Purple Thistle

Max and Colin travelled far north to Glen Affric for the Purple Thistle orienteering weekend. Beautiful countryside and fairly good weather. The courses were extremely difficult. Max came second on the junior course (of 2 competitors). Colin did very well on the Big Thistle course coming somewhere in the top half. Max is pictured rock climbing at the Day 2 finish.

Turnhouse Hill

Went out for a walk in the Pentlands with around 20 people from the office. Pleasant walk to the summit of Turnhouse in mixed weather. Hannah did well. A doddle for Max.

The Goodies

Family trip out to see the Goodies at the Fringe Festival. The show wasn't really aimed at kids so Hannah found it a bit dull in parts.

Portmore Loch Club Handicap Race

First handicap race of the season that I've managed to get to. Got a bit lost in the forest which seemed to get thicker and thicker. Managed to finish in third place thanks to a generous handicap.

Orienteering Blackford Hill

While Colin was at the half-marathon Cherry, Max and Hannah went orienteering at the local hill. Max really enjoyed his run getting round the orange course in 43 minutes, coming 6th of 13. Hannah went round the white in 28 minutes.

Haddington Half Marathon

Colin ran at the Haddington half marathon getting round in a fantastic 1 hr 42 min 50 secs easily beating personal best of 1 hr 47 and last years time of 1 hr 49.

Cherry, Max and Hannah went orienteering at Blackford hill and all did well.

Caerketton Hill Race

Max and Colin headed out to the steep hills of the Pentlands for a challenging hill run.

Max did brilliantly well in the Junior run coming in fourth place in a very demanding course. He won a £ 5 gift token for his efforts.

Colin came in 44 place out of 66 runners in 19 min 7 sec. This was a good improvement on a year earlier when he came 36 of 41 in 21 min 20 sec.

Hannah's Birthday Party

A nice afternoon at Gorgie City farm.

Mayar & Driesh

Max and Colin bagged 2 more munros. Glorious weather meant the going was quite tough in the heat. Very nice walk first to Driesh and then to Mayar. Got round the 14 km route in 5 hrs 15 minutes.

Max has now completed 10 munros.

Teddy Bear Picnic

Max and Hannah pictured with their teddies at the Lauriston Castle tebby bear picnic.

Danish Holiday Week 2

Saturday 15 July



Travelled from our house at Kelstrup Strand to the second home on the North Sea Coast. We stopped on the way at Ribe town centre, at the mini-golf course and listened to some jazz music over lunch at Varde. The second house was about 400 m from the sea where there were miles upon miles of perfect beaches.













Sunday 16 July

We spent the morning at the beach and then in the afternoon went to Sondevig where Max and Hannah went on the super-bouncers and we then went to the sand sculpture park.













Monday 17 July

Went to another Viking museum at Bock Havn which wasn’t great. Then went bird watching at Tipperne by the Ringkobing Fjord.







Tuesday 18 July

Went to the beach in the morning and then for a cycle ride along the coastal cycle route. Travelled for about 1 hr 15 minutes south before returning northwards.


Wednesday 19 July

Went to the Og Fisk Familiepark. It wasn’t terribly good but some fun was had along the way.


Thursday 20 July

Set out for a walk along the rivers and bird sanctuaries of the area but the temperature rose to over 30 degrees and the flies came out to greet us in swarms. We decided to take things easier and had a leisurely drive around the Ringkobing Fjord visiting a few sights along the way.





Friday 21 July

A long drive to Monsted to see some lime caves. Nice meal on the way home at Ringkobing.


Saturday 22 July

Left the house and drove off towards Grinsted for an overnight stop before the flight back. Stopped for crazy golf along the way and then walked around the town of Grinsted.

Danish Holiday Week 1

Sunday 9 July

Went for a walk in the morning. Nice forest tracks and reed filled lakes. Saw swans, herons and ducks. Heard a cuckoo.

In the afternoon we walked around Haderslev. Hannah and Mum got very tired.











Monday 10 July

Spent the day at Ribes near the west coast. First at an excellent Viking museum and then at a Crazy Golf course. Max was victorious at the golf. Max and Hannah also had a good bounce on the trampolines.
















Tuesday 11 July



Went to the Trapholt Museum in Kolding and then to a local park in Kolding where Max and Hannah went on the Mooncars. Played on the beach when we got home. Weather not great.


Wednesday 12 July

Quiet day at the house. Walked along the shore in the morning but the icecream shop was shut. Played on the beach in the afternoon. Nice tea out at the local restaurant.










Thursday 13 July

Went to the fossil museum at Gram and spent an hour digging at the Clay Pit.


Friday 14 July

In the morning we went to the deer park at Haderslev. Saw two herds of fallow deer. They ranged in colour from white to dark brown. Had some honey gingerbread at Christiansfeld and then went to the poor at Kolding. Lovely weather again. Sunny but not excessively hot.

The end of our first week. It’s been a very nice house and location. Just enough to do in the area. Very relaxed and peaceful. Nice views and countryside.

Legoland Day 2

Another morning at Legoland where we went round some of the favourites again. Also went to see Titiana’s palace – the most lavish dolls house in the world.










My favourite ride was the one where you ride on a round boat and spin round and round and bump occasionally into the side. Then you get to a bit where lego mice squirt water at you. Then a lift takes the boat to a very high place and you come crashing down with a big big splash. [Hannah]

Got the hire car and travelled on to our first house at Kelstrup Strand which was a lovely small thin house just by the seaside with the beach just 10 metres from the back door.

Legoland

Up early for our first day at Legoland. Great place as the crowds aren’t too great and there are lots of rides with very little queues. Max and Hannah started the day at the Lego driving school where they drove around a realistic road layout. Apart for some trouble spotting the red lights they did very well. Other highlights were the Dragon roller-coaster, the water-slide canoes and the human powered fire engines. There was also a huge Lego world full of bits of different countries made of Lego.

Munro Marathon

It was a very early start on the morning of 4 July as I awoke at first light, around 3.30 am, to make my way to Glenshee, just a short distance away from my overnight stop. I set off on the mountain trek at 04.10.

The early morning mist rolled over the hills making visibility pretty poor but the first two summits were familiar and I made good progress. The herds of deer were out in force in the early hours with the hills swarming with hundreds of stags. I don't know where they hide later in the day but in the early morning the hills were absolutely swarming with wildlife.

05.17 Creag Leacach (987m)
05.54 Las Maol (1068m)
06.30 Cairn of Claise (1064m)

Visibility became very poor on the approach to Carn an Tuirc, down to maybe 30 m, so some accurate compass work to find the summit and the make a very difficult route to Tolmount across very rough ground. Lacking in confidence in my location on the approach to Tolmount but the clouds lifted briefly to allow a glimpse of the summit.

07.00 Carn an Tuirc (1019m)
08.16 Tolmount (958m)
09.10 Cairn Bannoch (1012m)
09.39 Broad Cairn (998m)

The clouds finally lifted at around 10 am and I enjoyed glorious sunshine for the rest of the day with soaring temperatures as the afternoon proceeded.

10.45 Carn an t_sagairt Mor (1047m)
11.29 Carn a'Choire Bhoidheach (1110m)
12.10 Lochnagar (1155m)

Arrived at the most distant point with fabulous views to the north from Lochnagar and the steep cliffs surrounding the summit. The long walk back started with the legs starting to get very heavy as I crossed the rough boggy ground towards Tom Buidhe.

14.30 Tom Buidhe (957m)

I arrived back at Glenshee at 5 pm feeling totally shattered. The long walk back without summits to tick off was very draining. Quick hot soup and lie down for about an hour helped tremendously and I set off again just before 6pm feeling surprising fresh and energetic.

18.15 Carn Aosda (917 m)
19.10 Carn a'Gheoidh (975m)
20.00 The Cairnwell (933m)

Back to the car by 8.15 pm having completed 14 munros in around 16 hrs of walking (and a few jogs). Total distance covered was around 64 km or 40 miles. Back home in Edinburgh by 11 pm.

Sprint O Kings Buildings

Max and Colin went our Sprint Orienteering round the Kings Buildings university campus. Great location for a run. Max did very well getting round 2 loops of 1.5 km in just over 30 minutes.

Meadows Mile

Quick race round the Meadows on a regular mile event held by Sri Chimnoy running club. Finished the mile in 6 min 19 sec in 30th place of 42 runners.

Sprint-O

Excellent course around the grounds of Astlie Ainslie hospital and surrounding streets. A few bad controls led to a rather poor placing of 13 of 20.

LAMM Day 2

We were again woken by the bagpipes - this time at 5 am. After a quick sausage stew we were ready to go by 6.30. Not everyone survived the night - one competitor put a tent peg through his foot going to the loo in the night without his shoes on!

On day 2 we again navigated very well with just one hiccup at a control with a poor grid reference. Conditions were again tough with very poor visibility on the mountain peaks.

There were just 136 starters on our course on Day 2 and we came 115 of the 120 who finished. There were 16 who didn't manage to finish the second day. Overall our time was second slowest - but mission accomplished.

Fantistic experience.

Click here for the LAMM website

Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon - Day 1

Ian and I headed off on Friday morning for two days in the hills at LAMM in the Assynt region in the far north of Scotland. After a five hour journey we arrived at the basecamp at Inchnadamph near Ullapool. Our objective was to finish and not be the slowest finishers.

We pitched camp with Franks rather outdated tent looking out of place amongst the other more modern base camp tents. Excellent meal from Wilfs in the base camp tent and a few drinks at the local hotel, the only hostelry for about 20 miles, whose sole barperson was wondering why it was a bit busy that night!
Having survived Ian's snoring we were woken by the sound of the piper walking up the glen. After a quick breakfast we set of on what proved to be a long hard journey. In spite of recent training Ian wasn't well prepared for the length of the race or the terrain. Our navigation was very good and we made good progress over the first two controls. For the third Ian had decided that he didn't like hills and that he loved paths and we chosed a very long route that went a very long way round a hill and added about 7 km to the journey and probably lost us about an hour. Thereafter the going was very tough in bad weather and rougn ground. We kept going though and arrived on a mountain peak above mid camp around 7 pm. After a final rough descent we finally got to camp at around 8 pm. I shall never forget to look of admonishment that Ian gave me as we crossed t he line after almost ten very tough hours on the hills.

We quickly put up the tent and had a minestrone cup-a-soup that tasted absolutely fabulous. After that it was quickly to sleep.

On our course there was one slower team and nine that failed to complete out of 145 teams.

R&R

A fairly quiet weekend for everyone. Blanket sale at the school on Saturday afternoon although we didn't manage to sell much. Cherry went to Miniatura whilst the rest of us went on a short cycle ride.

Pentlands Long O

A return to normal form on Sunday at the Pentlands Long Orienteering event. A very long course of 22 km as the crow flies but much longer on the ground took 4 hrs 46 minutes to complete. 21 st of 26 entries. Very tough going and blisters forced me down to walking pace for much of the course.