are engaged in regretting; however, it becomes obvious that it is in fact the travelling public who regret the lack of facilities on our stations.

I had had the traverse of this ridge of 7 hills in mind for a while, so when my dad offered to accompany me for the first 3, which he had not climbed, and then pick me up at the end, I jumped at the chance. And not just to avoid the long walk back I might otherwise have been stuck with.

Starting walking at 06.15, we made good time up Meall Greigh, plunging into a freezing cloud which made for pretty ice-sculptures of grass and fences, as well as pleasent walking. We continued along to Meall Garbh, and then had what I found a pleasent short scramble up An Stuc (some loose stones underfoot, but mostly path-like with lots of stuff to grab on to, some of which were quite nice thin flakes of rock).

At the bealach we parted company, and I continued on slogging up a pleasant ridge to Ben Lawers itself. After meeting the day's first groups of other walkers, I went on in enduring cloud to Beinn Ghlas. The sun continued to make its presence felt, and by the time I made my 'interesting' way up Meall Corranaich (glad to not be in the visible pack of 12 walkers going up the Lawers path) there were some hints of blue through the swirling whiteness. As I left a family behind on the summit and wandered along the long ridge connecting the hill to Meall a'Choire Leith, the sun was increasingly hot, and the cloud cleared away to reward me with some views, including the top of Ben Lawers from which I had earlier seen nothing.

I arrived back at the road after 7.5 hours of walking (18.8km, 2055m), rather chuffed at a satisfying day.

(Some pictures are my father's).

I went with dearg to The Cobbler on Saturday. We also went up Beinn Luibhean, although it seems that was a little bit too far. Fortunately the weather wasn't as bad as it threatened to be (only a tiny little spot of rain). Busy busy hill, the cobbler.

In which the author continues the attempt to lose his remaining readership by writing again about hills, between the feeble treatment of consumed fiction and the energetic but ultimately incomprehensible accounts of matters tangentially related to his area of study.

I took the opportunity of Easter weekend to go away for a couple of days of hillwalking. Of course this is an opportunity which is not so easy to take, being that finding somewhere to stay on this particular weekend is relatively difficult. However, I persevered, and booked myself a bed at Loch Ossian youth hostel for the Friday night. The plan was to go up on the train on Friday, get some walking in, stay the night, and walk some more on Saturday before getting the train home. The plan succeeded.

An excellent weekend was had. Perhaps the only thing that I would have changed would be to walk the length of the loch fewer times. The hostel is at the railway-end of the loch; on Friday I went from the station up the side of the loch, and back over Sgor Gaibhre and Carn Dearg. Nice walk, bit cloudy but the summits were often clear. Was chased along the ridge by a cloud though.

The hostel's in a lovely location by the way, would recommend it to anyone. On Saturday morning I left the hostel, up the loch again, and up Beinn Eibhinn. It was a beautiful sunny morning, I spent a while sitting around a lochan near the top, and sunning myself on rocks! Unfortunately my elated mood meant I did not realise that I had not in fact gone to the top of Aonach Beag as planned until I was back down by the lochside, but this did not ruin a lovely long walk. In any case, I shall hopefully visit that hill from the other side sometime this summer.

It's nice to have the time to not rush, to muck about rock-hopping down the stream down the hill, and stop to take lots of photos. The massive number of photos snapped means I actually got some decent ones: