FAST TRACK TO NOWHERE IN PARTICULAR

AH YES, BUT WHAT TENT FOR THE CHALLENGE?

2012-02-27T21:22:00.000Z

OK.

I have a choice for the Challenge.

Well NOT yet, but I hope to maybe have a choice.

The choice since I have now no longer got the TN Competition is going to be from

Wendy (the wonderful Stephenson 2R) now that she is repaired.

Wendy at Ingelborough before her disaster

OR

A Trailstar (this would I think be using an Oooknest as well, because it gives that extra bit of midge and nasty ticky barrier, and I am a southern softy).

Martin's Trailstar at Ingelborough

Oooknest (courtesy Oookworks site)
Hope they don't mind me using the image

I am going to take an MLD Ultralight Bivy regardless because it comes in at 213g, which is about the same as the Rab Survival Zone Ultralight, but bigger and I think more robust and waterproof. This also means that I do not have to use the Oooknest if I decide not to.
And it also will fit the Neoair inside it!

The weight side comes down in favour of using a Trailstar, even with the extras
and then there is the bad experience Wendy had with high (ish) winds at Ingelborough.

On the down side, there is potentially a bit more potential for exposure on the Trailstar.

There again, I don't need to carry tent poles since the Pacers will do nicely.

I really need to make a decision pretty soon, so that I can ensure I test whichever one properly a couple of times in the field before the great event.

My loyalty side says TAKE WENDY because she is wonderful.

My adventurous side says try A TRAILSTAR.

Oh Err Umm!! Tis one to ponder!

Ok I did cut my hair, but the Soul is still there!

A WORRYING SET OF CIRCUMSTANCES

2012-02-25T18:44:00.001Z

In all honesty these are not a set of worrying circumstances,
but some, OK one is mildly disturbing.

You will need to read on!

Now, some people give up work, and then shortly after just drop down dead.

Personally I think I need to give up work BEFORE I drop down dead.

Unfortunately, the giving up of work is not practical at the moment, what with the dependent teenage offspring.
It has thus struck me recently, that it would have been sensible to maybe not wait until I was past 40 before producing the next Walker generation.
Don't get me wrong, I think that they are brilliant, it is just that I would like to stop having to earn a crust.

For myself, I could happily live in a log cabin in the middle of nowhere.
Ok briefly I might miss the technology, but .....

Anyway, it ain't gonna happen!

SO WHERE WAS I - YES ..... TENTS

I finally got round to seam sealing Wendy last week, and attaching her new extra guy ropes
courtesy of Sean at Oookworks.
Top man. Did I say that before?

I will post a picture later on once she has been up in the garden, but it rained for the first half of the week, and what with WORK, (did I mention that as well?), I have not had the time.
But soon.

I also reinforced the perforation in her nether regions with some excellent

Mcnett Tenacious Repair Tape.

I so wish I had had some on last years challenge.
In fact when I got back I discovered that Lucy had bought me some for my birthday last March,

but I had forgotten about it and so did not take it.

It sticks to anything (ask our cat!)

TN Laser Competition

My old TN Laser Competition has finally gone to a new home.
Here she is in her new garden, and I hope Sandy does not mind the photo going in.
If he does I will apologise and remove it.
See how much happier she looks now she is not stuck in my Wardrobe.

SO, NOW TO GET THE TRAILSTAR!

A worrying development with Alcohol

I have been a bit disturbed recently to discover, that since I was ill over Christmas and the New Year, I appear to have .......................................

'GONE OFF ALCOHOL'!

Yes you heard it here first!

I think that since about 28th Dec, I have drunk 2 cans of beer!
That is it!
Total consumption.

Considering the Challenge is in under 11 weeks now,
and I have to go on a pre Challenge weekend as well,
I am not sure what to do.

I may have to try and force myself to drink a can of Abbot Ale tonight.
But last time I tried, I drank ¼ of a can and left it in the fridge for a week,
then poured it down the sink.
With hindsight, I nice Ale Pie may have been a good use! Damn!

And I have a bottle og Glenlivet 12 years single malt, and 2 bottles of Sloe Gin waiting to head into the hills.

Oh what to do, what to do......

I expect to get some suitable suggestions!

Lovely weather in the Fens today --- so we went for a bit of a RUN!

A know that I shouldn't, because the Vet said that Jasper Hound is old and arthritic and is not really allowed to go for long walks / runs anymore.

OK, OK, OK.

We went to Fleam Dyke anyway
(not going to do loads of photo's because I have done that blog).
It is just over 5½ K each way when you go to Balsham, and then there is the extra 3 or 4 K bit at the end into Fulbourn, so it is a bit far for him (and for me at the moment).

BUT.. we did it anyway and the weather was brilliant.
The sun came out and apart from the 'arse brained tossers' on motocross bike (see later), it was a lovely run.

Cambridge Skies (Is it Spring Already?)

This may look flat to you, but THAT is a Mountain down here!

THE DANGER WITH CROCODILES

Now, when you are running along a narrow track, on a day as beautiful as it was today, with not a care in the world, it is VERY VERY easy to not spot the crocodiles on the path.

You may remember that I fell foul of these buggers last year a few weeks before the challenge and nearly cracked a rib.

WELL. I did it again today.

One second everything was fine and Dandy, and then I was suddenly stumbling in space desperately fighting gravity, as the ground was coming to meet me.

FAST!

In all honesty, you have to wonder how the hell I didn't spot them as they lay across the path.
But I didn't.
AND it hurt!

So, we scrubbed ourselves down ( as you do ), and carried on.
Hands scuffed, elbow scuffed and both knees rather sore!

SHIT happens!, and talking of shit, see later!

Fluffy things in the bushes

You can see which way the wind blows

TOSSERS!!!!!!!!

Did I mention the utter TWATS on motocross bikes going along the top of Fleam Dyke?
WANKERS!
These were not young ones either, these were older well dressed in terms of bike gear, probably (I generalise totally here) middle management tossers, who had taken their motorbikes through a narrow gate that blatantly said NO CYCLING it being a FOOTPATH and all, and had then ridden them along the top of the Dyke Path, which is a historical monument, churning up the track.
They had also ridden them down the flight of steps at the end.

I can say no more than complete utter wankers!
May they soon contribute to the advancement of Neurology and Orthopaedics.

On a plus note, there were bits of broken fender at the bottom where someone on a bike had obviously fallen.
Shame it wasn't his fucking neck though!

Skid Marks on Dyke

Scuff Marks on steps

Skid Marks at Bottom

Broken Bike Bits :)

SHIT TREES!

And back to another pet hate of mine.
People who collect the shit (let's not beat about the bush here) from their dog in a plastic back and then just lob it into the nearest tree or bush.

What the FUCK did you bother for you moron!

GGGGGGRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

AND BREATHE!

I couldn't find this on U Tube so Cara Dillon's song
Falling Like A Star from the Album Sweet Liberty
(The whole Album is excellent)

&amp;amp;lt;BGSOUND SRC="http://www.helions.co.uk/mp3/Falling%20Like%20A%20Star.mp3" LOOP="1"&amp;amp;gt;

WINTER FOR A DAY

2012-02-22T23:19:00.003Z

It has been an interesting last few weeks.

Since I managed to recover (ish) from my excellent Christmas illness, everyone else in my house has been laid low with the dreaded lurgy.

Lucy has been ill.
Harriet has had a cough and sore throat for the 3 weeks,
and Olly has had the same thing to the point where he is now on antibiotics, and it's driving him nuts.

So, all in all we are having a joyful time here.

Add to that the ludicrous amount of work I have had to catch up with.

I was going to write about the bloody trouble Al and I had trying to get any sense at all out of Scot Rail and bargain berths on the sleeper.
I might dedicate an entire blog to that debacle, but now is not the time.

Sadly winter down here has been and gone.
It was last weekend, and very very pretty it was (be it all brief).

And because of that here are few pictures from the Fens.

View down our garden

Skaters on the Fen at Upware

Pond near Quy

The Summit on Quy Fen.
Ok it's a pile of rubble, but it's the highest point round here


A sign requesting NO Nudists WHO WOULD? And they have cut down all their trees since last year when people started cruising! NO IT WASN'T OK!!!!!!

One of the Clunch Pits now frozen

I just liked this tree

The Pond from earlier the next morning

Frosted Reeds along the river

The other Clunch Pit frozen over

Along the River, this is the pond near Angelsy Abbey

And now it is just grey and overcast and raining.
Bloody miserable!
Personally I preferred the snow.

Actually it is now spring down here (nearly), and the early knockings of little yellow plant things that have a name that I do not know and actually don't care about, and what are probably snowdrops (minus the snow).

The difference a week makes .......

And then NO SNOW at all

But the snowdrops are out
And in our garden

Talking of snow.
I bought Lucy some Snow Socks for her car at Christmas.
They are proving to be very useful (NOT).

And before anyone says that was much of a present, she also got amongst other things,
a rather fine North Face Arctic Parka which is apparently one of the best Christmas presents she has ever had. (And they were her words not mine, just so you know)
Of course I haven't bought her a present for 15 years so anything is good. (That is a lie by the way)

So anyway, where was I.

Oh yes MUSIC!

This is another Calvin Russell song - Baby I Love you
from the Album Sounds From The Fourth World
(It's an extra Valentine for Lucy because ............ )

&amp;amp;lt;BGSOUND SRC="http://www.helions.co.uk/mp3/Baby%20I%20Love%20You.mp3" LOOP="3"&amp;amp;gt;

GETTING HILL FIT (The Fenlander Way)

2012-01-28T22:20:00.001Z

I have tried standing on one leg whilst cleaning teeth and eating my breakfast.

Tore out a filling, ruined the carpet, slipped on spilt milk and sprained ankle.

So I am now using another method

Obviously the top statement was not true and was just for effect.

BUT... After weeks, and I mean WeeeeeeeeeeeeKS of doing BUGGER ALL what with colds and antibiotics and sore throats and all manner of nasty viral interlopers in my once healthy body.

OK it was healthy back in 2004 as far as I can remember.

I got back to some proper bloody exercise this week.

Well, that is when I was not being a taxi service,

or trying to catch up with the backlog of work I have to do.

So today was the first real day.

Started with an early rise at 8.00, ok, ok it is not early but it is a Sat.

Went out for a 6 mile run at 9.00 round the fenland trail that you will have seen before.

Came back and watched a bit of the Tennis, but it was two screeching women

(that is not sexist, it is the ridiculous bloody screeching that does my head in),

so I turned over to watch the Cricket.

Excellent, England had got the last wicket earlier before my run and then only had 145 to get.

Well Imagine my horror................................

I am with Boycott on this.

It was a disgrace.

How half the England team can say that they are middle order batsmen and then get out like they did is an insult to people who play cricket.

And as for 'Kevin I am the greatest bloody Peterson' (apart from spin, I really hate spin)

SHOCKING!

But I digress!

I am not sure what I did after that. Home stuff I think, and then in the afternoon, having been given permission or maybe just going, I cannot remember, I went for a little 30 mile ride.

Now, if I lived in the lakes I could have done a slightly shorter ride to get the same benefit.

Say Ullswater to Ambleside and back via the Kirkstone Pass and then the Struggle.

Now THAT is a damned fine cardio session!

It was not the clearest of days, but we managed to get down to -5m out on Burwell Fen.

That's the Munroist equivalent of a Complex Number that is!

Burwell Fen (-5m)

The View along Burwell Load

And we saw Deer and Highland Cattle. I say WE, but just ME!

The Deer were too fast to photograph.

And Seagulls by the hundred. Which means that the RSPB comments regarding Wind Turbines being no threat to them because they stay near the cliffs is utter bollocks.

But then they do seem to like the bloody things.

Rather like the truely hypocritacl Friends of the Earth,

or should that be Fiends of the Earth

The Hide near Wicken Fen

View from the Hide towards Wicken

Just over the bridge between Burwell and Wicken Fen there is a small hut used as a hide.

The second picture is the view towards the wetlands on Wicken Fen from the hide.

The little dots on the water on the right are hundreds and hundreds of assorted birds.

Swans, Ducks, Geese, seagulls and a lot more.

None of which I know the names of.

Another view from the hide looking further left towards Wicken Fen

I can say, that progress along the track was slow and arduous.

Mainly because of the 4 inches of sticky mud and reeds that most of it consisted of,

and that managed to snarl up my wheels and brakes. Not that I needed brakes at that speed.

And this was after I dunked it into the Lode

Reeds along the side of Wicken Lode between Wicken and Upware

In recent years, they have introduced a lot of Konik Ponies to the area around Wicken.

They are a very hardy breed and are now thriving.

Konik Ponies along the river

More Ponies (you'd worked that out hadn't you)

Yeah I know! But I liked the reeds in the foreground ok!

The Ponies were at the far end of the track from Priory Farm
just on the other side of the Lode in Wicken Fen

You can read more about the Ponies (should you feel so inclined) HERE!

At Upware there are quite a few boats and barges.

If you happen to have a spare £45,550 spare one was for sale!

It was quite a nice one too

Sun starting to decend over the Fen

It was not quite that dark yet, but I still had about another 10 miles to go, and I did not want to have to put my lights on.

View back along the River from the Large Lock at Upware

To be honest, I took this one a back in October, because it was too dark today.

I don't mean I travelled back in time to October to take it.

I mean if I could travel back in time, then I only needed to go a couple of hours, and anyway 'Time Travel' is hypothetical but unlikely.

I mean I dug out a photo I took back in October.

Now I don't mean I dug up an old photo, that would be silly.

What I mean is.. oh bugger it, you know what I mean!

And at that point it was time for the bike ride home, to see if England Saxons could actually beat the Irish Wolfhounds

AND THEY DID!!!!

So tomorrow I am off to Cheshunt to watch Olly play rugby, and hopefully after that I am going to try and get a hilly 10 mile run in.

I say hilly.

The steepest bit today was carrying the bike over the 2 bridges at Burwell and Upware.

Approximate totally ascent was about 19m, but that did of course involve the descent to -5m

So today's music? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Well I was going to put Falling Like a Star by Cara Dillon here

because it is a very beautiful song

but I cannot find it on You Tube (you should try and listen to it though).

So instead of that.....................

THIS!

Stomu Yamashta & East Wind - Wind Words

I NEED A MOUNTAIN! And I Need it Noooowwwwww!

2012-01-20T17:41:00.001Z

Well, as you are aware, it has been a few weeks now since I was fit for purpose.
I may never have been truely fit for purpose if truth be told.

BUT... My Mum loves me! & Lucy puts up with me!

So I really, really, really need to get up a hill or three.
The way things are looking, I will not be going anywhere until the Snake Pass Reunion.
There is justs so much to do, and so much work and crap to catch up on.
I may just have to get Challenge fit during the first 4 days in May.

I was really hoping that I might be able to do something walky/hilly/runny at half term,
but what with the backlog of stuff, I now only have 2 days that week that I am not committed to some work based thing, and in all honesty, I think I need to use one of those as well.

Ideally, I need to retire, before I die!

I'll need to get permission though, and I cannot see that happening.

So anyone off to the Mountains or any Hills or stuff?
I need a reason to get away, before I lose the will to live!

Harriet somewhere near the Top of Fairfield back in 2006.
It is quite scary how grown up she is now!

I am hoping she may be doing her FIRST Challenge on my 10th.

But I have to get to 10 first!

Olly back in 2006 in Caudale Beck


Olly 6 Months ago Northampton Saints U16's AND NOW He is 2" Taller and far more muscle.

Although I have always had a fairly eclectic music collection spanning all Gendre's

from Folk, Classic, Opera, Rock, Jazz, Country, Punk etc, etc.

I always come back to THE BLUES (that is where my heart lies)
Even though Calvin Russell is really Country, this is Blues to my mind

Calvin Russell - Crossroads
Off the album (Sounds From the Fourth World)
Still the Blues but a different Direction

NOW WHAT!

2012-01-19T00:07:00.001Z

Having felt GREAT for a few days,

I have now managed to get whatever

BUG

My daughter and Sister in Law were circulating.

I suspect that this is because my immune system was so impaired by 14 days of antibiotics,
that it has NO idea how to combat anything.

So although my nose and Chest (at the moment anyway) are clear,
I have one Mother ******** of a sore throat.

Dr says ...... "See how it goes". "Back Friday if no better!"

"It goes all sore and painful, that's how it goes!"

So, I am going to give it a few more days to see if it gets better.

Then if not SOD IT!

I am getting fed up with doing nothing.
I can feel my life wasting away doing nothing.

Is it possible to have a cold for 4 weeks?

I guess based on the fact that everyone I meet,
and everywhere I go, there appears to be an epidemic,
I am unlikely to not get it.

Roll on the Spring and some chance to open the windows and get some fresh air into buildings.

The entire workforce of the country seems to have to work in a gigantic incubator with the germs piped round the never ending air conditioning units.

OK, 100 years ago, we did not have the same medical cover, and infections could often prove fatal.
I just read Roald Dahl's Boy again ,and his Father died of Pneumonia at 57.
This is a bugger because I am 57.
And my own Grandfather died of Pneumonia at 55!

My point being, that even though health care was nowhere near as good,
the survivers were far fitter than a lot of people now.

On a plus note ... they voted against the Allt Duine Windfarm!
(I don't really like the term farm)

How that will go in appeal who knows.
It looks like developers have Carte Blanche to appeal as often as they like.

Just a few images of those beautiful turbines to cheer you up!

One day all turbines will look like this.

Some already do!

AND NOW ................................................

Back to the Blues .....

Julian Sas - Blues for the Lost and Found

A SHORT WALK BELOW 10m

2012-01-14T16:29:00.000Z

Sat 14th Jan 2012

And Lo It Came to Pass on the 7th day (well 6th in all honesty),

that all things did appear to have been completed and cured.

And He looked down on his work, and his well being,

and Lo it was Good.

And the day was bright, and the Sun shoneth down upon all creation, and the frost dids't glisten, and all shone forth, and the Black Hound at his right hand did smile and looking longingly at the portal .

And so they set forth upon their lowly walk.

For it was good.

And they heedeth greatly the words of the Good Angel Louise,

and the Fallen Angel Sloman,

and dids't walk in a leisurely manner that dids't befittest their state.

BUT....

It came to pass that the Devil did tempt them

and whispereth in their ear with words of great wonders.

"Thou cans't go for a run."

"Just a little one eh? ...."

"For thy knowest that thy wanteth to"

"And are thy not thy own man!"

And lo, though we did resisteth, the words of the tempter were great.

And we dids't weaken, and become to those words.

And our will it dids't wain

And we did fall short in the great goodness that would be our well being.

And we did Jog-eth a smidgen,

and latterly a smidgen more.

And ..................

And tho we dids't feel good upon the great deception

And tho we dids't know that we had sinned,

We careth not,

for we had succumbed to the great deceivers words

And Lo we shall see what dids't happen at the second reading

The Fall of the anti..............................................biotic

Or Not....................................

So , there you have it.

We went for a lovely walk around the flatlands of the Fens.

And to prove to those that do not consider walking takes place unless there are mountains,

this is the beauty that we saw....

Down the track parallel to the old railway in Lode


One of the two old Clunch Pits Clunchis a hard chalk used as a building stone Many years ago these were excavated manually to collect the clunch for local building

A new pond build on Quy Fen

Old tree on the edge of the Fen on the way to Horningsea

The second and bigger of the two Clunch Pits.
Now used as a nature reserve area

Natural Pond on one of the meadows

So, what is wrong with Flat??????

Jasper resisting tempation on the track up to Allicky Farm

Sun through tree along the track

View across Quy Water

Quy Water river walk

The Bridge near Anglesy Abbey

Lode Mill

Sadly despite all this beauty, there is still the problems that are caused by people that should not be allowed to go outside the probably squalor of their houses.

Canus beerus wankus discardus

twatus discardus arse-us

And then there are the people that take their £fucking dog for a walk.

It has a shit.

Discardus Canus Shitus Areswholeus

Then they pick it up in a bag, and then lob the bag into the side of the path.

If you you are going to do that you 'utter fucking moron',

you might as well not bother with the bag,

and in all honesty it is doubtful if you should actually have the dog either.

TWAT!

Sorry about that! Rant over!

(All photos where done with Galaxy S2 phone - Nothing Fancy)

And today's music is Phone call from the Moon by Adrian Belew

WENDY'S BACK

2012-01-14T08:54:00.000Z

OK, I haven't got out yet, because I now have to catch up with 3cwt (old measure) of work and also every time I get home it is dark.
So when I do get out finally, the scenery and views are on the dark side of bright.

That's the Moon that is (Picture Galaxy S2)

The fact that somewhere in that picture is a BLACK Labrador, tells you of the logistics of dog walking at night.
In all honesty we go out together, park the car, go for a walk (we never see each other) and then miraculously we arrive eventually somehow back at the car.

Spooky! It is.

Down Wandelbury way ,it's off the old Roman Road (Icknield Way), they say that on a dark and foggy night, you can still sometimes hear the Roman columns marching along.

They are not so loud though if you are wearing trainers instead of big leather boots.

Coincidence or?

ON A PLUS NOTE.......

Week 2 of medication, 3 days to go and I am feeling way, way, way better!
I am therefore tempted to go for a run,
and I
SHOULD RESIST the temptation!

I MUST RESIST the temptation!

BUT...............CAN I?

I will report back on this, OR NOT, depending on the outcome!

So where was I?

Oh yes, WENDY'S BACK.

She is all patched up, her pole sleeve repaired and she has 3 new ties at the back,
One at the top and 2 midway down the sides, to attach the support guy ropes.

I cannot thank Sean at Oookworks enough.

Bloody Top job!

I need to attach the guy ropes now, seam seal the repair and rope attachments,
and also put the new rear pole together, and then she will be as good as new
I will post a before and after picture at a later date so you can see what a good job it was.

So anyway, since I am better (much better),
Harriet (No 1 and only daughter), who is meant to be running in a County Cross Country race today, is now...... ill with.......

A bad cough .... blah, blah, blah........

I am considering putting her in isolation..

I DO NOT want another bloody cold!

Which brings me to the music bit.

Always necessary to try and introduce people to something new.
I say new, but I mean new to them.
Of course it might not be the case for everyone, but today's number is by
John Petrucci and Jonathan Rudness off their solo album.
You may or may not know them from the band Dream Theatre.
This is my favourite off the album

Next post will be something from Adrain Belew (you'll have to wait).
You may prefer to wait...
You may not be reading this and you'll never know.

Such is life!

From Within - By John Petrucci and Jordan Rudness

THE ROAD TO RECOVERY or IS IT?

2012-01-09T21:30:00.000Z

4th ~ 9th Jan 2012

The problem with antibiotics is that although they cure the infection.
For the first couple of days you often feel like $hit.
In particular when the dosage (as in my case) is quite high.
I was hoping that by the end of day three I would feel considerably better.
I am a bit on the side of impatient as it happens, which may also be why my recovery period is often longer than it should be!

Later that same week......

So , by day 3, I was feeling a bit better, and by day 4 better still.
Looking good you might surmise!

But woe alas, days 5 and 6 showed a marked decline, and increased chest pain.
Them's antibiotics are just not cutting it.
So by medication day 7 when I ought to be fighting fit, I am fit for nothing.

And it is now doing my head in BIG TIME!

Now, this lot goes back several weeks to that Typhoid Mary £uck!ng woman on the course I ran just before Christmas, who treated everyone in the room with a fount of festive bloody germs.

THANKS FOR THAT!

So today back to the Dr again, for a different regime of medication.

This time I have a weeks worth of Prednisolone (steroid) 30mg a day, and a different antibiotic for a further week.

The old antibioticis were interesting .....
Amidst many of its legion possible side effects to watch out for and report back to your doctor are tight chest and wheeziness, which are the exact bloody symptoms I already have.
Hmmmmmm! Might struggle to spot that one then..

The steroid is interesting too.....
The other possible side effects are erratic behaviour, minor psychosis mental disturbances and miriad other assorted neurological symptoms.

Some people I know (you know who you are), would probably say that I would never be able to spot that, because it is natural behaviour.

The actual list of known issues and possible side effects, along with DON'T take this if...
run to about a side of A4.

The way things are going I will soon be on as many drugs as Sloman (impossible!)

So, with all this, should I still go out for short walks with the dog, or just lay about inside?
You know what I did eh... Took the dog out! WALK mind, no running.

Too late now now anyway.

So here are a couple of pictures of memories from 2011.
Let's hope for some good memories for 2012 as well.

Now where are my pills?

That Bloody Coffin at Inverness

How long did it take him to get across that bit?

So much for the High Route

Loch Mullardoch (North Shore) before it rained [Again]

On the way to Cannich

The coffin on Loch Mhor

Pools of Dee (It's a FWA!!! Lol)

Loch Callater

Sunday Evening at Loch Callater

A little stream on the Monday

Windy?????????

Al shares a secret beer, by the waters of solitude

Damn! It's all over again!

Denis's brilliant painting

And just before we go, I must mention Lucy.

My wife.

She is wonderful, kind, beautiful, sexy, and the love of my life.
But NO BLOODY SYMPATHY at all.

And yet I still love her.

Love is truely blind!

So in the meantime

THIS

A Blast from the Past - You Know You Know - Mahavisnu Orchestra & John McLaughlin

THE JOY OF ANTIBIOTICS

2012-01-03T16:12:00.002Z

3rd Jan 2012

And thus is came to pass, that Christmas and the New Year was beset with medication.
Alas the postponed Boxing Day walk which was to become a New Year walk was struck down with illness.

The bunged up nasal cavities that managed to spiral into sinus infection eventually managed to work it's way into the chest, and I am now on a full blown set of antibiotics to try and cure this.
Not really going out now, I have become completely dependent on Method 2.
You may remember that Method 1 the execise regime was intermittenly successful.
Unfortunately it was successful in helping to supress my immune system to the sorry state that I am now in.

This was compounded by the problems of getting suitable medication before today because the Dr surgery was shut until today.

So luckily I now have suitable medication for the next 7 days, and I am hoping that this will return me back to the fitter sorry state that my body was in before.

At least the visit to the Dr has proven that it was a bit more than MAN FLU!

Apart from the coughing, it was probably the dull ache in the chest that signified full on infection that made me give up the exercise and go to the Dr.
OK, I did try and cycle 10 miles yesterday and 12 the day before, but hey.... it might have worked.

It didn't! I feel like SHIT!

On a plus note (not mine) the cat is doing well

Apart from his tail that looks ridiculous.

AND IF YOU RECKON I AM STUPID

We took Dawg out on Sunday (before I rode to Cambridge and back - foolish)

He decided that he could carry this all the way round (about 7½ miles)

Mind you, he's not on antibiotics

So all in all, the New Year is NOT going very well at the moment.
I am hoping for an improvement!

Did I mention the weight training?

That was probably not a good idea either!

I might need to rethink this whole strategy!

So all in all, not a lot happening here apart from whinging men!

I need to report back when I am feeling a lot better!

In the meantime I will just have to get back to a bit of Guitar

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Aynsley Lister - Angel O' Mine

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BOXING DAY WALK?

2011-12-27T18:11:00.001Z

27th Dec 2011

Apart from the weather which to be honest was not great, Lucy has not been well over Christmas and as I write this, still isn't.
Indeed she spent most of Chritmas Eve lying down having almost passed out in the kitchen (and NO alcohol was involved before, during or after - genuine illness)

So, instead of Boxing Day walk I took the dog for a run to Cambridge.
I say, to Cambridge, but that was not the actual intended destination.
My intention was to do about an hour.
Any more and Dawg needs a crane to get him in and out of the car.
Also, I still have this stuffed up nose, bloody, bloody, bloody, $%$&&ing, cold thing that I cannot seem to offload.
That might be because I keep going out running of course.

Anyway, we set off at 11.15 (that's me and dog) intending that Lucy would collect us on the way to her Mother and Father's house in Cambridge about 12.20.

I had not heard anything by 12.15, so I texted through for pick up point details.

"Olly not up yet, he's being a bit awkward (Teenagers). We will be at least 30 minutes.

Bugger!, I will carry on but start to head towards Cambridge.

Now, my route (there being a lift after an hour?, had taken me overland, away from Cambridge).
So at this point, I was still just under hour from Cambridge, at my rather pedestrian running pace.
I did not tell Jasper, because he goes all misrable hang dog look, and starts to snurkle about.

We gave it another 20 minutes and I rang to report location and check on process.

"Olly Not up yet, we are going to be at least 20 more minutes!"
"OK, I will go to Fulbourn and start heading to Cherry Hinton"

So at Cherry Hinton, I texted!

"At Tesco store will go slowly"
Reply ... "Olly only just in shower, at least 20 min"
Text Back "Oh Crap! Dawg and I are knackered big time!"

At Cherry Hinton (which to be honest, is only about 20 minutes away (if that) I did another check.

"Leaving in about 10 minutes!"

OK, you do the Maths!
We ran to Cambridge, and we got there first! By some margin.

Eventually Lucy arrived and all was good.
Apart from the fact that I was truly Cream Crackered, and the dog was dead on his feet (paws), Lucy was not well, and could not eat, and we had to get back to take the cat to the vet.

Did I mention the cat?

He had a bite on his tail that had become abscessed.
So he was off to emergency vet for extra expensive treatment, and was later to return home with a backside like a Baboon, but minus the dreadful abscess. (Nice).

Did I also mention being kept awake half the night as well, by the other cat that brought in 3 rats for us to play with from the fields at the end of the garden.

Anyone want to know the best way to drop kick a cat over the shed.
(No I didn't ok, but I had evil thoughts at about 4.15am)

He'd make a good rug though!

TODAY! (27th) I did not get up until a bit later.
I reckon my cold is actually not a cold, but a Sinus infection, because my nose is not a nice place to be, and I would prefer it if it was not attached.

Enough of that.....................................................

Continuation of the Blues Theme

Buddy Guy - What Kind of Woman... Is This? - For Lucy .... because!

And the Boxing day Walk?

That's postponed for about a week.

I have to take my Mum's friend back to London.
Olly and Harriet to London to spend some of their Chrsitmas Money.
In all honesty they are now richer than I am.
To clarify those combined statements...
They are going to spend THEIR Christmas Money!

Then there is the New Year (when Maybe the New Year Walk if everyone is well enough)
Then back to school for them and Lucy, and also back to earning some money for me to pay for Christmas.

Thank God Al is planning and sorting out all the route and stuff.

I just have NOT got the time!

H A P P Y N E W Y E A R !

CHRISTMAS EVE CHEER OR SOMESUCH

2011-12-23T21:36:00.000Z

23rd and 24th Dec 2011

Today, the weather around here being mostly crappy was spent being remarkably idle.
This is mainly the fault of the neverending bloody cold I appear to have.

Now, NOT one to learn the lessons opf previous misdemeanor's I attempted method 1 again the other day, and blow me down but by the time I got back I felt pretty damned good.
The following day I had to go and collect aged friends of my ageing Mother from Londinium, and blow me down if by the time I got back from there, I did feel a tad on the side of shit again.
Now this may have been the exercise from the previous day, or it may have been the drive down, or it may have just been London Lassitude, but whatever the case I did not feel 100%.
In all honesty I would have been impressed with 75% but I did not even attain that heady goal.

So yesterday in the lead up to some important retail festival, I went and fought my way through the millions of people who were panic buying lest they starve to death for the 48 hours that the shops are shut.
I was behind one family in the queue in Sainsbury, clutching my 2 items, whilst they bought just over £450 worth of food. Mind you, they did look like it was their evening meal, but we will not go there.

Recently I have also followed Alan's blog for 3 episodes of tangential thought patterns.
I was being a bit blond at the start, but I think I have wrapped my dwindling collection of brain cells round it now. Whatever the case I want some of the stuff he's taking.

Yesterday I also had to take Olly to 'M&S' to do the Rugby Club packing thingy.
By the time it got round to going to collect them, I could not get back due to the ridiculous congestion on the roads around Cambridge, and they had to walk across ton to meet me on the outskirts.
OK, they could have cycled, but it is difficult with 7 buckets full of money.

Are you following the theme of this?
If so let me know what it is please!

Today I fitted a new security light to the front of the house.
The old one has been broken for some time, and Lucy was concerned with security and lack of illumination on her front passage.
I am assuminmg she was talking about the security light, otherwise I may have missed a moment there.
Anyway, the NEW light is excellent, assuminmg that was what she meant.

So, by the time my Mother had come over to drop of stuff, and forget to take home her Christmas present, it was time to take the dog out with Lucy, and we had managed to miss the last of the good weather.

This picture has absolutely NOTHING to do with anything!

Later that same day........

Since my daughters friend had commented on the rather pitiful state of our Christmas lights, (all 20 of them), I dug about in the loft and found the old ones.
These I managed to rig up eventually, amidst driving rain and gusts of wind, fought my way through the jammed garage door, plugged them in and voils! Bugger All!

"Did you not think of testing them first?" said Lucy.

"Did you not think to tell me to test them first?", I didn't say that!

Maybe tomorrow!

So anyway, what has this got to do with walking and blogging?

BUGGER ALL!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

Eric Gales (check him out)

Time for a beer!

ROUTE DONE! LISTEN TO THE MUSIC

2011-12-20T00:49:00.001Z

Monday 19th Dec 2011

Well my route is now all done and sent in to the Vetters.

I say my route but of course it is AL's route.

I didn't do any of it for once, and I must say it was most relaxing.

I have seen the route of course and IT IS 'AN ABSOLUTE CRACKER'!

But enough of that, because IF I divulge any of it I will have to kill myself.

AL is too far away to kill me so I would have to do the honourable thing.

However I can tell you a bit about it.

We will be starting on the West coast on Fri 11th May somewhere
and finishing on the East Coast on Thu 24th May somewhere.

So anyway, I had fought off this £^cking cold for about a week now, but it has got me in the end.
I felt a bit crock on Thu & Fri last week and decided there are two ways to get rid of a cold.

Method 1 ...... Plenty of Rest

Method 2 ...... Plenty of Exercise

So feeling much better on Saturday, I decided to employ Method 2.

Jasper was feeling a bit neglected, what with dark evenings, too many hours spent working before Christmas, and I needed to go out, so we went for an 8 mile run.

Anyway, method 2 does not necessarily work, so after spending yesterday standing by the side of a Rugby field watching Olly, by the time I got home I felt to put it bluntly $hit!
Testimony to this was the fact that I slept all the way back in the car, then most of the evening on the sofa and then the whole night in bed (normal practise that though).
In fact I was a bit late getting up today, but after a few drugs (medical) I spent a day working,
(as you do) and actually today I feel ok. Not great but OK.
I am thinking that Method 1 seems to be the better method, and I leave that as advice.

BUGGERS WHO GO TO WORK WHILE SICK!

Now I have waxed lyrical about these %^*&ing martyrs before.
You know the ones, bloody people who struggle in germ ridden, snorting their germs over everyone, (and before you say HYPOCRITE, I was NOT coughing and sneezing today, I just felt a bit rough)and causing about 20 working days loss through illness when if they had stayed at home then only 1 person would have been ill for maybe 2 days.

And while we are on the subject bleeding open plan offices and communal air conditioning.
Then you add in the fact that we are a generation now of over cleansing fanatics (not our house I might add), three generations down the line kids will have no immune system.

AND BREATHE!

Anyway, last week I had to run a training session.
The people on it were very pleasant.
BUT! One of them (I will not name them, NOT because I do not want to, I have just forgotten who they were - apparently this is an age thing), had a dreadful cold and a cough.

AND.......Coughs and Sneezes DO spread diseases YOU ARSE!

So where was I? Oh yes, the routes in and we now await the deliberations of the wonderful Vetters.

Lisa Gerrard - Sacrifice
One of my favourite pieces of music of ALL Time.
JUST CRANK UP THE VOLUME, CLOSE YOUR EYES & LISTEN!

If this does not make your spine tingle, you have no emotions!

This woman has a stunning voice!

The picture below is for James Boulter who I had the great pleasure of walking with during our Ingleborough debacle

Just to show what the Fens do have to offer in terms of fantastic scenery (just joking James )

And if Lisa Gerrard is NOT to your liking then this is also a brilliant track, and may well be appearing on a future Blog.

Aynsley Lister - Need Her So Bad
Just click on this and listen to the Blues!

THE INFAMOUS FOUR GO FORTH IN INGLEBOROUGH

2011-11-27T20:29:00.001Z

Fri 25th and Sat 26th Nov 2011

Once upon a time in lands far to the South four fearless bloggers looked Northwards and mused on what might lie in those grey lands.
They pondered and mused on how they might head to this land and conquer it's mighty hills (walk up). Plans were formed and an army amassed. I say an army ............
And lo with time it came to pass that the same four headed north on a quest to Austwick.
By many different routes they did travel North, those from the East travelling together.
Eventually all four intrepid travellers arrived at Austwick and it was time for the great adventure to begin.

Well, Alan was already there, and James had arrived at some time slightly earlier on the Friday.
Martin and I arrived about 11.30 after a quick circumnavigation of the village and a call into the Post Office for directions to the house.
Undeterred by this lack of navigation, we were still prepared to risk life and limb in our quest.

Our journey North had been full of sunshine and brightness, and only 40 miles further south, the sun had shone with an uncustomary summer like brightness.
But shortly after as we entered the realm of the great greyness, this was displaced by a monochromatic dull drizzle like vision, and we knew we were approaching the realm of the great northern grey lord. We were undeterred at this point and drove on.

At last our journey came to rest and we entered the castle of Rick and Lindsey.
I say castle, but it was actually a house.
A mighty fine house I might add, and the hospitality was wonderful.
With hindsight we should have stayed there, but that is not why we came.

So we had a cup of tea and prepared to head off.

Pete (aka Grumpy), you know, that dreadful man from the message board ,
and Avril were there. LOL
And after a brief chat, and a change of gear, it was time to head off.
It had stopped raining (briefly).

Getting to grips with Camera!!!!!!

My old camera eventually died just after the challenge.
The replacement I had bought several years ago is with Lucy, because hers broke so I gave her my camera (sweet).
Thus I now have an Optio WG1 GPS, it being waterproof, and pretty rugged, and hopefully open to a bit of abuse.
This is it's first outing, and I will report back later how I get on, but since I am a bloke, I have NOT read the manual on how to get the best out of it, and this is my excuse for the quality of the photos.
Also, it is why about 6 of the photos I took never came out at all. I have now figured out how long I need to press the bloody button for to actually take the photo. This is not the cameras fault, but because I am a BLOKE and so obviously just know how to NOT use my camera.

Back to the story/adventure

We left Rick and Lindsey's and began our walk for a moment the rain had stopped

Opposite Rick & Lindsey's house

It was looking like rain, but we made the most of the moment.
Now, I would have put a picture of everyone in here, had I pressed the button to take the photo.

We headed up the road out of Austwick amidst, rain and rather stinging SLEET. Undeterred, we had a mission to complete, and even having read the forecast, we were going to go up that Bl00£y hill.

I was not looking at the map, and to be honest I have NO idea of the route that we took.
It is sometimes nice when someone else navigates.
I would have looked at the map had I been able to remember where I put it.
Later I would find it when unpacking at night 1 camp.
I say night one, I mean ONLY night camp, but we will come back to that.

So minus map, or locations, here are a few pictures on route.
I will leave it to others to fill in the where's!

Alan and Martin with cameras I think.

A rather grey distant view of Pen-y-Gent

James pretends to not posse for the photo

The gate by the lunch stop. Well, it was a late lunch, but thanks to Al we did have Port


Al arrives at lunch

A couple of Moody sky shots

Just after pitching Camp.
It is getting dark and a bit colder.
At this point, Wendy is looking happy

View from Camp

Everything is looking Good

Martin's Trailstar.
As it happens, it really is bullet proof,
Actually all the tents were OK apart from poor old Wendy

After pitching camp, we had a wee dram or two, and then the weather turned rapidly for the worst. It started to rain and sleet. Within no more than 10 minutes, there was a layer of hail on the ground and spindrift building up on the tents.

It was getting time to get into the tents.

This brings me to the major problem with Wild Camping in Winter.
Not the weather as you might think.
No, the ridiculous number of hours you have to spend in your tent.
Now OK, often, you can walk for quite a time in the dark and then pitch the tent.
But on this night, with the weather closing rapidly in, it meant the best part of 15 hours of darkness, and that pretty much meant 15 hours in the tent.
Maybe it is time to invest in a Kindle.
As it happened I had some food, a few more drams of Abelour 10 year Malt (that's the one Al £20 at Tesco at the moment), and then turned on the Music.
Luckily I had packed a backup MP3 player, because the main one had decided to die,
and my phone, a Galaxy S2 as brilliant as it is has absolutely SHIT (sorry but it is the best way to describe it) battery life. I reckon 24 hours MAX unless you turn it off.

It was to be a night of broken sleep and buffeting winds.
Wendy rocked and rolled, and that was with the extra support internal stays.
Luckily despite the buffeting she held steady, and all in I had a lot of good sleep.

Well, until about 6.05 WHEN.............................................................

That is the Pole that snapped

Wendy has a nervous breakdown

All too much for her after a stressful night

And not much room inside anymore

Looking at the weather and based mainly on the wind, I decided that it was time to rapidly vacate the tent, and take everything down, before the wind decided to destroy it all together.
It also seemed a good idea to get it all packed away before it started to rain.
So after a rapid decamp I then sat inside martin's Trailstar.

Now I was not a big fan of Tarps, but I have to admit, that this was pretty much bullet proof, and the footprint inside was huge. I would have to give one a proper test before I took the plunge on buying one, although I know that many rave about it.
Not sure I would want to take one to the Monadhliath tick fest without some sort of high sided bug net (which you can get), but I was pretty impressed with it.
So if anyone out there has one they are not using for 3 months, I am the man.
Alan's shorter 2C also stood the test as did the Scarp.
I am pretty impressed with the Scarp as well, although I have got used to the cavernous nature of Wendy and think I would find it slightly small now. But James's Scarp was rock solid.
Ok, everyone else's tent was fine OK.
James packed up as well, so we were just waiting for Al, who was still inside in his sleeping bag.
Now remembering back to the Challenge and the amount of stick I got, I could have been a vindictive man and made a comment.
But I am not like that at all.

YES I AM!

About 8~8.30 it was time to head off.
It had not started to rain yet, although it would and we made our way down the hill to head over to Horton in Ribble.
Looking across to where Pen-y-gent ought to be and bearing in mind the wind velocity, it was decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and that

'It would not go'

The path down is quite straightforward, but the amount of wear and tear and erosion caused by thousands of feet is very very noticeable.

There are however on route some fantastic examples of the Limestone Pavement.
Fantastic to look at but in the wet a nightmare to walk over.

Grey and overcast but still an amazing bit of Geology

Al and James performing some form of ritual

We headed down into Horton via the railway station in light drizzle, although not too bad at this point. It was decided that we should make for the coffee shop that is the sign out for the three peaks.
To our horror, it was shut and not opening until 26th Dec.
In all honesty that was too long to wait and so we headed for the pub.

Sadly this was not open either, and it being a bit past 11, and the pub not open until 11.30 we decided to wait

I think pictures taken without being posed tell the best story, although looking at James's eyes I am not sure whether we want to know what the story is.

Eventually the pub opened and we went in to grab some lunch, liquid and otherwise.
At this point, as we sat in front of the warm fire, the heavens opened, the wind picked up and the outside world looked like a false rain scene from a movie. The rain travelling somehow horizontally. many a dripping and wet walker arrived or should I say dribbled into the pub.

"We'll just wait a bit longer until it eases off eh.."

Wishful thinking.
It had absolutely NO intention of easing off, maybe ever.
So, with one tent down, and James feeling the worse for wear, it was decided that we would head back to Austwick and Rick and Lindsey's.

It was a brave effort, but the forces of the great northern grey Lord had beaten our quest.
We would raise a new army and come back in the spring to fight again.

Provided we got back to Austwick.

It was getting near 1.30 and time to go.
The weather was not going to get better.
It was going to get a lot worse though!
There will be no more photos from this point.

We headed back via the railway line, back the way we had come to pick up the track back to Austwick.
We set off via Moughton Scars, and then took the left hand track near Crummock.
This looked on paper like the bigger track. In reality, it was a muddy narrow foot and MTB mangled muddy track/stream/puddle.
Eventually back onto the main track though it was a wet walk back. By now we were on the wet side of moist. For wet, read very wet!
Gloves, heads, (and for some rather more body parts) were soaked through.
I will not mention names, nor parts for the sake of decency.

By about 3.30 we were back at the fantastic hospitality of Rick and Lindsey's, and with some warm dry clothes, a cup of tea, and a bit of home made sponge plus good company, it was time to head home.
Well, Al was staying over, but James had to get back, as did Martin and myself.
Indeed I had to get a train from Kings Lynn back to Cambridge at 8.30.

So a long drive and many conversations later plus a short train journey I was home.

It had been interesting, the weather entertaining, the wind exhilarating and for Wendy destructive,
but most of all, the company had been excellent.
It is always important where you go and what you see, but just as important is who you go with.
Despite Wendy's problems ,and having to finish a bit early, it had been a great couple of days.
We must do it again properly next year.

See you soon boys!

Alan Stivell

Oh by the way, this new blog editor is still Crap

WENDY'S WOES

2011-11-27T14:24:00.001Z

Sat 26th Nov 2011

It was all going so well

.................................................... and then

BEFORE

AFTER

Not a heap of room inside now

I believe it is not meant to look like that

It had been a breezy night just below Ingleborough, but despite the rather buffeting winds, Wendy had done well until about 6.05 that is, when a huge gust was followed by a loud crack.
Being half asleep I did not notice until I looked up to find she had been truncated and collapsed.
A look outside (not nice), showed that the rear pole had snapped and foreced itself through the pole sleeve.
Wendy was in a bad way, and I had to get her unpacked and down before the wind got worse and really did her in.
BLOODY LUCKY it did not happen at 1.30am.

Anyway, Warmlites are NOT bullet proof!!!!!!!!!...Oh No!

In her defence I would say that Wendy is a wonderful tent, and I WILL get her repaired, and she WILL go on the Challenge.
However, unlike the 2C, the 2R has no extra stays attached to the rear pole, and I believe that this design flaw was the major cause of her demise due to the extra flexing in the turbulent wind.
I will be sending her off the have these attached and also have the tear in her sleeve repaired quite soon I hope.

I will also (and actually have already), emailed Stephenson's to try and get a replacement pole. I will keep you informed of the progress of this, and also on Wendy's convalescence.

That's all for now, the awful truth of Four Go High in the Dales will be reported later today or tomorrow, with graphic detail.

By the way, is it me, or is this new Editor in Blogger really rubbish?

NICE!

2011-11-18T23:44:00.001Z

Friday 18th Nov (Just).

I am sitting here, it is Friday and it is 19 days since the TGO draw I think.
Lucy is at a school sleepover with 30 tiny children.
(Well that is what she tells me).
She was there at 10 anyway.
I am hoping next week (actually, next Friday) to go mad in Yorkshire with Sloman and a bunch of other like minded folk (degenerates).
That is assuming I can get over this mild calf strain, that has been bugging me for the last 10 days.
OK, OK, maybe going for another run the full length of Fleam Dyke again today was not the ideal bit of recovery training.
To add to that the dog, who was fine on the run, was so old and crippled when he got out of the car, that I had to lift him out.
Poor bugger couldn't walk for the first 10 min, 1 hour, 4 hours, he's still limping.
BUT, Rymadil (no idea how it is actually spelt) is a wonder drug for dogs.
If it worked on humans, I would take some on the Challenge.

Which is the real reason for this Post.

That and the report that all is ok on the lump in the groin saga.
So, luckily, no photo's of that then.
It is a fatty lump and no problem, unless it becomes a problem. (????)
The main point being, that unless it is really really really irritating, rather than just mildly annoying, then best to leave it be.
That and the fact that due to assorted hernia operations, I have so much mesh down there, that it is like having a kevlar vest in my groin area, and would be a nightmare for any surgeon.

OK, TOO MUCH information I know! (bet you are even more glad there are no photo's eh)

SO, I know, you are wondering. Where are the pictures, and the music and the.....
You should have heard the music about NOW anyway.

Oh yes, by the way I AM IN 'The Challenge' ,and as by now you may be aware,
I am accompanying Mr Sloman.
I say accompanying, but really I am his 'CARER'.

He tries to cover this up, but social services have insisted this time round.
Fortunately, they did not look too deeply into my CV, and we have apparently got away with it.

We just need to get Dave (Blisters) Wilkinson some decent shoes and socks.
We told him last time, that thin 10 denier cotton socks and stiletto's were no use but he is very independently mined is Dave.

Anyway F*$£ing A, we are in!

More soon from Yorkshire, and TGOC 2012 Route plans.

Nothing like being astride a nice Dyke!

2011-10-22T22:33:00.001+01:00

Just not enough hours in the day

Now this next bit has nothing to do with the title, but explains the rather long pause between entries on this blog.
It has been an odd month, what with one thing and another.
Firstly with my Uncle being in hospital and then taken into care and then sadly passing on.
My aunt needing a lot of support.
Olly (no one son) damaging his medial collateral ligaments on his left knee playing with Northampton U16's and then my mother falling over and bashing knee and not being able to get about.
She thinks she is still in her 30's so finds it annoying when recovery is a long old process.
The fact that she will be 87 in December has somehow slipped from her knowledge.
She only finally owned up to trying to hop on one dodgy leg while putting her trousers on in the bathroom when the Dr asked exactly how she fell (kids eh).
Oh yes, in in between all that lot there is work and stuff!

Still all that behind us now, and as long as they find nothing nasty in the irritating lump near my groin that has appeared since the hernia operation in July, all may go well for the future.
There will be no accompanying pictures of this (YET).

So no new kit on the horizon and pensively awaiting notification good or bad of placement in the next Challenge, I have actually managed to get out a couple of times in the last few weeks.
Locally only but worth the odd picture or 3 maybe.

And thus we come to the title.

As horrid as the image is, I am at this point straddling said Dyke.
It's a nasty view and I do need to loose about 12kg. I haven't done anywhere near enough recently.

The start of Fleam Dyke

Although flat hereabouts (well most of hereabouts to be honest ) there are a couple of very nice Dykes near by. Devils Dyke and Fleam Dyke.
Fleam Dyke being the shorter of the two but still a goodly distance for a run with the dog, even with the accompanying groin pain. I'll stop going on about that!

It's a nice walk or even run, on a pleasant day, and Jasper hound, despite his ageing years and dodgy right front leg had a great bound along it.

Jasper just the other side of the A11 Bridge

Near Bedford Gap

The route back is along the Dyke, but there is a very pleasant detour available through the nature reserve at Fulbourn, parts of which are soon I think to be flooded and walkways put in, in the same way that they will be flooding the area beyond Tubney Fen.

AND A SMALL DETOUR WALK

You know how you know where you are going and then you are wrong!
Well, the other day, Lucy and I took the dog for a short walk from Upware round parts of Wicken Fen and then back along the river to the car.
The weather was fantastic, indeed the only $h1t month was August (during the so called holidays).

Spot the deliberate mistake

I have been this way often on the bike, via Burwell fen, so when we got to the bridge at Burwell Lode, just passed Priory Farm, I insisted (as I sometimes do), that there was an excellent walk up the left side of the river rather than the right.
This was indeed true, apart from the fact that at the point marked OOPS!, there is no way across the river other than a boat or swim.

But there is this Fabulous little pond!

So anyway, went back to the bridge.

That's Lucy heading back that is! The dog was not impressed either!

But we all lived happily ever after (more or less!)

And just as a final image of the wonders of the Fens

This was the fantastic view 2 days ago along Quy water whilst with the dog.
He is a black dog, so obviously you will not be able to see him.
Let me know if you can, because I couldn't

This is the final sentence! Well not ever of course!

Stevie Ray Vaughan - Tin Pan Alley Tokyo 1985

NO NEED FOR WORDS - Sit back and Listen

2011-09-29T01:10:00.001+01:00

Just Listen! (The sadly missed awesome John Martyn with David Gilmour)

And another sad loss Richard Wright with Gilmore at the Royal Albert Hall

Modern Classical and timeless

BEEN GONE A WHILE I'LL BE BACK IN 5 HARMIN'S

2011-08-27T10:26:00.005+01:00

Sat 27th August 2011 - Long time no see

It's not that I have been away, I just haven't had anything to write on the blog.
To be honest I never really have anything to write in the blog.
And this time is actually no different.

Much of the last few weeks having been spent driving No 1 son to Franklins Gardens for training and games.

Not that I mind really, especially as Lucy was driving, and we did visit Bletcley Park which is quite fascinating.

Anyway, that is not what I want to write about.
What I want to write about are HARMINS.

The harmin is a new or probably old measure of time.

Those with teenage children will probably know them by a variety of names.
They are not really new.

This one is based upon No 1 Daughter (Harriet).
The Harmin is an interesting measure of TIME, because although it does represent a measure of true chronological time, unlike other known quantities such as the minute, hour etc, the harmin is an interestingly random and chaotic measure.
In years to come, when and if we ever know everything we can know about the Laws of the Universe, and the disparity between quantum mechanics, electromagnetism and gravity is rationalised into one all encompassing law, The Theory of Everything, there will and always will remain the undefiniable measure of the harmin.

Usually, the harmin is not referred to directly.
Indeed, it is often referenced incorrectly using the standard measure of relative time, the minute.

As in, "I'll be down in a couple of minutes."
OR,
"How long will you be in that bathroom?"
"I'll be out in a minute!"

Indeed, the Harmin may even be a very short period as opposed to always a long period.
This unlike the standard computer minute which is invariably about an hour in duration.

"I'll be down in 5 minutes, I am just waiting for this £!^&%^g program to finish updating! .........................."

Last night being a fine example, I arranged to cycle over to Reach to meet my daughter on her bike.
Having sent her a message to say I was just leaving and received a reply to say that she would be leaving in 5 harmins, I actually met her in Reach, having cycled the 20 minutes it takes to get there. She had just left. Thus on this occassion 5 harmins = 17 normal minutes.

I have plotted a chart below with assorted measures of minutes against the equivalent harmins.

Oh well.
Holiday almost over.
Back to reality!

Talking of Reality, the Fens were a bit moody today.

Oh yes, Well done England, about time thay changed the Centre and put Tualagi in.
Best centre pairing since Greenwood.

Anyway, I'll be back in a few harmin's when I have something worth writing about!

TGOC 2011 Day 14

2011-07-13T14:57:00.002+01:00

North Water Bridge - St Cyrus

Distance 13.6 Km Ascent 208 m

Dave survives and Roger retires

We rose to another pleasant morning.

Although we had a lot of time, it was nice to get away reasonably early, although a lot of people had gone by the time we left.

We had a chat with the owner.
He apologised for the showers, but we said it was fine, and there should be no repercussions, and we set of along the road.
I had planned to go to Johnshaven, but you know how it is, somehow, St Cyrus beckoned.
So we set off via the Hill of Morphie.
Dave's surges from the previous day appeared to be over or so we thought.?

After a gentle start, it soon appeared that Dave was in pain.
Actually just after the first left turn near Pert.
Al and I were shambling along at a very sedentary pace when we realised that Dave was not there. We waited for him to hobble up.

Then Dave and I walked for a bit.

Ian C caught us up just near here, and was soon heading into the distance on his self destructing shoes. Ian seriously motors on roads. I mistakenly in 2010 tried to keep up with him on the way to North water Bridge, just after electrocuting myself on the electric fence at the end of the track at Chapleton, and he destroyed me.

But it appears Dave could not take this, and Dave not being competitive remember headed off in hot pursuit of Mr Cotterill.
We should have warned him, but he would not have listened.

I carried on, and caught up with Al.
It was road, so we were again walking in softly softly foot mode.
We needed to turn right at the railway bridge to go towards Marymill.

We had no idea where Dave had gone, he was riding on the crest of agony in his feet,
and the competitive need to track down and beat Ian, or something like that.
We thought he might have gone straight on towards Montrose, possibly in a hallucinogenic state brought on by blister induced endorphin or maybe adrenaline overload.
However, as we got to the bridge, Dave had stopped just round the corner.

Ian was long gone!

So we headed over the bridge and off to the hill of Morphie.
That nasty little sting in the tail of the road walk to the Coast.

I walked with Dave for quite a while after this.
Al in the meantime had long abandoned his schoolboy chum and was gone.

As we headed up the track at Morphie I left Dave and headed off to try and catch Al, so we could go to St Cyrus together.

It was not to quite happen like that, but I just needed to get over that hill.

It is a long way over the hill.

One of the really noticeable things this year was the Rape fields, or rather lack of them.
Normally the fields are bright yellow on the east, but this time because of the earlier good weather (not I hasten on the Challenge), they were very patchy.
The field below is the view from the top of the Hill the first time I went over this way.
This year there was hardly any yellow at all.

View from Hill of Morphie 2007

We stopped at the top to wait for Dave, and then headed off across the road and the final run down to St Cyrus.
Al had gone off again, and I was doing a bit of shoe adjusting and Music selection.
I was feeling good, and in no time flat had Al in my sites.
Dave did not have to go to the beach, having only been here for a few days, (painful days admittedly).

And then we had arrived.

We left Dave at the top and headed down to the beach.

Now, I have to say that I fely very very guilty at this point.
On the way from the Hill of Morphie, I had motivated Dave with talk of excellent Coffee shops and cakes and a delightful rest.
So when we got there to discover that the Coffee Shop had closed down, it was not a good thing.

Dave wandered off to find anything, or maybe just console himself, and Al and I headed off on the long walk down to the beach.

To take the pack down or not is always a subjective decision, but we were both of the pack must go down school which is what we did.

And it is a long way down.

At the bottom we walked to the sea for photo's.
In the past I have done the full immersion thing, but this time I was just going for moist sand.
I took a picture of Al first, and then he took one of me.

The hair is still $&1t

Mates! How far had we walked together?
So he waited and waited to take the photo.
He waited until a wave came in and washed over my shoes and feet!

Cheers!

I then drew the customary finish circle which Al and I signed.

Waves on the Beach

Time to head back up, collect Dave and get the bus into Montrose.

We set off up the path to the little seat half way up.

We still had quite a while until the bus, and I needed a pee, so we sat down.
Now I do not mean I sat down for a Pee. I mean we sat down after I had had a pee, nowhere near the seat. Anything else would have been vandalism and a bit uncouth.

Al found some fine Ginger cake he had bought the day before, and I spirited a cunningly hidden can of Lager from my rucksack that I had carried from Edzell.

So cunning, that it would have fooled a Fox who had taken an O.U. course in cunning.

It's the little things you know!
I shared this with Al, despite the fact he deliberately waited for the wave to soak my feet!

We didn't tell Dave about the beer! It would have been unkind.

Refreshed, and with a bus to catch, we set off to the top, collected Dave, and waited briefly for the bus to Montrose, which strangely when it arrived was full of a lot of scruffy looking individuals with great big rucksacks.

In next to no time we were in Montrose.

I grabbed some cash from the machine on the way, and then headed down to the Park Hotel.

The old and the New guard at the Park (Roger and John)

I collected T Shirt etc, and then after a cup of tea or three, headed down to the bar.

Shortly after this, Dave headed off home.
His car was parked in Montrose, in fact at the Park, and he had a long way to go, so we said farewell.

Only time will tell if Dave comes back for a full Challenge
Time and forgetting the pain!

Al and I had to find Humphrey, so that I could hand over the Strathcarron collection, and signed card that had travelled across with me, and they could sort out all the other details.

I won't go into these here because Al has it all documented far better on his blog and 2011 write up.
But a goodly sum was collected and more importantly, a lot of signatures.

Eventually it was time to head off to my B&B.
This was a bit of a trek out of town.
I had stayed there last year, and it was an excellent B&B.

When I arrived it was time for a long shower.
I got my stuff set out in my room, and also hung Wendy up for an airing in the garden.
It was pretty windy, and she needed to be tied down well for fear of ending up in Montrose Harbour.
She was pretty wet, on the grounds that there was quite a lot of rain last night, and she had not had a chance to dry out. In fact she came out like Tent Soup.

Showered and clean, in fresh clothes, and with Wendy all nice and dry and packed, I headed back into the Park Hotel at about 6.00 to the meal, and a bit of socialising.

On arrival, Al said, get your coat in there on a seat, which I duly did, and then after a chat with a few folk, it was time to go into the meal. An important meal, it being Roger's farewell.

So bottle of wine purchased it was time.

A pleasant evening spent, many speeches and all round congratulations.

Apart from the splendid presentation to Roger, there were of course all the new Legends, and the paintings.

Heather, Ron and Phil

Rogers Speech

Denis's brilliant picture

And then it was suddenly rather late, and time for a long walk back to my B&B.

I watched TV for a while, not being able to get to sleep and then it was over!

One Day you are a million miles away and it seems like forever, and then it is all over.

Some say that it was the worst ever weather, and a hard Challenge.
But really it was just a Challenge with a bit of weather.

It had been another excellent adventure.

Once upon a time many years ago I had said never again.
But I was already thinking of my next start point!

Many Thanks Roger!

And, Many Thanks everyone I met who yet again made this such a fabulous fortnight!

See you again soon I hope!

TGOC 2011 Day 13

2011-07-13T12:36:00.001+01:00

Tarfside - North Water Bridge

Distance 26.7 Km Ascent 186 m

In which Dave runs off and we walk the Waters of Solitude

For completeness, I have put in all the maps, but the first bit of today is just road.
As it happens, rather a lot of road. An awful lot of road.

Got up quite early, the weather being good, and you already know how I feel about packing tents in the rain.
Then went over to St Drostans with full kit for breakfast, and to say goodbye and thank you.
There were quite a few in, and several cups of tea later, plus a can of beer that Al was donated from Denis, we set off.

I do not know where Denis acquires beer and lager from.
His pack seems to have a Midas capability. Indeed Denis was decanting another bottle of whiskey into half a dozen smaller bottles. I do not know if that was the days ration, and it seemed rude to ask, Denis being a Legend and all that.

I have done many routes from Tarfside in the past.
Indeed the only two I still want to do from there, is Stonehaven, and Clash of Wirren down to Brechin. But that is for another year.

This year Al suggested road to the Rocks of Solitude.

Not having done this, and having seen Phil wax lyrical about it, and even though I really hate road walking, I agreed, and off we went.
I will not discuss the road walking, or give pictures because to be honest it is dull.
But it is quick!

By just before Milden Cottage, Dave was in serious foot trouble.
He had been well bandaged that day, but was in rather a lot of pain.
Having no medical kit at all (he was on a bit of a Challenge learning curve), we stopped and I gave him assorted pain killers. These would not cut in for a while, but you would not have thought that from the pace that Dave took off.
One minute he was with us, the next he was gone.

Al and I have learnt over the years, that roads need to be done at an even pace, and softly on the feet, so we resumed our gentle stroll down the road.

At one point we stopped briefly to watch the Sand Martins in a large sandbank by the side of the road.
I cannot remember where this is, but Al I am sure will be along in a minute to fill in the gap.

By Auchmull, Dave was long gone.

A few sweets later, we were almost at the start of the Walk by The Rocks of Solitude.
And not a moment too soon, because I was now Losing the Will to Live after all the road walking.

Now whether the walk by the Rocks Of Solitude is worth all that road, is a very subjective, but it is a very pretty walk, and definitely worth doing.
If I did it again, I would go down the river on the other side and then come back across, because I am not a road fan, but anyway, here are a few of the pictures of that bit, the rest can be seen on the web album.

Al by the seats part way along, with Denis's Lager gift

By the time we got to the seat, it was time for a sit down.
At this point, there was a light shower, but with all the cover, we could not feel it, just see the rain through the trees.

It is a very pretty meandering walk along the river, and over small bridges.
Towards the end, the main path moves away from the river briefly.
Here you could see the devastation caused by the wind on some of the trees.
It brings into perspective just how strong that wind was.

Looking back along the river just before the blue door exit and the road

Once you get to the road, it is a quick cross to the other side of the bridge, and then the river path carries on along the other bank, all the way to Edzell, coming into Edzell past the bridge across the river. A really nice way in.

There was quite a bit of evidence of storm damage on this side too, and on several occassions we had to step over or round fallen trees and branches.
Definitely a great little route.

On arriving in Edzell, we went to the cafe for a cup of coffee.
We met Dave just as we were arriving. He had hobbled his way in at jogging pace, and was just off to the campsite. We said we would see him later.

There isn't really much in Edzell, but the people here are really friendly.

So, after a goodly rest, and sustenance, we popped over to the shop to get some cakes.
Well I got a pasty thingy and Al bought heaps of stuff I seem to remember.
Only problem was, we couldn't get any beer there, and there is none at the Campsite.
Eventually we discovered that they sell it at the shop just down from the Post Office, and so on our way out, we headed there to buy some bargain price Ale.

After this, we headed back to go over the bridge.
This was actually closed for maintenance work, but it being a bloody long way round unless you go over the bridge, and since there were no workmen on it now, it was the way to go, and it would appear that everyone in Edzell just ignored the notice as well.
Also, earlier, there had been workmen working on it, so how dangerous could it be?
We still went across one at a time, and did not bounce up and down on it.
Normally this is possible, because it is one of those really springy suspension bridges.

The bridge, taken last year

Having sprung across the bridge was wandered through the farm, and then headed up the road to the campsite. This is a very very long road, and although conversation is sometimes nice, this was time to plug the ears in and head off at boogie speed.

So, out with the Music Player, and off we went. Al was ahead, because I was faffing around finding the right track. Eventually I decided on Clapton & Windwood doing a Live version of Voodoo Chile.
Well, it would do for starters, and it does have road boogie all over it.

And thus it came to pass that the road was done.
There were some people coming along one of the tracks to the right as I danced past skipping and stuff. On the grounds that one of them was walking with a decided limp, I apologise for dancing past.

We caught up with Dave and Maggie who were just turning left near Northgate to pick up the back road/track to the campsite. It is about the same distance but no traffic.

Al and I were on a roll now, and anyway I was oblivious and boogieng, so we stuck on the road.
And then we were at the campsite.

In no time flat, we had booked in, and tents were almost up by the time that Dave and Maggie arrived. This was just as well, because shortly after that it started to rain again. Which it did for quite a while. This was not really a surprise, there had not been one day without rain.

At this point, I would normally put some photo's in, but alas I did not take any.
I know not why.
If anyone who reads this has any photo's of the goings on, then please send them to me via the blog, or message board.

Since it was raining, I decided that I might as well have a shower.
This turned out to be a good move as it happens, because soon after, there was a big problem with the heater and the timer on it, and the hot water for showers ran out.

There were a few disgruntled people, and even discussion of formal complaints, which hopefully never happened.
This is a great little campsite, and has done us proud for years, when many campsites no longer accept small tents. It would be a calamity of huge proportions if North Water Bridge campsite was not available.

After shower I spent a while in the room at the campsite.
I charged my phone, and then had a game of Pool with Al, or maybe Dave.

I say a game, we did draw an audience, but this was mainly because of the appalling quality of our play. What was a game of Pool, descended into a comedy duo.

After us a few more played, and then Dave came in to have a game with the reigning Champion.

Now Dave is not competitive (YES HE IS!), and eventually after lulling his opponent into a sense of false security, cleaned up.
Well that's what he said anyway, because by then I had finished my diary writing, and headed off back to the tent to cook some food.

Then amidst rain showers and other things, there was a small birthday party and cake cutting ceremony, followed by a shared bottle of Whiskey, and it was time for bed.

Tomorrow was going to be the Coast and the End of the Challenge.

TGOC 2011 Day 12

2011-07-12T21:20:00.003+01:00

Gelder Shiel - Tarfside

Distance 32 Km Ascent 869 m

In which 3 go for a walk, and Dave discovers why he needs better shoes

As you can tell, I have survived the hernia operation! Don't get one, they are fine, but the post operation hurts like a B!£c&

It was time for an early start today.

So Al and Dave and I were up, packed and away by 7.30.
We wanted to be gone before Tony cooked his breakfast!

So along with Hein we headed off to Spittal of Glen Muick.
It is a bit of a way, but the weather was good.
What a change 12 hours can make.
There was a goodly dump of snow on the top.

There is a track from the bothy, but it is easier just to yomp up and over the heather to pick up the higher LRT.

Lochnagar from near Gelder Shiel

It is a good track over to the Spittal of Glen Muick, although very gusty winds higher up.
If we had been doing a shorter day, in better conditions, I would have considered taking the track up to Lochnagar. But today was not the day for such an adventure.

By the top of the track, we were making good time.

Dave was not yet in full yomping mode, and so sometimes he had rushed on ahead, and others he was walking with us, and others behind.
Actually, it is good walking with Dave when he is not at top speed, because we can talk about heaps of stuff.

As we arrived at the bottom, we got to where the track crosses the Alt na Guibhsaich.
Today with a bit of care, this was quite crossable, although poles helped, and I lent mine to Dave. I can only imagine what it must have been like yesterday.
Un-crossable possibly.

Soon we had dropped down through the wood, and past the buildings to Cross over the flat plane to the Spittal of Glen Muick.

Rhododendron bushes just before crossing to Glen Muick

Al had gone off at speed.
This may have been the lure of the toilets in the car park, or it may just have been that Dave and I were chatting away.
As we got half way across, Dave realised that he had dropped his gloves.
We could see them lying on the track.
So I took some photo's, walked very slowly while Dave received his gloves at some speed.
It was very windy crossing, and as we went across, there was a brief shower.

Looking back to the Rainbow as we crossed to the Spittal

The river half way across, from the bridge

By the time Dave and I got to the information hut (the refuge for at least 12, the previous night), Al had headed to the car park.
So Dave and I dropped our packs, and also headed to the car park, where the temporary toilets are sited.

I will admit now, that I used one of the ladies toilets.

I did go into one of the men's, but this was not a pleasant place, and far be it from me to even try and describe it. No sir, that image you do not want. Ever!

The weather was still good, but very very blowy, and it was now time to head up the path and over to the Sheilin of Mark.
This is a very nice little track up by the river, crossing about half way along on a small bridge. One of Al's favourite types of bridges, narrow, and with no rails.

And today it was windy. Very windy, and interesting.

You had to wait for a lull in the wind to get across quickly.

I wondered why Al was standing there, as I was coming up.

Al had gone on ahead, but Dave had taken a tumble, and so we were a bit slower.
Fortunately, he did not hurt his ankle or knee, when he fell.
He did almost lose his rucksack cover, but we persuaded him to take it off at the bridge.

Dave gets water at the bridge

The river just past the bridge

View from just past the bridge showing the river

Visibility was great, and we were soon heading over the top to the bothy.
I think the bearing is approx 105° from the end of the river.

Despite the weather, it was actually dry, and nice walking.
Al was off on a mission again, and Dave although he did not say anything until much later in the day, was struggling with blisters.

View from the top on the way over to the Sheilin, looking back to Lochnagar

Al and Dave heading over to the Shelin of Mark bothy

At the bothy, I removed my thermal top and allowed it to dry in the breeze.
Then we collected some water, and made some soup for lunch.
Although the weather was good, it was still very windy, and the bothy gave a nice shelter.
Just after we got the soup on the go, Ian arrived.

I seem to remember something about English Whiskey as well.

ItIt is a nice bothy, although quite small. Dave is applying another layer of socks.
Maybe not the best socks, being cotton.

We set off fortified to go over Muckle Cairn.
On a good day, this is not a bad route.
The ground underfoot was still surprisingly dry, and the river crossing easy.

Looking back from the top of Muckle Cairn

Just over the top, we had a brief pause and a sit down, before descending to Glen Lee.
This was mainly so that I could have a shoe and gaiter faf.
Well, a shoe Faf and take off my gaiters.

At the stables of Lee, we met some other Challengers.
We could also see another Challenger in the distance who turned out to be Maggie.

Me Al and Maggie in Glen Lee

We set off towards Loch Lee, in intermittently blustery conditions.
Ian would overtake us, then take some photo's, then overtake us .......

There were waves on the Loch, and it was a fine view
Al and I were really cracking along at a goodly pace. Indeed I had fallen out of Al's slipstream, and was now being buffeted by the wind.

Meantime, Dave had fallen off the pace, and was struggling with sore feet.
These were blisters that were on the increase.
Later at Tarfside we would discover that he was developing some fine Blisters

Along Loch Lee

Waves on the shore at Loch Lee

Just at the end of the Loch, we hankered down behind the wall at the end of the Loch to get some shelter from the wind. Dave caught us up, and admitted to foot issues.
Just as we were about to do the final run into Tarfside, Maggie caught us up.

So together we set of along the short bit of road before cutting up by Westbank.
Al and I were chatting, and Dave was walking with Maggie.

The Keep at Kirkton.
Al stopped for a Pee just round the corner, by the sign that says danger falling masonary.

It was time to carry on. Dave and Maggie were almost with us, but we headed off again discussing earlier crossings, and Al reminiscing and stuff, and anything to take the mind off the aching feet, as the Tarfside Ladies, (and I include Pieman in that group) beckoned.

It is a nice little stroll over via Westbank. I have promised that one day I will go up to the monument. One Day!

Just as we dropped off the track into Tarfside, we met a nice man in a pinny, or not as the case actually was. This was the bearded Lady of Tarfside, known as the Pieman, alias Mike Knipe.

We were also rather looking forward to a can of Tarfside Ale, and a bacon butty.
On the way down, Al and I had deliberated on tent first, or St Drostans, but eventually came down on St Drostans, on the grounds that this involved, Tea, Biscuits, Beer, Bacon Butties, and booking the evening meal early. As well as a reunion with all those wonderful Tarfside Ladies.

So imagine the shock and horror on our faces when Mike told us that there was no power there.

Now had we been talking to any other man, we would have believed this immediately.
But this was the Pieman, so of course we just assumed this was a windup.

Mike insisted it wasn't, and then to our utter horror, showed us the tree branch lying through the power lines.

Bugger!

But we went in anyway, and of course even though they only had a single twin camping gas stove, they were still managing to churn out the bacon, and tea and coffee.
And there was the beer as well, and the company.

So it was all ok (well, apart from the evening meals), and normality was resumed (almost)

When we got to Tarfside, there were quite a few tents in already.
So we got our tents up quickly lest it rained.

Wendy and Wanda on the green in Tarfside

There was quite a lot of interest in Wendy & Wanda at Tarfside.
It is not often in the UK that you see one Stephenson Warmlite, let alone two side by side.

So we got our tents up and so did Dave.
It was at this point that Dave's feet needed some attention.
I went to have a look at his blisters with my blister packs.
Dave's blisters were to say the least, impressive.
Unfortunately, Dave had left his feet without care and attention for too long.
This was compounded by cotton socks, shoes that were just not fully up to the job, and water ingress during Monday.
Result, wet feet, then blisters, then bigger blisters, then more blisters.
I suggested new skin, or decent size padding and also draining the blisters.
I was going to have a go at the sorting them out, but in the end I left it to Dave.
They were after all his feet, and he is a big boy.
I do not think he drained them, but to drain or not to drain is an individual decision.
Eventually, Nurse Maggie came to Dave's rescue, and administered chiropody and tlc.

I cannot remember how the script went, and although completely innocent, it sounded like part of a Carry On movie.

It was a tad windy outside and since there was no food at St Drostans, it was either cook your own, or get some food sent up from The Retreat.
Some waited for the Retreat delivery, I decided I would cook some food up, and as I had not allowed for an extra nights food, Al gave me a bag of his fine own dehydrated food.
So fully sustained, it was time to head over to the Mason's for one or pints of something or other.

We tried to lure Dave out of his tent, but he had temporarily plummeted into
Blister Depression.
So we popped into the Masons, and managed to grab the last few cans of Guinness.
While Al was acquiring these, I got a can of Mckewans, and headed off to try and lure Dave out of his hermit like state.

It is amazing, the therapeutic power of the Golden Ale, and within another 15 minutes Dave appeared. Result!

Al, Ian, Jim and Dave in the Masons

No idea

It was another fine night at the Masons, and we all went back to our tents relaxed and watered.

Only two days to go, the adventure was almost over now for another year.

We just had to get Dave's feet to the coast!

INTERMISSION 2 - A STITCH IN TIME

2011-07-10T14:30:00.003+01:00

WITH A LITTLE BIT OF LUCK - Sun 10th Jul 2011

There will be a brief pause in the saga.
There are 2 reasons for this.

Well, just the one really.

I have an appointment tomorrow with a man with a knife, and a telescope thing, who is going to repair the Inguinal (bloody inconsiderate actually) hernia in my right groin area.

I will of course be unconscious for this (well, I hope I will).

Interestingly though, all this week, the pain has been the other side.
No problems with the right side at all

And so, I will resume the Challenge accounts last 3 days later this week.
If all goes to plan!

If not, then you'll never know.

Reason 2 now I remember it is that Phil doesn't like Challenge reports in reverse order, so I have to reorder them into one big Report that I will post elsewhere shortly (or not) for the Chronologically Challenged

See you soon.. I hope !

TGOC 2011 Day 11

2011-07-08T15:58:00.028+01:00

Callater Lodge - Gelder Shiel (The Long Way)

Distance 23.5 Km Ascent 328 m - (Tell me Why I don't like Mondays)

There are not a lot of photos today. (Well, there are a few)
The weather was a little damp, it was not the sort of weather you took your camera out in.

This is our corrected route (Al's comment) via Connchat Cottages.
The one that was here I think I used in 2005.
It was all a bit head down

It had been a wet and windy night, but we were inside so we didn't notice.

We rose quite early, since there was a long way to go.
Got kit sorted and went down for a nice bacon butty breakfast and cups of tea.
The kitchen was quite full, as were some of the other rooms.
It was NOT nice outside, but you had to stick your head outside to appreciate how NOT NICE that was, and for full immersion as to NOT NICE, you needed to take your whole body outside.

This is a necessary evil in order to have a pee, let alone anything else.
I decided that a pee was enough, and anything else would need to wait a bit.
We'll come back to that.

After a fine breakfast and saying goodbye and thanks to Bill and everyone else at the lodge,
it was necessary to decide on a route.

There are several options from here, and most of them were a definite NO.

Even the normal FWA was a NO, as indeed was the FWA of the FWA, although some did do that one, and whatever they say about it being alright, I reckon it was hard, and that is hard without the extra tea we had.

We decided on a long march back to Braemar.
This was further than any up and over variation, but with predicted winds gusting up to 130 mph on the tops, safety seemed best. Add to that that it was intermittently chucking it down, the road route, as horrid as it was, looked like the best option, so that is what we eventually did.

Back to the main road and then the long trek back up to Braemar.

It was wet at the start, it got wetter on the way.
Just at the end of the track, I caught up with John.
Then Al and Phil arrived, Dave having gone on one of his high speed missions.

These will be discussed in more detail tomorrow.

At the road, after pondering options, Phil said farewell, and headed off for rather a lot more road. He was heading eventually much further south to Glen Prosen.

We turned right up the road, and hoped to avoid the traffic thundering along in poor visibility.

By the time I got half way along the road, I realised that I definitely needed new waterproofs, or I needed to do something to these ones.

There is a hut half way along, and by here I needed to lose some excess tea intake.
It takes a while in the wind and rain just to get ready.
By the time I had finished I was even wetter, and I didn't pee myself, I checked which way the wind was blowing. I can say this, I was sure glad I wasn't a lady.

So, now I had to catch up, and this took me half the distance again.
These were not nice walking conditions, but eventually we got back to Braemar.
And now, it was time to use a public lavatory.

There were necessary operations that cannot be done by the side of the A93.
Also, it was warm in the toilets, and there was a hand dryer (which was nice).

We were just a short hop from the Fife coffee shop, and it seemed silly not to go in, especially as we were all pretty wet (very wet).

Interestingly also, no one objected to this idea.

Just as we were going in, there was a chap who looked like he must be on the Challenge walking up. I waved hello, and as we were dropping our packs in the porch area to go in, he started talking to us, and telling us all about the Challenge, just in case we did not know.
His audience being Al, John and Me, plus Dave.
We nodded and went in.

We had met TONY!

Tony will feature again shortly, and later on as well.
I am not going to have dig at Tony, nor say anything nasty, because he is a very nice chap, and also a very well meaning chap, but as we shall see, he does have his quirky side.

As we had coffee, a few more bedraggled Challengers arrived.
In a brief conversation Tony (remember Tony) mentioned that 33 people had had to drop out.
We knew this, but it was ok information.

He followed this up with "that's got rid of the wimps"

Now, bearing in mind, that anyone who does the Challenge is NOT a wimp, and that dropping out is worse than doing it. I know, I have had a couple of DNF's, 2004 springs to mind when I broke my leg on day 3 (wimp).

So I was not going to take this lying down.
I pointed out to him, that for one, no one likes to withdraw for any reason.
It is usually injury, and no fun.
Also that 3 of those were Vetters, and another one was Bill Roberts,
and that between just those four, there were something like 100 crossings.

So, Tony withdrew this remark.

We all said cheerio, after warming ourselves by the fire, and headed off up the road to Invercauld Bridge.

The rain had stopped (briefly), for a moment the sun had popped his hat on, and all was well with the world.

The walk up the road was fine, and at one point I considered removing the old Paramo Jacket (that had remarkably dried - it's wonderful stuff isn't it?)
But it stayed on, and just before the bridge we cut off the road, onto the track and the long walk up to bothy.
Oh what little we knew.

The river here was on the foamy side. Normally it is quite docile, it was an indicator of the rest of the streams we would encounter

Just past the main bridge, we caught up with Richard.

Richard

A fine man is Richard, and as we shall see, a life saver.
He's very into lightweight kit and gear as well.
Only problem is, he carries it all with him, which could explain his pack being up near the 40lb mark.
That and the number of Turmat meals he had. I cannot remember if it was 7, 8 or 9.
This was probably too many considering that there were only 4 days left.
His feet were playing him up as well, which in not surprising with a that pack weight.

So we walked a while and chatted.

The sun was still out, so we decided to stop for a drink and a spot of lunch, while the going was good. Richard went on ahead

John, Al and Dave

We did not stop for long, because there was still a way to go, and the forecast was not great.
Sadly, I have no more pictures after this, because shortly it would become a tad too damp to get out the camera, but I might borrow one or two off another Web Album (Ian).

A short way up the track from here, we bumped into Ian C, Tom, Bill, Seth, JJ, and a few others who had not taken the road route, but had just dropped down through the forest having possibly come over from Callater via an Sluggan and Glen beg Burn (this was an option we considered), although on looking at Ian's Photo's and after Al's comment, I think it must have been via An Saigert Mhor and then down the Burn.

We stopped briefly for a chat and then carried on.

I cannot remember the exact route that we took through the forest.
I came this way back in 2005, but then the weather was absolutely brilliant,
and I had done Inverey YHA to Glen Lee in a day.

Down in the trees, it was quite sheltered, and although wet, reasonably easy going.
But as we got out from the shelter of the trees, the wind and rain hit us like a train.
You had to lean into the wind to stop being moved sideways.

I have no idea what it was like on the tops, and I have no desire to find out.

At one point as we looked forward, we saw enormous branches flying out of the woods horizontally.
These were not little branches, these were 4 to 6 inch branches that had been ripped off by the wind and blown away.

The little streams by the side of the paths had all become a rolling maelstrom of foam.
The tiny ditches just off the track, had become streams.
As you walked along, the rain stung as it lashed into our faces.
It was fortunate that most of the time it was sideways.
Even then we were looking through a small hole on the front of the hood.
My waterproof trousers were not cutting it here, but there was nothing that you could do but push on.

As we neared Gelder Shiel, there is a small hut just on the corner.
I did not get a picture of this, but I borrowed this from Ian Cotterill's pictures.
I hope he doesn't mind, but I had no pictures of the hut, or the foaming burn.
Ian and a few others would be arriving at the bothy a bit later. WET!

Jim JJ, Tom, Seth, Bill and others at ANOTHER hut.
Al has pointed out that this was not our hut, but it is similar, as are the dreadful weather conditions.
You could sleep in that hut!

Feindallacher Burn courtesy also Ian Cotteril

If it was moving fast here, you should have seen it at the bothy.

After a brief stop at the hut, we had to brave it to the bothy.
It was ok (bloody wet and horrible) until we turned to head up to the bothy.
Then it was in your face.

You had to lean into it to make progress.
There was no opportunity to talk, you just walked.

Within 100 meters, I had decided that the bothy would be the stopping point for me that day.
By 200m I think we had all individually made the same decision.

And so a very wet while later, we arrived at the bothy.

There was ONLY 1 person there, and that was Hein.
This was fantastic, because we now knew that we would be able to

a. Stay
b. Have a bunk

We unpacked our kit quickly and got as much stuff sorted out as we could.
We knew that there were going to be quite a few more arriving (it was surprising how much later they arrived), and we wanted to clear as big a space for them to use.

Also we wanted to keep it as dry as possible inside, because everyone after the first 8 would need to sleep on the floor.

I went out to get some water.
I did this from the burn, trying not to slip in and get dragged downstream.
I fear that anyone falling into it that day would probably not have survived.

It was a big pity that at that point, I had not spotted the tap behind the bothy, by the toilet.
That would have saved me some hairy moments.
But, I did get the water, all was ok, and back inside we decided a brew was in order.

Shortly after this, Richard arrived with his bag of everything, and also 2 more people, whose names I did know, but I apologise for not remembering who they are.

So, by this point, there were 8 of us already in the bothy.
The weather was getting worse, and still no sign of Ian and co.

We thought that they may have changed plans, and headed over to Ballater with JJ, but eventually wet & weary, they arrived.

It was just as well, we left the big space, bacause everyone managed to get in and dry and sorted out with some room for their kit.
We set up some extra washing lines for hanging dry stuff.
Found some wood under a bunk to block the gap under the door, were water was driving in, and everything was looking good, with stoves producing both food and heat.

In fact, the only thing that would have been nice in the bothy was fire.
Not that there would have been any dry wood anyway.
As it happens, we nearly did have a fire, but I'll come to that in good time.

Ian, Jim, Richard and Al. That might be a bit of Bill

Tom (he's young) and Me, and is that Alcohol in that Lucozade bottle? Al and Dave are lying in their bunks.
I think this picture was taken by Ian, it is not one of mine, but whoever it was can you make me look better next time! I know what you'll say Cotterill!

With I think 13 or 14 were in by now, and it was pretty cosy.
Everyone was warm, had a space, had been fed, and the wine and whiskey (mainly whiskey) was flowing.

It was getting near to something like 8.00 when the door burst open, the elements flew in, and Tony arrived, in flurry of wind and rain.

He said he was going back outside in a minute to put his tent up.
He was just going to stay long enough to make everything wet.

I am not sure where he was thinking of putting his tent.
You couldn't stand out there easily, let alone put up a tent.
We told him to forget it and stay inside, but he was quite insistent and off he went.

Time passed, and after a while, Tony arrived back at the door, with arms full of bits of everything he possessed, soaked and with surprisingly, no tent up, with an almight crash as stuff dropped on the floor just outside.

"It's ok", says Tony, "It's just the PETROL for my stove"

Click the Clip Right Now! (It's for effect you see)

Anyway, in he came flailing water and equipment everywhere.

This is the Challenge, and it was hell out there, so we did our best to find a spot for him, and get his gear into the bothy without everyone becoming cold and wet, which we did.

I think Richard made him a brew, and we left a space on the table for him to get his cooking stuff out.

By now, most of us had gone to our bunks because it was getting late, and tomorrow was going to be a long day, and also with NO FIRE, it was getting a bit cold.

So Tony, started to cook his food.

First step was to get his ageing Petrol based stove out, get some fuel in it, and then pump up the pressure.

Which he did.

A pity therefore, that he had not noticed that with each pump, that very same petrol was pumping back out all over the table and the fumes were filling the bothy.

Never one to give up, Tony carried on, after first attempting to fix the stove (with the missing valve), and wearing his wonky glasses, I think that they were broken too in an earlier accident, I cannot be sure, and then giving it another go. With the same result.
By now, everyone was awake.

About awake as anyone can get in the face of an imminent explosion and instantaneous death by conflagration.

Tony was offered another stove to borrow, but undeterred, he got out his lighter, ready to ignite his stove I say light, but in reality detonate.

The Stove, the table, everyone in the immediate facility, Gelder Shiel Bothy and possibly half the Balmoral Estate, starting with the petrol lake that was the table.

Now, Down & Hollow Fibre Jackets, and in particular Nylon covered sleeping bags ,are not the best defence against a fireball that is about to engulf you, so there were a few nervous people sitting up in their bunks at this point.
I say nervous, but more terrified.
There were a few laughs, as you do in that moment of terror just before death.
It was an interesting scenario.

Have you seen the end sequences of Carrie.

Well, it is at this point, that we must all bow down and pay homage to the deity that is Richard.

Richard being a nice chap was doing his best to look after Tony, and as it happens all of us, because Richard stopped the spark, mopped up the petrol and saved our lives,
and to Richard we all say
a HUGE THANK YOU.

Ok, I may have gilded the Lily on that story a bit, but trust me, you had to be there,
or more likely, you didn't.

Anyway, we were all saved.
The petrol was mopped up.
The door opened for a while to let out the fumes,
and then Tony's food was cooked on a stove that was not a threat to Western Civilisation.

Eventually we all got to sleep, mostly with one eye open, just in case.

I was hoping for better weather tomorrow.
It would not have been hard to be better though.

As Vinny Jones said - "It's been emotional"

TGOC 2011 Day 10

2011-07-06T23:23:00.001+01:00

Braemar - Callater Lodge

Distance 10.2 Km 227 Ascent m - (Nice morning, shame about the weather)

The Green route is the route to Callater from Braemar.
The Purple route, is the route we had to take back on Monday.

Not a nice night.

It was not necessary to get up early today.
BUT...... it was necessary to pack the tent up in the dry.
So, it was necessary to get up reasonably early.

Mick and Gale were already packed up when I got out of the tent.
Had I mentioned Mick and Gail?
They had been in Strathcarron, and I had not seen them again until yesterday.

They had also changed there plans, and were moving on quicker than their original route because of the weather front predicted for Monday.
A lot of people changed their plans because of this.
Actually a lot who had planned to go to Callater today, planned to move on faster.

But Al and I had promised ourselves that we would be going there tonight to stay.
We owed it to Bill, and we owed it to the memory of Stan, and we owed it to Jeanette and the rest of Stan's family, and come HELL or HIGH water,
(as it happens both would visit us tomorrow), we were going to be at Callater Lodge tonight, even if we died trying.

And it was that important!

Back to the story.
It is a story.
Remember, I never went on the Challenge.
I spent the fortnight in a Pole Dancing club near Euston.
It says so on Al's blog!

I digress.....

I spent quite a lot of time after packing the tent in the warmth of the toilet block, laundr7y area and drying room. It was quite cosy there. I also spent a while in the information centre.
There is a vicious rumour that that was John's H's bedroom,
but you didn't hear it from me. RIGHT!

I also couldn't leave yet, because Al was not up when I had finished packing the tent (sweet).
And, I needed to get my phone charged.

Eventually however, we had to leave, and we made our way into Braemar.
That will be Me, Al and Dave.
There were places that needed to be visited for breakfast.
AND, I had to go to the post office and get a card for the dog. Really!

I did not send a card to my family OK.
I did ring them though.
But I did send a card to my dog Jasper.
I got it from the Post Office.
They are really nice in the Post Office.

During the morning there was weather.
Lot's of other things happened, but I cannot remember them, and I did not write them down either.
We were killing time!

After lunch, whenever that was, we finally wandered down to Callater Lodge slowly by the back road, over the little bridge and then down the track.
This is much nicer that going down the main road.
On the way down we caught up with Judith.
She was popping into Callater, but not staying.

Al and Dave on the way to Callater, Judith just walking up.

The weather was good. Actually hot at the time.
Considering tomorrow, that was a surprise.
Actually, the weather was not that bad.
OK, it was not a great crossing weather wise, but it was not dreadful.
It was wetter in 2003.
It was just that this year we had a few extremes.

Judith

The river on the way to Callater. Even now it was quite full of water, but nowhere near as much as tomorrow.

It was a pleasant walk up.
Apart from the squall that arrived just before we got to the lodge.
Then it cleared, and most of the afternoon was fine. It was pretty cold in the wind, but the sun was out, and everywhere looked nice.

On arriving at the Lodge Bill was outside with Big Mick.
Luckily for Al Dave and Myself, we were early enough to bag some beds inside rather than the bothy, or needing to put up a tent.

Sometimes it is nice not to put up a tent.
Sometimes it is nice not to take one down.
Tomorrow morning was going to be one of those days.

Callater Lodge

Jim, Seth, Phil, Jeanette & Dave at Callater. I have NO idea who the hands belong to, they might be Ian's

I am not going to go through the afternoon and evenings events at Callater.

When we arrived, we had the normal brilliant hospitality.
Bacon rolls and sandwiches, tea, conversation, friendship.
Big Mick was making the Chilli.
As the day wore on we moved into the back room with the fire.
This is where Mick brought the Chilli to cook, on top of the wood burning stove.

In all honesty, I cannot put Callater into words.
It is an experience and a place that defies explanation.
Nothing you can write will really capture the warmth and friendship there.
It is a fitting memorial to Stan, and I was honoured to be lucky enough to be there this year in his memory, and in appreciation of Bill and everyone else that makes it what it is.

Mick (Croyden) and Pete (Morpeth) arrive

Before the evenings entertainment really started I managed to sneak out and get some pictures of the loch and also the start of the moving in weather front.
A big thanks to Ian C here, who gave me some advice on how to take photo's of the loch.
Heed photographic advice from this man, because he does know a thing or 10 about photography.

Dark clouds move over the hill behind Callater Lodge

Sunset behind the hills above Callater

View 1 of Loch Callater from near the Lodge

View from the Shore of Loch Callater
How beautiful is this place?

Is was getting cold as I finished and it was time to head back in for food, and a very very sociable evening.

A friend remembered

But never forgotten

Jim does his incredible rendition

Ian does his ode to Robbie Burns (I think)

Baggio does his thing

Mick sings a song for Stan

Seth fails the test of staying with the old school (that's a bit of cheese that yellow thing)

Many songs were sung that evening.
Many lines recited.
Friends remembered
And a few tears shed

It was not a sad night.
It was a celebration!

But eventually it was time for bed.
The whiskey had flowed, and I for one was getting just a bit tired.
I do not know exactly what time Dave and Bill and few hard men stuck it out to, but it was after 3.00am, I know that.

How sad would I have been if I had missed this?
I do not know, and I never will know, because I was there.

The next day was going to be hard, and it was going to be wet, but I would not have changed a thing.

Decisions were made, and they were the right ones.

Many thanks to Bill and Stan's family, Ross & Jeanette and everyone else at Callater for a wonderful evening!

Stan with John Donahue Courtesy Andy Howell

In memory of Stan!

TGOC 2011 Day 9

2011-07-05T23:27:00.006+01:00

Mar Lodge - Braemar

Distance 8 Km Ascent 175 m - (Nice morning, shame about the weather)

I woke to another nice day.

I had dropped off quickly the night before, but woken at about 3.00am and could not get back to sleep, so I read a book about Scottish Clans that was in the room.

Bit of a ruthless lot some of them I have to say.
In particular the Campbell's (Glencoe Massacre) and the McDonalds to name but two.
So I read up about them.

Not a lot of Scottish Loyalty between the clans, not a lot of love either.

I must have read until about 4.30 am and then finally managed to drift off again. Weird!

Finally got up at about 8.00 went down for a fine breakfast, although not quite as good as last year, and then got kit ready for the stroll into Braemar.

The forecast was for rain later, but it was looking good, and as I hate putting my tent up in the rain (have I mentioned that before), it was time to go.

Since there was no one about (I wasn't being antisocial honest), I walked in on my own.

As I strolled down the drive in mar Lodge, I was pondering on the need for something to perform at Callater.
You need to know about this, because Mick will get you otherwise.

So having a small harmonica in my pocket, I decided a bit of a blues ditty would do.

Not sure I can remember it all now, but I will try and do that in time for the Callater Blog.
Failing that I will put something in similar, and I will apologise for the swearing now.

As I approached the gate, with Harmonica blaring, and lyrics sung a bit too loud, I noticed that there was a chap walking along the bank of the river fishing.
I had not noticed him until that point.
He must have wondered what the hell was going on.

As I crossed the bridge I just nodded to him, and we carried on our way.
I waited until I was a bit of a way down the road before starting again.
I thought it best.

If you go up through the Woods, it is a lovely little walk into Braemar.
A lot further to the cut off into the woods than it seems, and easy to miss if you are not concentrating. Luckily I was concentrating.

There are two main tracks up into the woods. You can take either.
The higher path goes almost directly right to start with, and then curves round and up.
You have to be careful further up to then turn left, and not get dragged up too far into the woods. Tip here is look at the geography.
The lower track is straighter, but they join up with each other just past the small lochan.
One above and one below it.

Once the paths join they head east, and eventually come to the start of the Morrone Birkwood.
It looks when you get near here, that the path drops down, but it does not. You need to take the right fork, and a short distance further on you will get to the stile into the woods proper.

View from just over the stile. Stormy clouds forming. It looks like rain

As I got over the stile I saw a small (about 18" so not that small) animal scurry across the path.
It was hazel/ginger colour, (a bit like our old cat, but that is no help to you).
It was too fast to see, and although I managed to dig my camera out, by then it was long gone.
It could well have been a Pine Marten.
This is not the same one ==========>

But it was similar.

So, I carried on my walk.
It looked like it might rain later, but it was ok for now.
I was hoping I would be able to get the tent up in time.

This little pool was a bit further on.

Wood Anemone by the side of the track

The view from the trig point before the track down to Tomintoul.

I almost wandered straight past the trig point, not concentrating you see.
You can go straight on, but you will end up in the Golf Course a lot further down the road to Callater. Best to turn left at the trig point and follow the track down that eventually comes out on the road into Braemar.
As I got to the road there were a few spots of rain, and I hoped that it would stop later to get the tent up. It was also getting windier (an omen).

On arriving in Braemar, I firstly popped into the Fife (as you do).
There were a few there already, cannot remember exactly who.

I needed to go up to the shop to organise some new underwear.
I was having an elastic malfunction in mine, and this was causing issues with the left tackle area.
But first, it was important to get down to the Campsite and get booked in.
So I headed down the road.

The shins were playing up again (might have been the road walking, or the pace of the last bit), not sure of the cause.

As I went down the road to the campsite, there was a B&B on the left with vacancies.
I was tempted, but resisted.
That was a mistake because it would have been really nice to be in a B&B later that day.
Too late though, I didn't.

At the campsite I was told to find a pitch and then put up my tent.
I found a pitch between 27 and 28 and went back to report.

"You cannot put it between pitches, it has to be on a number".

This was crazy, because they could have got a lot more in if you didn't have to do that.
The pitches were for great big tents, and we were single tents.

Apparently it was a Health and safety issue or something.

There is a LOT to be said about the Health & Safety Executive. NONE OF IT IS GOOD!

So I went back to find a pitch which I did.
It was near a tree, which I was not happy about.
I could also not get the skewers in because of the roots.
And it was getting windy and a pain to pitch.

I decided to move, and went further up on a flatter bit of Grass, but more open area.
No trees you see, no falling branches.

(Health and Safety ???? You cannot pitch too close to another pitch, but you can pitch under trees where the branches could fall on your tent! Bloody Madness! Whatever!)

So, I pitched on PITCH 4.
I went back and reported I was on pitch 4.

"Someone on that Pitch", they said. "Yes a chap called Sloman"

Well to be honest, I knew that, but it was all getting a bit silly, so I said

"Sorry, I though he was on pitch 5", on the grounds that his tent was nowhere near the number 4, but quite close to the number 5.

"I'll come and have a look", says the bloke in charge

Now I was not trying to stitch Al up here (honestly).
I was just trying to get a sensible pitch, amidst weird rules.

"That's fine", said the chap. "You are nowhere near him"

Common sense had prevailed over mindless jobsworthing
and he gave me No 32! (still trying to work that out now).

What I am saying is, that it is a good camp site, and the folk there made a good decision.

So, tent up and gear unpacked

AND it was still dry!

Wendy finally up

One of the biggest problems was the wind when putting up the tent.
The ideal way to erect the Stephenson, is with the back directly into the wind.
Which is what I did.
And of course, the wind then immediately moved through about 50º.
Too late, I left her as she was, it would only have changed direction again.

Cute Ducklings at the campsite. They were obviously a prediction of the weather to be.

I went back into Braemar, for shopping and pants and stuff.
I also met Al and many others.
I cannot remember the exact sequence of events now, but I do know that it was getting windier.

I do remember that I met Phil having a coffee, so popped in for a Chat.
I had not seen Phil since the train to Strathcarron.
The lucky bugger was booked into the Fife.
I was now really regretting not going to the B&B.
Especially as the forecast for the next 3 days was not good.
Bloody awful springs to mind.

So after coffee, I went to get the new pants. Important!

Just after this, I bumped into Al.
He was waiting for Dave.
Dave is his mate from schools, and was coming up to walk from Braemar to the coast, with a view to doing the Challenge at some future point.
He had come to the Lakes with us in April, and had a good time.
The next few days as we shall see, were going to test the metal of the lad.

Anyway, Dave arrived on the coach, just as it started to rain.
It was going to rain more.

It was decided that we ought to get Dave's tent up, so we went back to the campsite. and this was order of the day.
Dave was using Al's old Red Akto, so with a bit of instruction this was done, in the rain, after which at some point we went back into town to the Fife, and maybe elsewhere.

At the Fife, seats were hard to come by, at least where everyone was sitting, so Dave and I having asked the lovely bar lady if they might put the Heineken Cup final between Leinster and Northampton on the TV, and the wonderful bar lady asking the man in charge, and the fantastic man in charge saying YES, sat down the far end and watched the match, as the wind and rain swirled outside.

What a great way to spend an afternoon.
Well almost, because Northampton lost.

So, let's discuss English Rugby, the blinkered use of the set piece, rather than the ability to play what is in front of you, and the primary cause, which is the English Academy system, mainly run by those poorly qualified to choose, where younger generations are plucked from their clubs, and taught to play formulaic rugby rather than learn and read the game. It is a counterproductive elitism based on size and not on skill. No wonder we get hammered by the Southern Hemisphere and Ireland.

Whew! - That should get a reaction (Note Austin Healey has this opinion as well, and Will Greenwood as far as I can tell)

It was great afternoon.

The next stop, was down to the Hungry Highlander for Fish and Chips.This is a place where small is not understood, but BIG portions are standard.

It is the sort of meal that can fortify you for the next 2 days.

A short trip back to the campsite, where I seem to remember standing in the laundry area for quite a while, because it was nice and warm, and the weather outside was crap.
It was a long day of doing not a lot after, but it was relaxing. Probably!

Finally back into town and off to the Moorfield House Hotel to grab a pint, and watch
Bingo Wings. This a bit of a way out the other side of town, infact on the road you come in by if you come in via Tomintoul.
It is also a bit of a hike in crappy weather, but it did make for a good evening.

Now I am not necessarily a fan of these things, but I have to say it was OK,
and great fun was had by all. Especially Shirl, who wasn't even there, and had a request played to her live via Al's mobile phone. Woo Hoo! (See U Tube Clip at the end - Not Bingo Wings!)

Al & Jim as Al talks to Shirley

Shirl talking to Bingo Wings Singer

Mick and Al doing Dad Dancing

Press run to listen to Woo Hoo song (Song 2 by Blur)

A good time was had by all.

After this we somehow ended up back at the Fife.
I was soundly thrashed by Dave at Pool (3 - 0)
Then back to the campsite (It was still raining), and some sleep.

I say sleep, because along with Ducks quacking, and the Sheep bleating, various birds tweeting and stuff, and assorted operatic snoring, along with a lot of wind and rain, it was not the sleep of the blessed.
Even with the storm supports attached, Wendy still rocked and rolled that night, and it wasn't to music.
I am not sure where John Hancock slept. He might have slept under his Tarp, but if it had been me, I would have gone to the Information Room, or the Drying room and slept inside.

All that said, and despite the noise, and the wind, and a bit of shaking, Wendy was warm and cosy, and pretty much bullet proof.
And her bottom was not leaking after surgery at Mar Lodge. Result!

But tomorrow, the celebrations would begin. Tomorrow was Callater Lodge!

And then it would be MONDAY!

TGOC 2011 Day 8

2011-07-04T10:46:00.001+01:00

Derry Lodge - Mar Lodge

Distance 6.9 Km Ascent 53 m - (T'was but a gentle stroll)

I was actually awake quite early.

I say quite early. About 8.00 (am OK)

The weather was actually quite pleasant, which compared to the wind and rain overnight, was quite a surprise.
Rod and Sandy were packing ready to go, and after a chat, and breakfast, it was time for the off.

We bid each other farewell, and they headed off back to their car which was parked at the start of the track.

Rod and Sandy as the start on the track from Bob Scott's bothy

I was about to leave, but as I started I was overcome with the overwhelming desire to check out the toilet at the bothy.
Mind and body told me that this must be done, and more importantly it must be done in the next few minutes.
There are times in your life when certain things have to be done, and this was one of those moments.

It is a toilet, but in the Greek sense, for those that have used toilets on some Greek campsites.
I haven't actually been to a Greek campsite for at least 20 years, so they may have got better, but in those days it was a hole in the ground.
It is only one step away really from the hole with the trowel.
Aim is everything, and stance is imperative. Handles would be useful.
You get the picture?
Well, you will be pleased that I did not take any.

Shortly after this revelation, the moment had passed, along with other matters, and cleansed and lighter it was now truly time to head off.

Just one more photo back to the hills through the woods.
You can just see the snow on the tops.

View back to the hills from behind Bob Scott's. A little Oasis

There is NOT a lot to say about the walk out to Braemar and the road.
I should maybe have taken more photo's, although those that have been to the web album will probably disagree, so there is little to show on the route.

The weather was good, and I set off at a good pace. I encountered a lot of cyclists heading up to Derry Lodge. More than I would have expected on a Friday.

As I got to the bridge at the end of the track, I knew I needed to go straight on.
But Captain Paranoia was on my shoulder.

"Are you sure it is not over the Bridge, I think you need to check"

"It's ok Captain, it is straight on!"

"Yes, but are you sure. Remember last time you didn't check!"

"It's fine it is definitely straight on! ............ Ok I'll just get the map out and check"

After a week in the hills, you do start to talk to yourself.
Don't you?

As I got to the bridge, there was a chap there
(whose name I should remember and someone will hopefully tell me).
He was from America. Actually, one of the southern states. I knew it at the time, but in the intervening weeks, it has lapsed into the grey memory areas.
His map was not as good as mine, and he was also checking his route.
I told him it was straight on, and just about that moment, John Hancock also arrived.
We all agreed, it was straight on, and Captain Paranoia was nowhere to be seen.
I had last seen John, back at the Wake for the Wild at the start.
I was at the time, wondering how he had got on with his tarp.

So, we all headed off up the river, towards Mar Lodge.
This is NOT a big day, but in that time, we did discover that he was on his final year of examinations at University over here, and had decided to walk from Aviemore to Braemar between exams, just to help wind it all down.
When he finished, he was going home, and hoping to walk the Appalachian trail with his father.
There is a picture of him at Mar lodge a bit later.
If you can remember who he was please add a comment.

It is not far to Mar Lodge.
If you fancy a diversion, there is a nice little walk up the hill into the woods and back down to exit exactly opposite the other entrance to Mar Lodge.

As we arrived on the road at the end of the track, there were other Challengers coming along.

Jane and Hoff arrive at Mar Lodge ,American Chap behind - (I need a name for the other man next to Jane)

John and Chris

From the weather today, you would not have known that last night, it had snowed quite heavily higher up, and over in the Feshie.

So, we all arrived at Mar Lodge.
If you go past Mar Lodge on your Challenge, always drop in.
They provide a wonderful service, with Tea and Biscuits and Cake and stuff.
It is always full of Challengers, and a little oasis for a chat before finally plunging into the fleshpots of Braemar.

Chris, Hoff, John, Me (with seriously bad hair and in need of a shave), and others in the kitchen

The American chap!

So having arrived and partaken of tea and stuff, it was time to go and negotiate on the room.
I was due here tomorrow, and I had heard that there were no rooms tonight.
But if you don't ask!
So I did!

I explained the room thing, said I was OK if they didn't have a room, but I would not be staying tomorrow, if anyone needed a room. On the other hand, if maybe they had a spare room, and I could change my booking that would be jolly fine.
I expected maybe in the bunk house if there was anywhere.

Well, wonderful folk that they are, they said no problem, they would find me a room.
And they did!

My palatial room at the Lodge before unpacking. This was just one corner. It was huge!

Well, as you can see, the room was of monumental proportions.
So I unpacked stuff, hung bits to dry, and draped Wendy out, and gave her perforations a jolly good going over with seam sealant. Now this takes 10 hours to cure, so this was perfect.
It is also nice to be able to unpack everything in a space this big, and have a jolly good look at kit.

And I washed stuff like undies and tops and ....... Brilliant!

Oh yes, the Shower! Big old bath and hot shower. All clean! Nice !

All sorted out, I collected my parcel with goodies in and re-stocked my food and other bits.
And then it was time to pop back down and see who else had arrived, and the plans for the evening meal.

Back in the kitchen (picture courtesy Ian Cotterill)

As I arrived in the kitchen, who should be there? None other than Mr Sloman.
He had spent an interesting night with snow.
Being a nice chap, I offered him my second can of Abbot.
(Especially delivered all the way from the Fens - It's the little luxuries you know)

It's the sort of thing you do for mates that is.

Now of course I could have offered it unconditionally, but there was the time debt thing that I had somehow accrued earlier in the Challenge.
It was an opportunity that could not be passed up, and so it was agreed, that the 1 hour + time debt would be written off in exchange for the dark nectar from the Bury St Edmunds brewery.
This was agreed as a verbal contract and can was collected and given to Al, who I must say did not take long in consuming it.

I'd have given him the beer anyway!

Chatting ensued, and then it was time for Al to head off to Braemar for two nights of rest (and probable drinking).

I had contemplated this as an option earlier in the day, but decided that I would not survive two nights in Braemar, followed by a third night at Callater Lodge.

So Al headed off, and I went for a wander round the Lodge.
The weather was excellent, although not that warm in the wind, but beautiful and sunny.
It wasn't going to last as we were to find out.

View from Mar Lodge

There are some spooky old corridors in Mar Lodge

The number of Stags heads is unbelievable. Everywhere you go.
If you get a chance, have a look in the main banquet hall.
I cannot remember the actual number, but it is wrong on many levels.
This picture used flash, but in reality the whole corridor is as dark as the far end.

This was taken on my 2010 crossing, when we were allowed to look at the hall.
See what I mean! Impressively WRONG!

The rest of the day was spent doing NOT A LOT, until much later we had our evening meal.
There was a choice of meal and I had Stovies.

The meal on Friday night. There were a lot of people in tonight.

A pity this year, that there were no functions on.
Mar Lodge can only supply alcohol, if there is a function, and they have a licence.
You need to bear this in mind if you are staying there, and fancy a beer or wine.
Luckily for us, someone was going into Braemar, and we managed to get some for later in the evening.
This was spent in the Gun Room, which is along a small corridor, behind the kitchen.
An evening spent with a roaring fire, and great company.

The fire in the Gun Room

I managed to get a bottle of white wine.
I had a couple of glasses, and left the bottle for sharing.
Sharing is important on the Challenge.
A pity that not everyone there understood that, when Bert was going to have a can of beer.
We will not dwell on that, it has been mentioned, you know who you are!

Anyway, we had spare wine and whiskey, so it was ok.

A fine night, in fine company, and a nice rest.
Tomorrow I was off to Braemar.
It was not going to be a long day.
Indeed, Friday, Sat and Sunday were all going to be very short days.

BUT.... Monday and Tuesday were going to make up for that.

BIG TIME!

INTERMISSION

2011-07-03T21:30:00.007+01:00

3rd July 2011 - All the other stuff

Day 8 is on its way and nearly done, but there is other stuff.Real stuff.

Time for a song
The scene is our house, the time is just past midnight, the day is Thu 30th June

There's a Hole in my bedroom Dear Mother, Dear Mother
There's a HOLE in my bedroom floor Mother, A Hole!

Where is it Dear Olly, Dear Olly, Dear Olly
Where is it Dear Olly, Dear Olly Where is it?

In the corner Dear Mother, Dear Mother, Dear Mother
In the Corner Dear Mother, Dear Mother in the ^&*(ing Corner

There's a hole in the bedroom Dear Andrew Dear Andrew
There's hole in Olly's Bedroom, Dear Andrew a Hole!

Where is it Dear Lucy, Dear Lucy Dear Lucy
Where IS it Dear Lucy Dear Lucy. Where is it?

Oh Excellent Dear Lucy Dear Lucy Dear Lucy
Oh Excellent Dear Lucy, Dear Lucy B0!!0cks!

With What Shall we fix it Dear Andrew, Dear Andrew
With What Shall we fix it Dear Andrew, With What?

With 2 x 4 Dear Lucy, Dear Lucy, Dear Lucy
With 2 x 4 Dear Lucy, With 2 x 4

And How shall we fix it, there's no room Dear Andrew
And How can we fix it there isn't much room

Use Screw Bolts Dear Lucy, Dear Lucy Dear Lucy
Use Screw Bolts Dear Lucy, Dear Lucy Screw Bolts .......

etc etc etc .............................

And so it came to pass, that Lucy fixed it temporarily (not a lot else you can do at midnight), by getting planks from the shed, and raising the bed on them.
Now, you might ask what I was doing during this? I was in the next room, but since it was all being sorted out, there was not much to do.

Lucy is great like that!

And we all slept.

Later that Day .....................................................................

And thus after a days work, I came home via B&Q to get my wood and plates and screw bolts.
Lucy had taken up a bit of the laminate flooring, and the broken chipboard floor.
Any other room, it would have been boards, but Olly's room is new build above the kitchen.
And with saws, and hammers, and sockets sets (screw bolts), and brackets, and levels, and wood and assorted other implements of destruction, I reinforced the floor, and put back a new bit of floor panel. By the time they got back from Harriet's swimming, and Olly's Muay Thai, I was just tidying up, and Lucy put back the laminate flooring (which I have to say Lucy had put down in the first place).
Olly's room, was sorted, and all was well with the world.
Well maybe not the Greek economy.

To be honest, all was NOT well with the world, but our world was just fine.

And, on a plus note, this time at least the cat did not disappear under the floorboards, but that is a historic blog for another day.

Alices Restaurant - Arlo Guthrie