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.

Dr Neils Garden & Redcroft Garden

Cherry and Colin headed off by bike on Sunday morning to Duddingston for a visit to this lovely garden. Rather a long time since our last visit given how nice and close it is.

In the afternoon we drove to visit Les and then when to Redcroft garden in Murrayfield. A lovely property and garden open as part of the Open Gardens Scheme.

Orienteering

The local orienteering calendar has been springing to life with a good number of events on local parks and streets. In the past couple of weeks I've managed to do two Sprintelopes at Fairmilehead and at Pollock Halls and two parkland events at Dechmont Law and Corstorphine Hill. The first proper forest event is now scheduled for the end of June.

Balcary Bay Holiday

Taking advantage of the lifting of CoVid restrictions we arranged a short break away to Dumfries and Galloway staying at the very nice Balcary Bay Hotel. Nice place with fabulous views over the bay.

On the way down Colin got on the road bike for a tough climb from Abington through Leadhills, Wanlockhead and up to the summit of Lowther Hill. A tough climb but made it without having to stop. Snow in the summit. Cherry had a nice wander round Leadhills. We just finished in the nick of time before a hailstorm.

We enjoyed a nice 5 course meal each of our 2 evenings in the hotel and the fresh fruit salad was a highlight of the breakfasts.

On the second day we headed to Glentrool forest park. Colin changed plans from a summit climb to a slightly flatter trail run give the bad weather while Cherry had a short walk. We stopped off briefly at Kirkcudbright on the way back.

On the last day and journey home we visited Threave gardens. The weather was not quite a nice as hoped for but it was a pleasant enough visit.

Long Run - Peebles

Finally allowed to leave Edinburgh City so headed down to Peebles for a long easy run in the Meldons. Ran the Drove Road northwards out of Peebles then steep climbs up White Meldon and Black Meldon. These felt like very hard work! Onwards along the road to Lyne and then followed old railway lines back into Peebles. Feet were feeling it by the end but a very nice journey on a cold by clear skied day.

 

Orienteering Again

A slow return to some aspects of normality with a proper orienteering event for the first time in over a year. A lovely sunny day and a challenging course at Craigmillar Castle. It will be a slow return with just a handful of events over the next couple of months.