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| Simon, Diane, Brian and Jackie. Edinburgh City behind |
We clicked the door closed at 10:15am on the house in Acocks
Green, Birmingham after feeding and saying goodbye to bunnies Poppy and Sahara
and headed up the M6 motorway to Scotland and our fifth meeting, each time in a
different country, with Simon and Diane.
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| Walking down off the Pentland Hills past the dry ski slope |
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| Tea and cake at the Apres bar at the Pentland Outdoor Centre |
6 hours later, after a deviation off the motorway at
Lancaster due to roadworks we arrived at their very nice house in Edinburgh
located just a few minutes from the city centre and the Pentland Hills. It’s a
Georgian house built in the same stone as most of Edinburgh and has that
classical feel throughout, high ceilings, polished wood floors, easy angled stairs
with wrought iron handrail and a strip of carpet held in place with stair-rods,
all in fabulous condition and very well maintained.
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| Sunday morning with Simon and Diane on the beach near Edinburgh |
Great to see Simon and Diane again and their hospitality was
superb making us feel very spoiled. On Friday evening, after Diane got in from
work we went up their local hill for great views over Edinburgh city, the
castle and Arthurs Seat in the late afternoon sunshine before heading back for
a few bottles of wine and a great meal.
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| Diane on the old WWII gun emplacement foundations |
We were a bit concerned going walking with them as they are
currently preparing for a two week Tour De Mont Blanc walking holiday in a few
weeks and are in serious training backpacking in Scotland over the last few
weeks as well as Simon doing lots of fell running for his Edinburgh 7 peaks
challenge in a couple of weeks. However they seemed happy to take it a bit
easier with us, who have not walked very far in the last few weeks, so they had
planned a gentle walk over their local Pentland Hills. Gentle, that is, for
them: just under 21km and several hills rising to something over 500m made it a
good outing for us.
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| In Simon and Dianes back garden in the afternoon sunshine |
The weather was good, clear blue skies and a hot sun, but
tempered by a stiff easterly wind making it feel about 13 or 14°C, which was
actually just right. As promised, the views over Edinburgh and the Firth of
Forth were superb and we even had the bonus of walking past the top of the
local dry ski slope, which was the largest I have seen with two long, winding
slopes plus a couple of beginner areas, at least one and possibly two button lifts
and even a chairlift. Quite amazing!
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| Brian, Jackie, Rob and Alex in Glen Etive |
We had a more gentle day on Sunday with a walk along the
beach, covering quite a few miles on sand and rocky bits, all under another
blue sky with hot sun but cool breeze. The weekend was superb, the food and
wine fabulous and the company just perfect. We feel very lucky to have met two
people we get on so well with and share such a common interest, the talking was
non-stop and we have left with more ideas and plans for our forthcoming South
America trip in September.
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| Jackie below Etive Slabs, Glen Etive |
Monday was back to work for Diane and it was Simons final
day at home before starting a three month contract in Perth starting on
Tuesday, for us it was repacking and organising our gear ready for a few days
of camping in Glencoe with Rob and Alex.
They had been up in Scotland since the end of May Bank
Holiday for Robs 60th birthday, for which Alex had secretly borrowed
her sisters campervan. Rob doesn’t like camping very much but had agreed to it
and was very pleased when they swapped their little Fiat 500 with the campervan
and headed off to Northern Scotland.
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| Alex, Rob and Jackie discussing 'stuff' at Glen Etive |
‘What do you want to do for your birthday’ Alex had asked.
‘Climb the Old Man of Hoy’ was his answer. Now, for those people uninitiated,
the Old Man of Hoy is a 137m sea stack of red sandstone on the island of Hoy,
part of the Orkney archipelago off the north coast of Scotland and an ascent of
it is a major ‘tick’ in any climbers list. It is one of the classics in the
climbing world, first climbed in 1966 by Chris Bonington, Rusty Baillie and Tom
Patey and had a three night live BBC broadcast in 1967 of them climbing it
again with other teams (including Joe Brown and Dougal Haston) putting up other
first ascents.
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| The end of the fabulous Aonach Eagach ridge (one of the finest ridge scrambles in Scotland) from Glencoe village. On the left the 'Pap of Glencoe' on the right the final Munro of the traverse, Sgorr nam Fiannaidh |
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| Alex on the belay of our first climb in Glen Nevis, about to abseil down |
Rob and Alex climbed the original route, which is graded at
E1 5b, well above anything either of us have climbed before, so we had declined
their invitation to join them and, instead just listened to their account of
the climb in awe when we met up with them on Monday evening. After a few days
of poor weather (but fortunately coinciding with the centenary of the Battle of
Jutland, so lots of celebrations were going on up there to fill in the time),
they went for it on Saturday 4
th June in fine weather, completing it
in 13 hours, including the walk in, climb down, climb up, abseil back down,
climb back up and walk back. Alex told us how they climbed past old wooden pegs
put in by the original first ascenders, sensing the history of the climb, Rob
told us of the other German climbers walking and abseiling barefoot and of
another group who climbed with large rucksacks on, only to get parachutes out
at the top and base jump off the top!
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| Rob preparing to abseil down |
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| First nights wild camp in Glen Etive |
Fabulous meeting up with them again, they are such easy
people to be with, very laid back yet also very adventurous. We met them on the
dead end road down the very beautiful Glen Etive, just off the main road into
Glencoe and camped by the river in fantastic scenery under warm, sunny skies,
cooked a meal, drank a few beers and had a thoroughly enjoyable time on our
wild campsite. That is until the Scottish midges descended! The Scottish midge
is a tiny biting insect that is attracted by the carbon dioxide we breathe out.
Worst at dawn and dusk they descend in their tens of thousands onto
unsuspecting people and, although doing no harm other than biting and leaving
little red blotches on the skin they irritate the life out of you and it
impossible to stay outside. Fortunately this occurred after we had eaten and
washed up and we could retreat into Rob and Alex’s campervan. It was a bit
cramped and quite warm inside, but better than the alternative and we had a
pleasant, but cramped chat and another beer before running to our tent and
massacring the midges who got inside the tent before we zipped up for the
night.
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| Brian, Jackie and Rob survey amazing scenery in Glen Etive |
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| Brian leading a climb in Glen Nevis |
We spent the next day driving to the end of Glen Etive then
through Glencoe and a coffee shop and then to Glen Nevis, another beautiful
Scottish glen (valley), spending the afternoon climbing on one of the many
crags there until a shower of rain came in late afternoon. Rather than camp,
Alex suggested we stay in a Climbers Club cottage in Roy Bridge, a little
village not far away. She is a member of this club and has a fob that is
supposed to give her and up to three guests at any one of their several hundred
climbing huts dotted about in all the major climbing areas of the UK. We found
the four bedroomed cottage with bunk beds for 20 and fabulous kitchen
facilities and comfy lounge all empty, so we made ourselves at home and went to
the local pub for real ale and good home cooked food (Haggis and neeps for
Brian!).
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| Jackie and Brian waving from the belay |
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| Preparing dinner in the Climbers Club hut in Roy Bridge |
Wednesday was back to another crag in Glen Nevis for a bit
more climbing, but first we wanted to practise ropework, self rescue and
‘getting out of the system’ to help an injured climber. We found a suitable
crag and spent a good part of the day under a hot sun with ropes, gear and
prussic loops ‘rescuing’ each other, whilst referring to a technique book but
mainly using Alex’ vast knowledge of mountaineering experience. Finally Jackie
led a severe rock climb, Alex followed up on the rope and finally I went up,
finding one section very thin and difficult. Meanwhile Rob had soloed up that
plus a few other climbs seemingly without any fear. How does he do it!
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| Our ropework refresher day |
Anyway, after another night in the CC hut, cooking a joint
meal, drinking a few more beers and wine plus some champagne and cake for Robs
birthday we finally said goodbye to them on Thursday morning, them heading off
the Alex’ mums house near Aberdeen, us heading up through Fort Augustus, past
Loch Ness and up to Cannich at the entrance to Glen Affric to stay on the
Woodland campsite for two nights, before heading off to Gairloch on Saturday to
meet up with Ian and Helen for a week in a cottage. For the first night here we
booked a ‘pod’ which is like a large wooden tent with veranda and outdoor
table, but for tonight (Friday) we’re in our tent as the pod is booked up.
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| Rob and Brian discuss ropework |
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| And then consult with Alex, the expert |
The campsite is really nice and reminds us of some of the
places we stayed at in New Zealand, it was very nice in the pod last night but
we had to go indoors quite early as it was much colder and the midges were out,
but we did cook a meal by the veranda and met a few other campers nearby while
we ate and watched the world go by.
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| Showing us how to tie off on a belay |
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| Alex climbing |
Today we did an 11 mile, 18km walk round Loch Affric, which
is a very scenic lake surrounded by high mountains, except that the cloud was
at about 1000ft (300m), giving us a restricted view and making the mountains
look like small hills. The cloud eventually started to ‘leak’ and we got
drizzled on for most of the afternoon, the second half of the walk being on a
forest track, so not that scenic or exciting. It was nevertheless good exercise
and we have fully earned the meal and beer we’ve booked for at the local pub!
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