Scotland and England

Another month slides by and it's nearly December.....Ho Ho bloody Ho. I don't feel very festive minded this year as I shall probably be working both Christmas and New Year. But on the positive side my liver is celebrating a holiday. It's been a great year so far, but the weight I lost in the first few months has been creeping back up due to terminal boredom of work in Denmark. Not the place just the nature of the work - tedious in the extreme. But at least I've caught up with my walks.

My friend Stuart over on walkingplaces.co.uk will be re-jigging my webpages soon, and when this is complete my blog ramblings will be transferred over there. But fear not dear reader (are there any I often wonder) I will be leaving a link in a large font, and I'll probably keep this one going as well perhaps?

The month of November saw me back in Bonny Scotland at the start of the month to walk around and absorb the ancient monuments of Kilmartin Glen and surrounds. What a wonderful and peaceful location, and fantastic archaeology on show. Burial cairns, chambers, standing stones, cup and ring marks, a few castles, carved medieval grave slabs to name but a few - all within the same walk.

Back in England I nipped up to the Lake District for a walk around the head of Martindale - 50% up in the mist, but finished in soft sunlight. An excellent wainwright bagging walk of 10 - not that I'm counting though.

A final walk in the Peak District took me to the Dragon's Back near Longnor. Memories of childhood came flooding back as I approached Parkhouse Hill - being dragged terrified up the steep grass slopes. But this time I made it to the top!!

A week in Mallorca

I suppose most people think of Mallorca as the place where all the party goers travel to Shagaluf. I dare say not many venture out to the hills. This was my third trip there and my first trip walking, that's day walks not falling on my face. Overall it was a great week, and although the weather was mixed it was perfect for walking - Goldilocks weather in fact.

I stayed in the mountain village of Deia, a beautiful village where Robert Graves is buried in the local church. The village has some fabulous restaurants, although the present exchange rate against the euro made for some eye watering bills. But we could eat cheap enough when we wanted to. There was also a small Picasso exhibition in Soller town, free for entry and some great ceramics in there, never realised he was so prolific - well worth a visit.

Back to blighty now and after a two week stint in Denmark, it's back home and up to Scotland again to look at some more pre-history at Kilmartin Glen. Maybe not much walking soon as I appear to have gone lame, and my knee is giving me gyp - Im hoping it's not too serious!

A Glencoe weekend

Back from the rig Thursday night, and up to Glencoe on Friday. Met Jimmy Saville in the pub - now then, now then, but he didn't fix the weather for Saturday. The morning loomed grey and the Ballachullish Horseshoe walk didn't look the best as the tops were covered in a misty mess. The forecast was a bit pants as well, so I called Mountain Mike to arrange the walk on Aonoch Eagach for Sunday. We ended up walking up to the Hidden Valley in a mix of weather - wet,dry, and wet. But it was fun and a great surprise when you crest the brow of the hill and the valley lays before you. It would be great for a picnic on a dry sunny sky - assuming the midgies don't get you. But we didn't see many this weekend - too wet and a touch chilly on high.

Sunday didn't start too well, due to Mike not turning up for the ridge walk. As it is one of the best in the UK to do, I was having second thoughts as I sat in the car and looked up. But you make a choice in this life and stick with it - I choose life, so I was up and walking uphill to the start of the ridge.

Fortunately for me I met up with three great guys from Dumbarton - Neil, Garry, and John. They gave me the confidence to walk/climb the Aonoch Eagach, and not only that they were great company as well.

All I need now is some continental drift to bring Scotland a touch closer - it's just a bit too far for a day walk. So in future I shall be planning a few more weekends up in Bonny Scotland - a fantastic place to walk and celebrate afterwards. I met some lovely people this weekend - thanks to you all.

My best walk to date

Well it finally came along....I had to cancel a walk in the lake district because it was absolutely persisting it down. I was heading up to Jacks Rake in the Langdale Pikes to meet up with a couple of mates, and judging by the response I got from Paul when I asked how the weather was, I made the right decision - "as bad as it gets" read his text. As I had better things to do later in the month I didn't feel too sorry, and as it happens I nipped down to the Llyn Peninsula for a walk up the Rivals at the weekend before the nuptuals. We had a great little walk in sunshine and an amazing little hillfort called Tre'r Ceiri - well worth a visit.

The next saturday I dubbined up my boots and scrubbed up for the best walk of my life. I was priveleged to walk my precious daughter from the house and up the aisle to the altar. The day was fantastic and obviously very emotional for us all, but even the fickle British weather behaved for the day.

The next few days I felt strangely flat after all the build up of the weeks before, and to add to that work had the temerity to call me back to Denmark. But work is work, and now the wedding is done and dusted I can start to plan a little more for my coast to coast next year - Bamburgh to St. Bees. But before that I am going for a week to Mallorca for a little wandering up in the Tramuntana mountains. My mate Murray has given me several walks to consider - he even went in the office and scanned them for me on a Sunday - what a star. That's several pints I owe.

Next up for me weather permitting is the fearsome Aonoch Eagach in Glencoe......gulp....watch this space...

Two weeks in the office - not bad actually

Well my daughter gets married in about three or so weeks time, and work must have taken pity on me. They let me work a couple of weeks in the Norway office, and it has proved very relaxing and given me a glimpse of the wonderful landscape. I managed a few little walks which were mostly in good weather, but the one I wanted to see most of all saw me drowned in a deluge. But I will save that one for another day, and do the touristy thing of going to see the Pulpit Rock at Preikestolen, and then freak myself out on the boulder at Kjerag. If you type Kjerag into the internet it will instantly give you a result of someone stood on the boulder with an inane grin on their face.....mixed with a modicum of terror. I suppose it depends on the weather -the day I visited was blowing a gale towards the 1000m and needless to say I didn't even attempt to go near the edge.

So I'm nice and relaxed and back to blighty for another attempt at the Nantlle Ridge in North Wales - I hope we have better weather than last time. We got blown away and had to abandon the ridge for safety reasons...and we lived to walk another day...next week actually.

Then it's walking on the back burner until the wedding is over.....but maybe I'll sneak up to the lakes one day when nobody is watching..

Not enough walking

It's been a while hasn't it. Since The Dales Way I haven't had any walks out apart from around the golf course. I've slipped on the diet as well, but I've not put on too much weight. As a consequence of all this my golf improved slightly but not enough to trouble the leaders. But there is hope as provided by Tom Watson at the Open - 59yrs old and still knocking it around competively. I've caught up on the backlog of my blog entries, so now the next stop is the wedding in August - again not enough walking, but I will have the Nantlle Ridge next month to look forward to. I nipped down to Powis Castle and Montgomery last week and was rewarded with a spectacular thunder storm and thankfully we were inside at the time.

It's surprising how soon you can lose leg fitness, and the walk up Helvellyn this week left me knackered and feeling a bit man fluey. But we had a great walk - the weather forecast was rubbish and we expected to get a soaking - but we didn't. Just goes to show if you take too much notice of the weather forecast you'd never go anywhere.

Another one bites the dust

Another month passes by, another month with a job, another long walk completed and another month with some decent weather.

I've continued the diet and am now weighing in regularly at 20lbs less than the start of the year, and the nice thing is that the weight seems to be stabilising - good old Slimming World diet. It's relatively easy to follow, apart from the bit about not eating chocolate and drinking wine - but Red Wine and dark chocolate is a healthy combination in my eyes.

We've had some great weather over the month and I had a wonderful walk up in the lakes at the head of Haweswater, and of course completed the Dales Way in six days - 5 1/2 of them dry, and it really didn't throw it down until we sat on the finish line. How I laughed when we caught the train home and all that could be smelt in the carriage was sheep s$£t when the conductor turned the heater on.

Only a couple of months to go before the wedding, so less walking and more painting for a while.

The sun shines on St Cuddies Way

Well that's the first of my long walks done for the year, and I was lucky again to have half decent weather. I didn't get rained on severely apart from a couple of heavy showers at the end of day1 and day3. But I used my golf brolly to good effect and it saved me from a soaking if I had had to don my waterproofs quickly. The walk contained all that I could have wished for - historical interest, some geology, plenty of bird watching, deer, badgers, watership down, Neolithic rock art to name but a few. The scenery was ever changing and the walking was a mix of moorland paths, sheep grazed pasture, woodland rides, field edge paths, metalled farm tracks, minor roads, crossing the A1 and the East coast high speed railtrack, and finally a causeway across to Lindisfarne Castle and a walk on the beach. A splendid mini break of about 70 miles in 4 days (plus 2 travelling).

The difference is with these walks is that once you are committed, you have to go for it whatever the weather - so if you always expect the worse, sometimes you get the best. The time of year to go? In my opinion April is reasonably, as is late May and the temperature isn't too hot. Also September can be a good month but is down to the vagaries of the weather gods. But come rain or shine it is something that is so enjoyable, and I will keep these walks up as long as I can.