Lovely day

So I got one of those lovely surprise emails the other day, entitled “A bimble on Friday?”

Unsurprisingly the answer was a resounding “Yes please!”

I may have made a few suggestions as to where we could go, but we had to wait for a little man first to come and fix my downstairs powder room. He was on time and very quick and after busying ourselves making a few sandwiches, drinking tea and discussing marmalade, Mick, Gayle and I were soon our way to park Colin at Hopeman. From there we set off on the Moray Coast Trail, heading east.

Looking west

Still looking west

The lookout

This is a very pleasant trail with often stunning views. The magnificent Moray coastline is a well kept secret and I have walked quite a lot of this trail, sometimes heading east, sometimes west but I haven’t yet done the bit between Lossiemouth and Buckie. The Buckie to Portsoy stretch is especially stunning with good views of the cliff nesting birds fulmars and puffins in the breeding season. I’ve only walked this stretch in shoddy weather but still loved it.

Today was another stunning day with barely a breath of wind, blazing sunshine and clear blue skies except the cloud gathering over the far coastline of the Black Isle.

We walked and chatted. We paused and photographed. We walked and chatted some more and then lunched on the cliff top just before Covesea. I was treated to a slab of home made tea loaf, all the more impressive for its production on board Colin. Yum yum.

Looking east!

Long golden beach stretching west…

…to east

Soon we were walking the long golden beach from Covesea that leads all the way into Lossiemouth. I impressed myself by finding the Harbour Lights tea room, I’ve only ever skimmed the edge of the town before and it’s bigger than I thought. The cafe served us some of the best coffee I’ve had in a long time (I’ll still be awake next month) and we chatted some more as we waited for our TTS taxi back to collect Colin.

According to Viewranger 7.12 miles, 2.4 mph average and 616 ft total ascent. A thoroughly marvellous day, thank you for inviting me!

Good day, sunshine!

We have had some visitors this weekend which has been a treat!

Mick and Gayle arrived Saturday after David and I had spent the day at a D of E Supervisor training course.

We spent a very pleasant evening after our meal drinking wine and swapping stories of a walking nature and other things. It may have been gone midnight before they retired to Colin who was parked on the drive, but I can’t remember.

This morning we assembled in the kitchen for a natter when we should have been assembling kit, but we arrived at the car park at the Dallas Dhu distillery and were walking by 10.45 am, only 45 minutes behind schedule. Acceptable we thought.

The walk we had chosen was a variation of the Girly Walk I did in September with the local girls. This meant that after walking some familiar tracks I had to take the group on a little mystery tour on tracks I’d never been on before, in the hope of meeting the route I’d done previously from town.

As luck would have it, and after a few pauses to check location and make the odd decision, we eventually met the right track in the right place and continued happily following the course of the River Findhorn south towards our treat for the day, Logie Steading and the Olive Tree Cafe. We may have had a short rest along the way which included cake.

The River Findhorn

Gayle and Mick before the sun moved

I even managed to avoid the rather rough firebreak we’d walked last time in favour of a path that was a bit rough in places but at least had an obvious track.

We were soon sitting in the sun drinking a variety of hot drinks, debating whether we had the cheek to eat our sandwiches. Before Gayle returned from the powder room, the rest of us had decided we were that cheeky and discretely tucked in to cheese rolls and chocolate biscuits.

We didn’t tarry long as the sun had shifted round the corner and left us in the rather chilly shade. As we left the Steading I had a crisis of confidence and couldn’t commit myself to where the path was that I wanted. After a bit of fumbling and repeating a few steps, we set off up the right path uphill to meet and cross the A939 Grantown on Spey road, again. From here we headed off up the farm track to Peathillock and then north on to the Dava Way and back towards the Distillery. After a pause for more cake, when someone happened upon us who remembered Mick from way back, we left the Way and took a more direct route through Altyre Estate and back to the car.

The sun shone and here were fabulous blue skies all day with occasional glimpses of distant hills and the Moray Firth. A brilliant weekend, great company and a really nice walk. What more could we have asked for?

There were definitely a variation of stats for this walk, but I like the idea of 13.1 miles, 2.8 mph average, 1503 ft total ascent and 5 hours 57 minutes total time taken. It’s close enough!

Thanks for visiting us and please come again!

Unbelievable!

I went on my usual brisk stroll this morning. It was a beautiful day, clear blue skies, sunshine, mild, birds singing in the trees and

y_e_t

m_o_r_e

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The water containers were only recently dumped (between last Thursday and this morning) and who ever dumped them felt the need for a further deposit whilst they were at it as there is obvious evidence of human waste right beside the containers. Lovely.

There are old tyres and various other items besides the take away litter which has more than likely be left by the wildfowlers who frequent the area during the season.

As you can see, I photographed the evidence and emailed it to the local authority who replied very quickly to say the waste team had been requested to investigate.

The clean up took a while to happen last time I reported fly-tipping, but the email response was much quicker this time, I hope the clean up will be too.

I’m still working on the theory that rubbish attracts rubbish.

And I still find it incredibly irritating! I pity anyone I catch in the act (so to speak) when I’m having an off day…

GRRRRR!!!!!

It wasn’t me!

I had been thinking that at some point in the future I would have to replace me Paramo Velez, but I’m still very happy with it at the moment and was really just musing about what I would replace it with. A couple of weeks ago David and I had to play taxis as our girls wanted to go to Inverness shopping (bleugh, grrr, groan) so we treated ourselves to lunch and then went for a little browse. We accidentally fell into Craigdon Mountain Sports and after wondering upstairs I found myself sporting a rather lovely Alta II jacket. I think it was the colour that lured me to it, Foxglove/Elderberry. After admiring this rather lovely jacket for a while, examining it in quite some detail, I popped it back onto its hanger and onto the rack. This would be a good replacement, one day. (Especially at that price, £245 RRP, I’d be saving for a while!)

Just out of curiosity I had a little look on a certain auction website and there were indeed a few Alta II jackets, although none in the rather fetching combination I’d tried on. The one that caught my eye was this:

Paramo Alta II Heather/Damson

It had a very attractive price, £99 plus £4 postage and no bids.

I showed it to David.

Apparently he kept and eye on it.

And yesterday, it arrived!

Now all I need is a walk to go and try it out.

Hands

Sunday proved my hands, or rather, the Raynaud’s Syndrome I suffer from and the effect it has on my extremities and the rest of me at times, can be a little problematic. I have suffered from the cold on both of my previous Challenges, but not suffered a Raynaud’s attack like that one. (Apart from when Laura and I arrived at St Drostan’s in Tarfside, happily I didn’t do the shock thing though) This is fortunate and I hope I never do however it would be silly not to take precautions. Obviously I always wear gloves. Even during the summer months I will have a pair of gloves about my person should they become necessary as it doesn’t even have to be particularly cold for my hands to react.

So, I’ve been doing some thinking and over the last few months, I’ve been making plans and finding solutions. Here they are.

A selection of handwear

Christmas 2011 David bought me a pair of Extremities Tuff Bag mitts. I wore them on last years Challenge and often over the year, usually with my merino flip flap mitts and they are absolutely brilliant. It’s not so much the waterproof qualities that impress me, but the windproofing is excellent.

At Cally Rally in October (a Scout/Guide camp weekend by the Loch Ness Canal when it is cold. Very, Very Cold) my pal Janet donned a rather nifty looking pair of gloves to protect her nails whilst pitching and striking camp. I tried them on and they were indeed a nifty bit of kit, a thin knitted glove with rubberised palm and fingers, leant to her by her husband who uses them whilst he is backpacking. Aha! They’d be neat if they fitted over my mitts.

In November I bought a couple of lucky bags from Terra Nova, one for David as a stocking filler and one for me because I’m greedy and I don’t like to miss out. One of the things I got was a pair of Polartec gloves. They are really comfy, cosy and fit inside my Tuff Bags. In summer, these would do a good job and as I’ve often been concerned that my mitts get damaged when I get them inadvertently velcroed to other bits of my kit, or wear holes in them whilst using my walking poles, these would be a good alternative. They also fit in side the gloves with the rubberised palms, so I can keep my hands warm and protected whilst pitching and striking camp.

Another problem I have on the Challenge is collecting water or washing my pots. Obviously I can’t wear cosy gloves when I’m doing these chores, or can I? A pair of Marigolds struck me as a mite heavy, but a tough pair of latex gloves would be just the job and blue ones are harder to lose.

All the protection I require for *161g, as opposed to the 130g two glove combination I carried previously, this arrangement will have everything covered, so to speak.

Sorted!

*Edited: Can’t count!