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.