Botanic Gardens

Trip with Hannah and Cherry to the Royal Botanic Gardens for some Christmas Shopping and a stroll around the gardens.

Christmas Dinner

Dinner at home with all the family and Les. Yum Yum !

Christmas Eve Ice Adventure

Headed out to George Street to wander round some of the Christmas stalls and visit the Ice Adventure - a collection of ice sculptures set up in a temporary home on George Street. Dinner afterwards at Browns.

Biking in the Pentlands

With 4 weeks off from work travel I've been ramping up the volume of exercise with a mix of indoor Sufferfest sessions and outdoor rides as the weather permits.

A nice 2 1/2 hour ride into the Pentlands today.

Percy's Funeral

A sad trip down to Stevenage for Percy's funeral having passed recently at the grand old age of 96. Travelled down with Max, Taylor, Hannah, Les and Cherry. Met up with Maxwell & Michael at the funeral.

Max & Taylor Visit

Max & Taylor came to visit us in Edinburgh for the first time. They were still pretty busy in the run up to exams but we managed to squeeze in some nice meals, board games and a walk round Blackford Hill and the Hermitage.

Busy with Work

A very busy 5 week period in the run up to Christmas with 6 trips to London and 1 to Manchester for various Board meetings. With meetings comes lots of reading as well so struggling to fit very much else in at the moment.

25th Wedding Anniversary

Colin and Cherry went to the Crieff Hydro to celebrate their 25th Anniversary. Two very nice meals out, archery, swim and Segway ride were highlights of the weekend.

There was snow on the surrounding hills and a light dusting on the Knock Hill.

ESOA Championships at Riccarton Campus

My favourite sort of orienteering around a campus setting on a cold but clear morning. It felt almost too easy this time with a pretty clean run with only very minor errors and hesitations going round. Running was fairly strong for the first half but then the dreaded heel injury started to impact as well as general fatigue. Pretty happy with the time but will need to take things easy on the foot for several weeks.

Urban Orienteering Biggar

Quick trip down to Biggar on another cold but sunny day for some urban orienteering in Biggar. A few smallish mistakes and moments of confusion probably amounting to around 2 minutes of mistakes. Heel was feeling a bit sore at the end so will need to be careful with running volume.

Forth Road Bridges

Colin, Cherry and Les drove to South Queensferry for a walk out on the old road bridge to have a good look at the new bridge. Stunning weather. The walk and the new bridge not that exciting. The old rail bridge still looks fab.

Lunch afterwards in the Little Bakery was very good. Excellent home made soup with half a sandwich and delicious scones (chocolate & raspberry) and jam.

Van Morrison at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Great songs with a bit of a jazzy vibe to the sound this evening. Pleasant venue with great acoustics as usual. Band great and once or twice really got into the groove. Van the man lacking any engagement or conversation with the audience which is a shame. Fairly short set of 90 minutes - felt like he was just there to collect the pay cheque.

Orienteering at Kinnoull Hill (Perth)

Another cold but clear day made for ideal orienteering conditions on Kinnoull Hill. A very nice woodland area with lots of paths and pretty pleasant underfoot terrain. I was on the green course and managed an ok time of just over an hour having made a few mistakes on the way round.

Heel was starting to feel a bit off by the end which must have been the cumulative effect of the munro and this event - need to take it easy for a while.

Hot Chocolate and cake at the finish as this was a 30th Anniversary for Tay Orienteering club.

As the weather was so nice I decided to take a stroll back up the hill to enjoy the wonderful views of the River Tay at my leisure.

Mortonhall Orienteering

I was the organiser for the clubs Come And Try It event at Mortonhall with Ann Haley planning the courses. The pre-event organisation was pretty easy but on the day it was pretty intense dealing with the large volume of new and novice orienteers and various helpers. Cherry did a great extended job on registration.

We treated ourselves to a nice meal out in the evening to the Rabbit Hole just round the corner. Yummy Rabbit Pie !

Creag Mhor and Beinn Heasengarnich

With clear blue skies across the whole of Scotland I though this was definitely my chance to finally bag those tricky munros up Glen Lochay that I've had two previous visits to but on each occasion barely got started on the walk.

Parked the car at car park before Kenknock farm and took the bike 4 miles up the valley to the foot of the hill. A short upwards section of twin track took me to the upper track from where it was straight up over grassy terrain to towards Sron Nan Eun and then a more pleasant high level walk to the summit of Creag Mohr.

Nice views down the valley on the way up:

And along the ridge towards Creag Mohr:

The next summit was in view with a large expanse of high land and the peak right at the far end of it:

The decent involved heading briefly in the wrong direction and then a bit of a jog over boggy grassy slopes to the col between the mountains. The haul back up again was hard work then followed by a pleasant but lengthy high level walk to the summit.

Back the way I came before taking a left turn down the grassy slopes to the river between the hills. The rough hilly terrain was hard work at this late part of the day.

Finally made it back to the bike and a tired return to the car park.

4.5 hours walking time (9.3 miles and 1186 m ascent) and an hour in total on bike.

Glasgow Mural Trail

We got the train on Sunday morning to have a walk round the mural trail in Glasgow. It has been there for a few years I'm told but I've never noticed them before. We did around 15 murals over a 2 hr walk taking in the Strathclyde Uni Campus, the River Clyde and the main shopping area. A nice mixture some of which were very impressive.

We had a nice lunch with Max (who was too busy for the earlier walk) at La Bonne Auberge.

East Lothian Cycle led by Peter Inman

Lovely cycle through East Lothian on a mix of trails, tracks and minor roads with Peter Inman, Stewart Gray and friends. Lunch at the coffee shop in Tyninghame which is well worth a future visit (note - the sandwiches are BIG). Started in Spott and headed up through fields before heading down to the coast at Torness then along the coast to Dunbar. From their went to Tyninghame and places like Binning Wood.

The wind fair blew which made the going pretty tough particularly when combined with the trickier trails. Around 36 miles in around 4 and a 1/2 hours of cycle time.

Glen Lochay

The intention was to bag two munroes above Glen Lochay taking advantage of the high road from Loch Lyon after a very long slow drive. The good weather forecast hadn't been noticed in this part of the world and the summit was looking cold and wet. After setting off I slipped on the boggy ground after 20 metres and after a further 80 m came to a deep marsh that was too deep to jump across. Rather pathetically I decide this wasn't for me today and headed back to the car and drove down the hill again. The head of Loch Lyon didn't look very inviting for a bike ride so drove onwards to Ben Lawers which was looking much more appealing both in terms of weather and path. Unfortunately I discovered that my water bottle had dropped out of my bag in the car and so decided to turn back after about an hour.

Head on to Killin and cycled up Glen Lochay which was a pretty pleasant cycle. Got a decent view of the alternative approach to the two munros which may try for the next attempt which may well be next year.

Bit of a disappointing outing.

Natural Tweed Parts 1 & 4 (sort of)

Headed off to Peebles for a revisit of the lovely Natural Tweed route. Feeling slightly off form I quickly decided to cut down my ambitions and picked off a few modified sections of the route. Part 1 is generally pretty nice although I added a little segment through to Lyme which was a bit mucky and rough through lamb filled fields.

The route over the John Buchan way was as muddy as ever but pleasant enough and I took a route through Cademuir with a little less climb that the official route.

Linlithgow 10 K

First 10 K road race in several years. A nice rolling course with modest ups and downs which added to the challenge and slowed the pace in places. Pleasant circuit of the lake by the Castle made for a scenic route. Hit a 5 min per km pace pretty consistently through to the 7th km when the climb knocked the time 45 seconds off a 50 minute finish time. Recovered a bit in the last km to finish with a pretty good time of 50 mins and 15 seconds.

Orienteering at Grandtully

A wet wet day. Ran in the long course which proved very challenging with a lot of difficult navigation and not that much running. Worked my way round slowly without any major errors in just over 2 hours.

PoppyScotland Sportive

A very early 6.15 alarm call to get to Prestonpans and ready to ride by 8 am. The day started well with temperatures relatively pleasant and partially clouded skies but enough light to make the East Lothian coastline look fantastic. The ride out to North Berwick was flat and easy without pushing too hard. After North Berwick it was inland towards East Linton for the first food station. After a short break for a giant flapjack it was on to the hilly section with a long hard climb into the Lammermuirs. Pleased to stay on the bike the whole way as there were quite a few riders hoping off to walk the steep bits.

The second stop was in Gifford. Food choice wasn't great - would really have killed for a coffee and a cheese sandwich but it was really just sugary flapjacks on offer.

The last 22 miles was surprisingly hilly. Out to Humbie before homeward bound via Cousland and any other high spot the route planner could find. I didn't feel on great form. Legs possibly a bit stiff from Body Pump two days before and it was also a big longer and hillier than anything I've done in a while.

68 miles, 1500 m of climb in just over 5 hours moving time on the bike. A good Sunday morning.

SOSOL at Cademuir

First non-urban orienteering in ages at Cademuir in Peebles. Generally feeling pretty solid with new HOKA shoes with maximum cushioning to help reduce any aches and pain in the legs. For the most part it was decent navigation on a fairy easy course but I managed to ignore control 6 and go straight to 7 then 8 before finally remembering to do 6 (and then 7 and 8 again). About an hour running on the Green course.

Peebles Duathlon

Very early start leaving the house and heading for Peebles at 7.20 am arriving at 8 am. Registered and then set up my bike in the transition area.

3 mile run was a pleasant 2 loops of a park running close to the Tweed. Lots of ups and downs and steps making it a little more challenging. Tried to keep a nice steady pace and heart race - no point pushing too early in what would be a long morning. Finished the first section in 28 mins 23 secs.

Transition to bike went fairly smoothly. There was a fair distance of pushing the bike in the road shoes which wasn't ideal.

The bike felt almost like a rest compared to the running. It was a pretty familiar stretch of road between Peebles and Traquair with some climbs but nothing too series. Completed the 12 miles in 42 mins 51 secs and an average speed of around 17 mph. 

Transition to run was slow but fine although brain was barely functioning at this stage so pleased to have left with everything I needed. Downed 2 gels at this point. Had only just taken in enough water on the cycle and there were no drinks on offer on the final run.

The second run leg was pretty tough at first. The cycle does something to your legs that makes the run feel very strange. Needed to just focus on a slow steady jog to get back into the running zone again which I finally did by halfway through the second lap with about a mile to go. Was able to push on quite well at the point and finish fairly strongly.

Medal, water and snacks provided at the finished. Very pleased with the outing which went very well.

Meadows 5K

First road race in quite a while. Paid my £2 for the Sri Chinmoy 5k route the Meadows. Locked into sync with Kenny and helped push each other along for most of the second half of the race. Finish time was a reasonable 24 mins 17 secs.

Lets Ride - Tour of Britain

The Tour of Britain cycle race was starting in Edinburgh today. Went down to the Meadows to watch the cyclists go speeding by (twice). The cyclists are past in a flash. The motorbikes and team cars with bikes on top and probably more interesting to watch.

 

Afterwards Cherry and I went out for a 4.5 km closed road loop around the centre of edinburgh. A good crowd of people out and a pleasant easy paced ride. First time Cherry has been on the bike in quite a while.

Dinner with Max & Cherry in the evening at Pizza Express. Hannah is in Disneyland Paris with her Birmingham friends.

Eliburn Orienteering

I was the planner at the Interlopers Come and Try It event at Eliburn Park Livingstone. A busy day spent putting out and taking in the controls and wandering round deterring anyone from stealing them.

The courses seemed to go down well and it was a nice afternoon.

Ben Challum

Hired a car and headed off to a munro just North of Crianlarich. This is officially one of the wettest places in the country which explains why it has been so hard to spot good weather windows in this part of the world.

The weather was good as expected at the start with a pleasant walk up the hill on fairly pleasant terrain and after the first steep climb a section with a bit of a path leading to the top. It was extremely windy at the summit and the weather started to turn just after I reached it. Any thoughts of extending the walk to 3 hills were quickly dropped with the weather and the potential route looking daunting.

Once off the top the conditions weren't too bad and it was even getting warm and sunny again by the time I reached the bottom.

Tour of Tweeddale

50 mile cycle ride from Peebles. Good strong effort getting round the course in 3 hrs and 5 minutes of cycling. 2 cake and soup stops en route.

Walk to Corstorphine Walled Garden

A very short walk with Les from his house to the very pleasant nearby walled garden.

Oldhamstocks Flower Show and Hill Race

Cherry and Colin headed out to the small village of Oldhamstocks inland from Dunbar.

Colin ran in the 4 mile hill race. As hill races go it is a pretty gentle affair with only a very modest climb and generally pretty good surface under foot the whole way. Very pleasant running. Got round in about 37 minutes and finished in reasonably good shape.

Afterwards we enjoyed the show with exhibits of fruit and veg and a number of stalls for local goods and crafts. A very pleasant rural event.

Festival

On Thursday night Cherry and Colin headed down to Musselburgh to see Dougie MacLean at the Brunton Theatre. We've seen Dougie quite a few times and he always puts on a nice show. The set and the sing alongs are becoming a little bit too familiar though.

On Sunday the four of us went to see John Hegley. A bit like Dougie he was pretty good but what may have been new and innovative 25 years ago was fun but not that exciting. More sing-a-longs in this show as well.

Cherry and Colin went along to see a Virtual Reality (mixed with some live performance) at CodeBase. We tried on our Google VR masks which had a Samsung Galaxy phone placed in the eyeset to provide the VR experience. I have to say the technology was pretty unimpressive with a fairly pixelated display and nothing in the show that was particularly interesting to look at.

A quick dinner at Petit Paris on the Grassmarket on the way home.

Beinn Chabhair

I had one remaining Crianlarich munro to complete and planned a long day out to get there.

A start at Strathyre was followed by a 13 miles cycle ride along quiet roads then landrover tracks in the later parts. Good weather, two lakes and lovely valley made for a very pleasant ride.

The climb to the munro summit felt tough. I guess I was pretty quick up but the legs weren't in great form for the latter parts of the climb. The route down was pretty grotty as well. This was very much the rarely taken back route into the hill.

A nice ride back to the start made for a good 5 and a half hours of exercise and another munro ticked off.

Northern Ireland

A nice trip to Bangor to visit Maxwell and Liz. Flew over on Thursday lunchtime and had lunch at Liz's in Groomsport before going for a walk along the shore.

Dinner in the evening at the Wheathill on Grays Hill.

On Friday we had a visit to Titanic and then dinner out at the Old Inn Groomsport.

Flight home on Saturday morning.

Triathlon Try Out

My entry is in for the New Years Day Triathlon. I had a go at the course on Saturday morning.

400 m swim in 10 min 26
3 Laps of Holyrood park on the bike in 48 mins 06
1 Laps on foot in 33 min 18

Pretty comfortable with the effort and a very good exercise session.

Dunkirk & Kyloe

Family cinema trip to see Dunkirk and steak dinner at Kyloe afterwards. Cherry and Colin tried their first Chateaubriand.

Cruach Ardrain and Beinn Tulaichean

With the weather forecast looking great I headed off at about 9 am towards Crianlarich for some munro bagging. Arrived and ready to go at about midday with the weather looking decidedly dodgy with thick cloud all around and no sign of the sun.

The walk headed under the railway and then up a good path on the wrong side of a river. I missed the recommended turnoff up the mountain seduced by the easy going on the path and finally took a sharp left and up the steep hillside when the path came to an end. It was tough going over steep grassy ground. It felt like a bad route at the time but after going back down the "correct" way I'm not so sure.

Finally arrived at the path at a height of around 750 m and headed up the rough track to the summit. No visibility at the top.

Onwards from the first summit and the weather started to clear for the second summit which presented a lovely straightforward walk to the top.

About turn at the summit and back toward the first peak before cutting left the way I had come. Nice views towards the hills we did last week with Max, Johnny and Alistair.

Good walk taking around 5 hrs 30 mins. Pretty tired after this and a cycle the day before.

Walk from Hospital with Les

Les has been in hospital for about 5 weeks after his fall at home and subsequent head injury and increased memory loss. We took him out for a walk from the hospital to the nearby Craigmillar park area. A walk of about an hour which he was very comfortable with.

An Caisteal and Beinn a Chroin

I headed out with Max and his two pals Alistair and Johnny to bag some of the Crianlarich munros. We had aspirations for three possible summits but in the end made do with 2.

Start was at Derrydaroch farm where we crossed the West Highland Way and headed up a track towards a dam after about 30 minutes. From there we headed across damp grassy lamp to a ridge and the a col below An Caisteal. The final ascent was shrouded in cloud which made route finding difficult and always makes it more demanding. Clouds on the summit so no view at all.

We headed back the way we came but very quickly branched off on well worn tracks to the second summit. A nice descent and then a very steep climb up to the ridge of Beinn a Chroin. We couldn't decide if we were at the summit and went to the far end of the ridge to make sure we didn't miss it. The clouds finally cleared at this point for some nice views.

We got back to the col between the two summits and decided that this was enough for today. We could probably have managed the third peak but we'd been out a long time already and there were some aching joints on the younger walkers.

Schiehallion

Max and Colin made there second attempt of climbing Schiehallion after a family outing many years ago where we stopped short of the summit due tonight closing in.

This time we were at the mountain just after midday with good weather so no excuses for not making it this time. We made rapid progress up the hill moving at a very solid pace. The first part was steep but easy underfoot but for the second half became very rocky and stoney underfoot.

Made the full journey up and down in 3 hrs 10 mins. This is the 59th highest munro but the actual climb isn't so big at around 670 metres as the start is quite high and there are no undulations.

Falkland Hill Race

With both heel and knee finally feeling pretty much better I felt ready to run in a short hill race. Falkland is about as small as they come with a direct ascent from Falkland Village to the summit of East Lomond. There is absolutely zero undulation in the route - up all the way to the top and vice versa.

The village was very busy with a traditional music festival and village fair so parking was difficult. Lovely atmosphere in town. Very low key race with race numbers issued at a bench near the town centre.

Game plan was to take it easy and be very careful particularly on the downhill to avoid too many bangs on my joints.

I tucked in at the back and took it as easy as you can with climb of this type. Passed quite a few people on the way up. A few seconds on stunning views at the top before head down for the descent - first over grassy ground then onto the path. Lost quite a lot of places to fast descenders but everything was feeling pretty good no issues with any parts of my legs.

Time of 33 mins 9 secs was pretty descent and only a little worse than my only other run here 4 years ago.

Rough Bike Ride and Foot Orienteering

Headed out to Dunbar to try my first foot orienteering since the spring last year. It was just a short 24 minute street event with a continued focus on not doing too much too soon and damaging my heel. Came first of 3 on the short course. Quite an easy course but good fun and should be able to get a fairly regular midweek evening dose of Street O  around Edinburgh over the summer.

As it was a longish drive out I did a pre-event bike ride into the back country of the Lammermuir Hills. Started at Pitcox with a short road section before hitting walking routes into the hills which were pretty unappealing cycle routes. There was a giant windfarm which didn't make for very pleasant riding.

Tweed Valley Mountain Bike Orienteering

Third MTBO event of the year. Starting at the Cardrona Forestry Commission car park where the same event started last year. Made the decision to start on the easy low controls and to avoid Glentress with a final homeward section on the Gypsy Glen trail. The low stuff was certainly a good plan although the Gypsy Glen trail was very slow as it reached very high ground on rough trails with widely spaced controls. Finished 7th overall which was pretty decent.

1 km long railway tunnel between two of the controls. Made it in 20 metres before deciding NO. Just NO. No way ! Longer alternative route above ground.

Natural Tweed

30 mile mountain bike ride through rough and remote terrain. Part of the Tweedlove cycle festival. Really excellent route.

Trossachs 50 Miles

50 Mile road bike ride on a lovely route in the Trossachs with Stewart Gray.

Mugdock Mountain Bike Orienteering

The weather forecast was dull and cloudy but no expectation of rain. Unfortunately it rained pretty much solid for the three hours of the event. I'm getting fairly familiar with the bike trails around Milgavie and Mugdock with the events becoming easier with local knowledge. Started badly though on the first control with around 10 minutes lost going where it looked like a pretty simple cut through that didn't exist. After that all went pretty well until I got a puncture after about two hours. By the time it was repaired I just had to head back - making it just before the deadline. Pleasantly surprised to come 6th of 15.

Work

A busy couple of weeks with a trip down to London for 2 nights one week for BUPA meetings than back down again on the Sunday night for three days of ReAssure, BUPA and IFoA meetings. Then back in Edinburgh for my first meeting as Chair of the NRS Audit & Risk Committee.

Trossachs Mountain Bike Orienteering

Another glorious day to be outside enjoying the weather and views.

Great event starting at Brig O' Turk that took in some controls near Glen Finglas and in Queen Elizabeth Forest Park. Did pretty well for once and believe I finished mid table rather than my usual last. 

Great spread of pizza, pasta, cake and coffee at the finish which are a great feature of these events.

Went for a gentle paced circuit of Loch Venacher after lunch.

Tweed Valley Cycle

Enjoying several days of stunning weather Colin headed out to Glentress to enjoy a ride on the Blue course. Generally this was about the right level. A long hard climb up and fast and reasonably challenging down. Just 75 mins to do it.

Afterwards headed off along the railway line to Innerleithen and on to the 7 Stanes area there. Started up a Red track which was just too difficult. The Red and Black downhills just looked insane. Continued the climb up on forest roads so got a good workout on the substantial climbs.

Lovely ride and an area worth visiting again.

Keswick Day 3

After a slow start we headed out to Glenridding to get the Ullswater Steamer to take us up the lake to Howtown from where we would walk the 7 miles back to the start. Nice weather today after a cold start. Lovely walk with many people doing the same route as us.

We headed home in the car view the Castlerigg Stone Circle which we had missed the previous day.

A fairly standard pub meal in the evening and I was certainly running out of steam on the beers.

Headed home on Monday morning by a couple of buses as the trains were off for bank holiday engineering works.

Keswick Day 2

We headed out for a walk from Lake Derwent along the short for a couple of miles before heading inland towards Castlerigg. We had coffees at Castlerigg farm and at that point decided to head back down to the start. Fairly strenuous walk with some great views and scenery.

We then got the boat from the pier on Derwent Water and headed round to the foot of the Cats Bell hill. Warren and Ian attempted the climb whilst I accompanied Tim for an hour long walk along the shore before catching the boat back to Keswick and have a pint and the lakeside cafe. Ian and Warren enjoyed their climb and arrived back a few hours later.

In the evening we went out to 18/20 Cellar Bar and Restaurant. Very nice meal and then a long session in various pubs throughout the village. 

Keswick Day 1

Colin got the train down to Penrith where he was picked up by Warren with Ian and Tim already in the car. After picking up some beers we drove onwards to Keswick and got the keys for our cottage for the weekend at 11 The Splosh pretty close to the centre of Keswick.

After quickly picking rooms and downing a few beers we headed out to the local pub and then for a Thai meal at Asaya Thai. Very nice but also very filling. In fact we ran out of room for any more beers and ended up heading home quite early.

Paisley Cycle

35 mile , 3 hour cycle starting in Paisley and heading first West then South on old railway lines. Back by road with a short offroad section in Glenariff Brae park.

Drumgoyne Circuit and Ascent

Having passed Drumgoyne Hill on the West Highland Way and thought what a nice hill it was I decided to explore. Cycle ride started in Kippen from where there was a short off road section before some very rural road and then a big climb over the Crow Road. Down to Lennoxtown before heading up into Mugdock Country Park and onwards onto West Highland Way. The weather improved by the time I reached Drumgoyne Hill and the obvious walking route presented itself. In spite of being tired by this time decided I really had to go up - on foot. Parked the big and headed up a pretty easy but steep ascent. Great views from the top over some flat land towards the Highlands and Loch Lomond.

Back on the bike through some really wealthy looking areas (Killearn) and back to Kippen. 46 miles in total.

MTB Ride to Haddington

Nice fast ride out to Haddington where I stopped for coffee and sandwich. 45 miles in 3 hrs 40 mins.

MTB Ride Dunkeld

Rough offroad ride into the wilds north of Dunkeld. Initially quite nice paths then tough but rideable before becoming truly horrible. Weather not too bad but not as sunny as hoped.

Around 25 miles over 3 hrs 30 mins.

Ratho

Colin and Max went out to Ratho for some bouldering at the climbing centre.

Max did some great climbs but only this fail was recorded :(

CUPSI - Poetry Slam - Chicago

Hannah didn't get very long to recover after the West Highland Way before she was off to Chicago via Dublin for the US University Poetry Slam. Her UoB Team were chosen as the representatives of the UK at the UK event where they came second.

The team completed in 2 days or preliminaries missing out on a place in the semi-finals.

The group piece "Telephone Call" that Hannah had written and sings in was quite a hit and they were invited to perform it on the finals stage before the final commenced.

West Highland Way - Day 8 - Kinlochleven to Fort William

After 3 easier days the last day was a long one of 16 miles. We were blessed with some great weather throughout which lifted the spirits and improved the views.

A hard haul up from Kinlochleven to about 300 m before a long stretch through the Lairig Mor along an old military road. This was easy going but long.

We then got into sight of Ben Nevis which was looking magnificent in the sun. The later stages seemed to offer lots of twists and turns and ups and downs and a final long stretch along the road before we finished.

The coffee shop at the edge of town closed at 5 pm just as we arrived at the old finish of the walk.

We headed on to the MacLean Guest House and then headed out for dinner at the Stables Restaurant.

Afterwards we visiting the new finish to the walk at the end of the main street in Fort William.

West Highland Way - Day 7 - Kingshouse to Kinlochleven

We got an early morning minibus from the B&B to the Glencoe Mountain lodge and started our walk again via the Kingshouse Hotel. The weather turn out to be worse than expected with low clouds and a lot of rain. We had the steady climb up the Devils staircase which was a moderate climb on a winding path so that the gradient was never too demanding. 

This was followed by a mile of so high level walking before a long descent into Kinlochleven. We arrived quite early as stopped at the Ice Factor where Max did some bouldering.

In the evening we dined at the Tailrace Inn.

The B&B was at the edge of town and never have we been so well supplied with biscuits and little extras.

West Highland Way - Day 6 - Inverornan to Kingshouse

The walk followed an old military road across Rannoch Moor. This made for easy ground underfoot for the whole day in a very remote location.

The walk was just under 9 miles which took us 3 hrs 40 minutes (314 m of climb).

We arrived around 1 pm at the Glencoe Mountain Ski resort and waited in the cafe and played pool under the Mac Adventures minibus took us to our B&B in Ballachulish (the Strathassynt Guest House).

We had dinner at the Isles of Glencoe hotel.