Blethering Blonde

As far as whacky ideas go this is a fairly tame one but Kate and I liked the idea of being on a 1010m hill at 10:10am on 10/10/10. This had come about after we realised that we'd missed out with Stob Ban 999m as we'd done it on the 5th of September 09 instead of waiting to the 9th So the search was on for a 1010m hill. There are 4 in Scotland and the list was wittled down on the merits of location and ability to wildcamp. Kate had to be back in Cardiff on the Monday so Sgurr Eildhe Mor was the hill that ticked all the boxes. So here we were over a year later and a few others were interested in this quirky outing, queue Zoe, Maria, Ben and David. By this time Kate and I were both on the injury list so we were taking the leisurely approach while the others were on a bagging mission. After a spot of lunch in The Ice Factor we parked up at Mamore Lodge with blue sky above. We were pleasantly surprised to spot a rather big bird circling above. Not being a twitcher or able to get ...

For once all were in agreement, a wee hill jaunt followed by refueling at The Real Food Cafe . It was nearly derailed before it got off the ground as the weather was looking pants. More scouring over the maps - the hill was decided Scron nan Colan. Quite entertaining to be told off by the 16yr old doing her DoE that I didn't have proper footwear on :-D Very soon after she was also commenting on how great it was to be walking with a small pack. Oh from the mouths of babes................. Elaina, Craig, Jennifer & Steve all smiles at the start It turned out to be a great wee hill. OK not the prettiest as its scared by the remains of a led mine but the views more than made up for it. The weather didn't play ball with getting the photo ops but I figure this is a stoater of a spot to get the Lui group. We still had fun in between the showers and thoroughly enjoyed the post walk nosh up :-)

When a friend asked if we wanted to go up to Glencoe for the weekend we didn't need to be asked twice. The fact that I was working til 8pm did but a wee bit of a dampener on things but I soon escaped and before I knew it we were in The Real Food Cafe for an impromptu meet up with ptc* and Joyce as well as catching up with Sarah the owner of the RFC. We weren't sure whether Zoe & Maria would still be in The Clachaig but figured it would be criminal not to go in for a pint before bedtime. Well they were still there and it looked like they had accumulated the first "randoms" of the weekend. The craic was very entertaining, when you could understand it. The guys were also planning to do some Munros the next day though 2 of them had never done any whilst the third was a Munro Completer - we were already wondering whether they would achieve their aim for the day!! Before last orders were called we retreated to our various accommodation with the plan to meet the next...

This weekend has turned out to be a no hill zone due to my knee being  grumbly after last weekend's adventures and a heavy week on my feet at work. I should have been using the time to catch up on the domestic stuff that I have been ignoring for ages but that aint any fun. I used Saturday to catch up on the much needed sleep that my body craved and then confirmed my ongoing knee grumbles with a walk along the canal. My wee brain started wondering what distraction I could come up with for Sunday other than doing the dreaded housework. I had a sudden flash of inspiration - a visit to Escape Route could be on the cards to check out the Haglofs Matrix pack that I was considering. OK Pitlochry aint round the corner but Steve doesn't mind driving especially if we can stop off at The Real Food Cafe . This was my first visit to the store but it had come highly recommended by Phil and PTC. As we walked in Steve started shaking his head and saying "oh no". I had walked into ...

A while ago I wrote  about the fantastic book The Hills are Stuffed With Swedish Girls . Well it turns out that Ordnance Survey don't like the cover of the book. Richard Happer the author is fighting back with a Facebook Campaign Justice for Jonesy. While we were in the west highlands this weekend we just happened to come across one of Jonesy's offspring as we were about to go into The Real Food Cafe , obviously a cat with good taste. Sarah, the owner of The Real Food Cafe was very interested in the story along with Liz, one of the Killin MRT. With Jones Junior looking longingly at my ever scrummy fish and chips we filled Sarah & Liz in on the story so far. We need to spread the word. So if you haven't joined the Facebook Campaign yet get over there now. And Keep an eye out for Jones Junior whilst you're on your travels.............

We'd had much discussion about what to do this weekend though one thing was certain, we had to end up at The Real Food Cafe as they were going to be closed for 2 1/2 weeks and we hadn't had our New Year fix yet. We'd thought of doing Ben Oss & Beinn Dubhcraig but the thought of battling through deep powder snow was not really grabbing me. I'd heard that Steall Falls had frozen and someone from UK Climbing had put up a really good video of them going up it - this I had to see. A wee daytrip up to Glen Nevis :-) I have to admit that the wander out to Steall has usually been reserved as a bad weather low level day out and seeing the Falls in spate is pretty spectacular as you can see in this photo. It was always going to be a nice wee day oot as the views from the drive up were going to be fantastic too. When we got to Fort William, the first part of the Glen Nevis road had been gritted so no major issues getting along to the Lower Falls car park where we f...

It was always going to be a busy day. ptc* , Bobinson , Craig & Ian were the reduced WHW FallDoon  Team mountainbiking (former 2) and running (latter 2) Stage 1 from Fort William to Tyndrum. The roadbike component of the Team had pulled out at the eleventh hour but it was still full steam ahead for the others. We had already organised to rendezvous at the ever wonderful Real Food Cafe around teatime ish to hear the tales of the day but before that we had Jamie  to pick up from the airport and introduce him to certainly my favourite hill The Cobbler. It was a crisp morning so I had my usual kit dilemas of "what to wear?" Footware was easy. I'd wanted an excuse to give the 5:10 Camp Fours a UK outing as they'd only been out to play in Italy on some via ferrata. I don't like getting too hot or too cold. Rain wasn't on the cards and I figured it was day oot for the  phd Ultra Vest . I needn't have worried, the sun was shining and dam all in the way ...