Edinburgh Zoo

Family trip to the zoo. Cold and damp but saw a surprisingly good number of the top animals being reasonably active - pandas, meerkats, sloth, armadillo, koala, giraffe. Lunch at the Grasslands restaurant.

Festive Frolic - Levenhall Links

Amidst all the CoVid restrictions the orienteering calendar has thankfully been running nearly as normal. The ELO Festive Frolic is always an enjoyable hour of activity. It was a festive word search on the otherwise fairly straightforward terrain of Levenhall Links in Musselburgh. A pretty decent effort picking up a pre-planned 10 letter word - would have got a few more points if I'd also focussed on some of the obvious words on the map. Great event.

Christmas 2021

We had Max and Hannah staying for a good length of time over the Christmas period and Les visiting on Christmas Day.

South Coast Walking

Colin had to attend the LV= Special General Meeting in Bournemouth on Friday 10th December. A very early flight down to Southampton and then picked up a hire car at the airport as the plan was to enjoy a few days walking rather than just do up and down in a day.

The meeting wasn't due to start until midday and I was in the car by 8.30 am. Drove down to Lepe Country Park on the southern sea front. A fairly pleasant location and went for a short walk along the beach and on the inland path just a few metres in from the beach. A nice coffee and snack at The Lookout before the very pleasant onward drive to the office in Bournemouth. Overnight stop (for 2 nights) was the North Poole Premier Inn.

On Saturday the weather in the morning was OK with a forecast for wetter weather later in the day. The route to the sea went through Corfe Castle where I stopped for a short wander around. I was too early for the Castle or anywhere for morning coffee.

I drove onwards to Swanage and walked through town along the seafront and on to Peveril Point. On route enjoyed a nice coffee and croisant.

The Wellington Clock Tower in Swanage was an interest building. Original built at the southern approach to London Bridge it was moved and re-erected here in 1867. A lot of heavy stuff was moved in boats from London to Swanage as the boats taking stone to London needed ballast on the return journey for stability.

The onward walk went via Durlston Country Park and I stopped just short of Dancing Ledge taking the low path out and high path back. A nice lunch at Durlston Castle.

On Sunday the weather wasn't so good with heavy rain in the morning and I sat in the car for quite a while waiting for the rain to clear. It eventually improved allowing a shorter circuit which started at Renscombe Car Park near Worth Travers village and went to the coast at Purbeck Radar Memorial and then along the coast towards Chapman's Pool and completing a loop back to the car park.

After that a drive back to Southampton Airport and a fairly long wait for the flight home.

Glasgow Park Championships

One of my favourite orienteering events. Three parks around Glasgow with relatively straightforward and very short sprint courses. 

Park 1 was Glasgow Green in the freezing cold. A very simple course but made a howler of an error running confidently to the wrong place around 400m beyond the control sight and losing 3 or more minutes on a course taking around 20 mins to to finish.

Park 2 was Alexandra Park. A nice urban park and fairly straightforward but started off with a big error on control 1. I think allowed myself to be distracted by other runners and their routes rather than careful focus on the map and my own choices.

Park 3 was Drumpellier which I had run recently so was pretty familiar territory. A better run this time but not enough to compensate for prior errors.

Still - a good fun day out even if my performances were very poor.

Scottish Score Championships - Dalkeith Country Park

A nice hour of orienteering at the very pleasant Dalkeith Country Park. Felt quite an ordinary performance but result was relatively good.

Bannockburn Orienteering

A nice run from Bannockburn High School in Stirling as part of the Scottish Urban League. Very easy navigation mainly through streets with a very small amount of park or woodland. Pushed pretty hard to come mid-table in the Super Vet category.

Orienteering Drumpellier

A very wet Sunday morning at Drumpellier Country Park. I was well wrapped up with waterproof trousers and jacket. The ground was pretty waterlogged but the rain at least stopped half way through the run. Some really bad navigation on what is always a surprisingly tricky location. An enjoyable run and left me feeling I want to practice and do better.

Northern Ireland / Castle Espie

Cherry, Max and Colin headed across by the Stena Line ferry to visit Maxwell and Liz in Bangor. A pleasant enough journey and a nice home cooked dinner on Friday evening.

On Saturday four of us headed to Castle Espie to see the wildfowl. The weather was quite kind to us and it was nice to see the changes that have happened to the place since previous visits many years ago.

On Saturday night we had dinner at the Bull & Claw in Donaghadee and Sunday lunch was at the Royal Ulster Yacht Club. By the time we were heading for the boat home on Sunday lunchtime our bellies were bulging.

Pentland Skyline 2021

Last big run of the year at the Pentland Skyline. 17 miles, 2010 metres climb and 4 hrs 1 min 30 secs of running. A big tough effort. Similar time to when I ran it 13 years ago. In pretty good shape at the end.  

Happy Birthday Les

We took Les out to South Queensferry to celebrate his birthday. A short walk along the shore and through the village before enjoying sunday lunch at the Hawes Inn. Colin and Cherry went for the healthy options and Les enjoyed Roast Turkey with an extra Yorkshire Pud and Sticky Toffee Pudding.

 

Eagle Hill Fell Race

An early drive to Moffat for a new race as part of the Moffat Golden Eagle festival. A nice route that starts in the town centre of road, before moving through track, trail, field, river crossing onto rough hillside and repeat in reverse back to the start/finish. Didn't feel on great form today with legs a wee bit stiff and it felt hard work on the climbs. Managed a great we sprint at the end with a 1 v 1 race with a much younger gent just pipping him at the line.

Eildon Three Hills Race

A wee trip to Eildon near Melrose for the Three Hills Race - a Scottish Championships short race this year. Felt on very good form today making a good strong ascent at pretty much maximum effort. All three little hills felt pretty long and challenging. A good finish on undulating trails. 153% of winning time was pretty good for a championship race.

Keswick Mountain Festival

A busy active long weekend for Colin at the Keswick Mountain Festival. On Friday it was the Three Peaks Challenge with a non-competitive hike or run over three hills surrounding Keswick; Catbells, Walla Craggs and Latrigg. It was a bit of an overcast and humid day but pretty good conditions for exertion. As I was feeling pretty good I decided to do the route at pace running the flats and downhills and walking fast up the hills. Some lovely views and nice to move through the crowds doing the route most of whom had started earlier in the morning. Made it round in about 4 hrs 30 mins - 18.7 miles & 1075 m climb.

On Friday night after doing the fortnightly Zoom call from a pub in the town centre I watched Bad Manners doing their hits on the festival stage. 

On Saturday I did the Back of Skiddaw Cyclosportive. The weather was similarly overcast and in parts quite windy. Having not been on the bike much this year this felt like a lot of hard work and not a great deal of fun. Pace was slow and laboured. I didn't find the route particularly interesting.

On Sunday morning I was running in a 10 K trail race. There was a boat at 10.30 to Hawes End to take us to the start. A lovely route out along the side of Derwent Water than back along the side of Catbells and then round back into Keswick. I was feeling surprisingly good after the previous two long days and was able to push along quite nicely getting a very respectable time for the hilly 10.7 km route and finishing 53rd out of 246 runners.

Definitely worth a trip back to the festival in future years. It was very well run and a nice atmosphere. I'm tempted by the 50K trail race! 

 

 

Aberdeen Weekend Orienteering

With few events happening at the moment it becomes necessary to travel a bit to get some proper orienteering. A fairly long drive to the north of Aberdeen and the dunes at Balmedie for a SOL event described as a medium distance orienteering event - shorter than the usual SOLs. I choose to try Black course though which increased the distance to a more normal event. Nice terrain and landscape with lots of challenge from the complexity of the dunes but easy visibility of the features making it difficult to get too lost even if finding the specific part of the dunes was difficult.

Was generally pleased with my navigation for most of the event but had two disastrous controls with big errors. Last of the 11 finishers on the black course which wasn't a surprise.

A short walk along the shore after the orienteering.

After than too a drive up the coast to Newburgh and the mouth of the river Ythan. The estuary was teaming with birdlife and there was a seal colony on the far side of the river with lots of seals in the water keeping watch over the humans.

A night in a Premier Inn and the next morning an onward drive to Glen Tanar near Aboyne. Pretty wild forest and a course with long difficult unrunnable legs. Navigation a real challenge so pleased that I did find all the 10 controls I looked for even if some required substantial relocation efforts. The first 9 controls took 2.5 hours at which point I decided to take the fastest route back to the last control. Not the most fun but rewarding and good practice. Need to be more realistic on course choice for the toughest standard O courses.

Beinn Bhrotan & Monadh Mor

An early started at dawn. Water boiled on the gas stove for coffee and cereal before driving onwards to the Linn of Dee. MTB past the White Bridge after which terrain was fairly rough on the bike. Weather in the morning not so great although it improved later.

The route to the first summit was fine but a little dull with no views.

A fairly easy onwards journey to the second summit by which time the sun had broken through.

Gave some thought to extending the journey to Cairn Toul which looked fairly close and probably manageable. Decided to keep things simple and stick to plan as munros are never as easy as they might look. It was a bit of trudge down the hill which was done without much enthusiasm.

This was 10th new munro for 2021 (also did 1 repeat in a hill race). That will probably be all for this year.

Carn an Righ and Glas Tulaichean

After a week at home being on call for Les whilst Cherry was away doing the Fife Coastal Walk it was Colin's opportunity to get away for a few days in the hills and enjoy the last of the good weather.

Up early and away to Spittal of Glenshee. The old inn has been gone for some time unfortunately.

Mountain bike ride up the valley Gleann Taitneach as far as possible. Generally fairly decent trail.

Fairly pleasant walk up towards a wee high level loch above the valley. Great views back down the valley and pleasant to stop for a few moments to enjoy the tranquility of the loch.

Decent paths from here to the summit of Carn an Righ. An unusually pleasant route for a munro climb. Quite a few people out on the hills.

From there it was an easy descent and then choose the direct rougher route up to Glas Tulaichean which wasn't too bad in the dry conditions.

Had the second summit to myself with most groups having tackled this one first. 

OK descent back to the bike and onwards to Spittal of Glenshee. Spent the night sleeping in the back of car with there being no available hotels/B&B in the area that night. Stopped in the minor alternative road into Braemar on a quiet roadside spot. Not a terribly pleasant experience with little sleep but enough to get me through the next day and also support an early start in the morning.

Pentlands Run

I wouldn't normally record a training run but this was a particularly nice afternoon with the sun shining and a lovely route with some climb but for the most part gentle gradients that allow the running to flow. Easy run so no big efforts on the hills but nice steady effort or the levels and descents. Start at Nine Mile Burn and up via Monks Rig to the foot of the Kips and along towards Bavelaw before heading West and then over Bore Stane to North Esk Reservoir and up and over to Spittal farm and back to start.

 

Carn Bhac & Beinn lutharn Mhor

Second day out in the hills was another couple of remote peaks approached by mountain bike. This time drove as close as possible before cycling down Glen Ey and parking the bike just after Altanour Lodge.

The walk to the first summit of Carn Bhac was fairly pleasant with a bit of a track to follow most of the way up.

The next section through to the second hill was pretty rough and unpleasant with no obvious trail to follow. There was then a very steep but relatively short ascent up to the second summit.

Decent from the hill was quite easy following the main ridge line pictured above. A short steep bit and then a rougher boggy bit but back to the bike reasonably quickly. As easy cycle back to the car and finished feeling pretty good. A big difference to the previous set of munros where I must have had some sort of bug to leave me feeling so unwell after the hills.

  

Carn an Fhidleir & An Sgarsoch via Geldie Lodge

Carnethy were aiming to get some-one from the club on top of every Munro on 14 August 2021. To do my part I planned to do the two Geldie munros - a couple of very remote but not particularly challenging hills.

It was an early start from Edinburgh to drive to Braemar where a quick coffee and cake set me up for the day. I chose to park in Braemar to give a slightly longer cycle than necessary for around 14 miles. After some road at the start it was increasingly wild and remote landrover tracks all the way out to Geldie Lodge.

After locking up the bike it was then path for a while before hitting some very rough and boggy terrain on the first ascent to Carn an Fhidleir. It was a pretty quick ascent and starting to feel good. Met three other climbers at the summit who took the photo showing off the Carnethy vest.

Having shown off the running vest it seemed almost obligatory to run off the summit and speed up the next munro of An Sgorsoch. Made very good time on this section reaching the summit at 3 pm.

The descent was quite nice at first then on the lower ground became a bit boggy with no clear path until reaching the track. A lovely downhill bike ride over 14 miles back to Braemar saw me finish in good shape.

Spent the evening at a B&B in Ballater (No 45).

The Carnethy club mission to summit all the munros was a success although it required some visits to the summits in darkness just before midnight to achieve the goal.

Stob Coir' an Albannaich & Meall nan Eun

Took advantage of the good weather to head for the hills and enjoy some time munro bagging. After a 3 hr drive to Glen Etive I was heading up the hill by around 11 am. A fairly tough day and didn't feel on fabulous form with maybe more stops along the way than usual - but the plan today was to take it easy rather than be fast. 

It was a tough descent that took a long time to complete and was feeling a bit miserable by the end. 

The plan had been to wild camp and do three more munros the next day. But I had everything with me save matches and the prospect of cold soup and sardines was not very appealing so didn't hesitate to decide just to head home early. It turned out I wasn't quite right and had a bit of minor shivers and headaches that evening and the next day or two - nothing too serious but certainly not totally well.

Boys Weekend to London

CoVid meant that our planned 2020 trip to Faro didn't happy but we agreed to a nervous 2021 trip to London amidst rapidly rising CoVid cases although all of us would be protected by double vaccination.

The crew this year was me, Warren, Tim, Mark and Glen.

I travelled down by LNER East Coast arriving around lunchtime. We were quite to pick up the free ciders being offered outside the station.

We walked from the station to the Tate Modern via a few pubs and spent around an hour around the gallery which really wasn't to anyone's taste. We walked along the riverside and I walked back to KX whilst the rest took the tube. In the evening we wandered and drank around Coal Yards Drops before a fairly early night.

The next morning we headed to the V&A and spend a couple of hours at the gallery.

After a pub lunch we ran into a Freedom For All protest travelling from Trafalgar Square. Warren, Mark and Glen walked straight towards trouble whilst Tim and I headed in the opposite direction and had a pleasant drink on a riverboat pub.

More drinking in the evening near our Premier Inn hotel.

On Sunday we did a riverside walk from Canary Wharf to Tower of London stopping at every pub along the way. Heavy rain meant extended sheltering from the weather. Had lunch at the Ian McKellan owned pub The Grapes.

Another day with a fairly early and subdued finish. Long days and more drink than any of us are used to. 

On Monday morning I had work meetings to do online and then got a lunchtime train home.

Dollar Hill Race

A hot day for a Scottish Championship Hill Race at Dollar. A very hard early part of the race followed by more gentle ups and downs on high ground before a fast descent back to Dollar Academy. Felt slow and hard to begin with but a very good finish. Delighted to get round in 2 hrs 4 minutes around 8 minutes better than my time in the same race 8 years ago.

 

Oxford visit to see Hannah

Colin, Cherry and Max headed south by car to visit Hannah in Oxford. We stopped for an extended break on the way down at Lowther Castle where we had a good walk round the gardens and had lunch. Very nice location that would merit another visit at some point in the future.

We stopped overnight at a Premier Inn near Solihull and had a nice meal out at a Miller and Carter Steakhouse although no-one had a steak.

Arrived reasonably early the next day in Oxford to meet with Hannah. We headed into town and visited the exhibitions at the Weston part of the Ashmolean museum. A longish walk and lunch at the Perch near the river and then further pleasant walking back to Hannah's. A nice pizza dinner at the White Rabbit.

The next day we met at the Jericho cafe and had a great river trip punting on the Cherwell. In the afternoon we had a guided walking tour of Oxford and in the evening a nice fishy meal .

We had a long drive homewards dropping off Hannah on the way at Leicester where she was spending a few days with Becky. 

 

London Meetings

A first trip to London for a work meeting since March 2020. First class train up and down felt quite safe and socially distanced. Just 8 people in the meeting room with a metre distance maintained. London generally quite quiet apart from when England were playing in the football. 

Northern Ireland Visit

With lock downs easing and having been recently double jabbed it finally felt safe to visit Maxwell and Liz in Bangor. Colin took the boat across and spent a couple of days mainly focussed on practical things. A nice lunch out at the golf club and a very nice dinner at the yacht club.

Picture from Bangor's walled garden which was looking fabulous.

Polkemmet & Scottish Orienteering Championships

On a saturday a busy day putting on the much delayed orienteering event at Polkemmet that was delayed multiple times from April 2020. A small crowd on a nice afternoon. Good to get it done.

On Sunday it was a trip out to Craig a Barns near Dunkeld for the Scottish Orienteering Championships. The first "hard" forest orienteering for me since late 2019. I took it slow and cautious with a focus on accurate navigation. This was successful but at the cost of quite a slow time. Very enjoyable and a good challenge.

Blair Castle Trail Race - Dearg Up n Doon

A busy week of racing concluded with a very long hill racy from Blair Atholl up a munro. Great weather - hot for running and a lovely course through the gardens and woods by Blair Castle out into the open moors and hills.

I was very pleased with my form. On this type of running it's a case of running on the flats and downs and slowing to a walk on the moderate to steep uphills to conserve energy. Was able to maintain a reasonable run pace on all the bits I would want to. Almost 20 miles and 1000 m climb - completed in around 3 hrs 50 min and coming in 60th place of 150.

Red Moss Kipps Race

First hill race since CoVid. To make things difficult I cycled out from home (and back) making around 2 hrs in total on the bike.

A nice evening but with the effect of running in the previous days and the cycle out I wasn't on good form for the run. It felt like very hard work and I was very much at the back of the field. Still - lovely to be out running in a crowd again.

Blast Running 10K race - Silverknowes

 First 10 K "road" race in a long time. 48.18 time which was pretty good. 

Glendoick and The Pool of Muckhart Gardens

 We headed off the Glendoick garden centre and gardens near Perth to look at the rhododendrons. The woodland garden was great with lots of rhododendron in flower and an impressive planted gorge. We bought a few plants at the garden centre.

After lunch we went to an open gardens day at Pool of Muckhart. We just visited three of the ten gardens. One was very impressive.