Ian's Wedding

Ian got married to Yan in Basingstoke.

Ian's Stag

Travelled down to London for Ian's stag do. Laserquest in the afternoon and then Boot Led Zeppelin concert in the evening. Lots of booze and a missed train for Warren and Ian.

Chapelgill

Colin was out for the first race in the Scottish Championship series at Chapelgill just South of Broughton. A wonderfully isolated location down a deadend valley. Lovely weather. Incredibly steep and really tough race. Results not in yet but I'll be well down the finish list.

Pentland Skyline

No events this weekend so took advantage of the good weather for a long trek in the Pentlands. Followed the course of the Pentland Skyline race for part of the way. Nice clear day to start with but strong cold winds on the summit. Out for almost 5 hours with a mixture of walking and running. Still a lot of snow about.

SOSOL Gullane Dunes

Colin was out for the fourth race of the weekend at Gullane Dunes. A very nice sunny morning with temps around 7 degrees. Decent run with nothing going too wrong on the navigation front. Pace ok at the start but flagging a bit near the end.

KB 5 Mile Race & Scottish Sprint Champs & British Night Orienteering

After so many cancelled races due to snow and bad weather a very busy schedule planned for the weekend of 4 races. First off was the Kings Buildings 5 mile road race. Weather was nice with clear skys although still a chill in the air. Delighted to get my best ever time over 5 miles having run this course 5 times now.

2005 - 39:44
2007 - 36:35
2008 - 37:36
2009 - 38:35
2010 - 36:18

Also nice to end a rather worrying trend line !

After this I had about an hours gaps before a tough sprint around the Kings Buildings university campus on a short 22 control orienteering course. Good run although not too fast after previous race. Placing not great but a good fun race.

Finished the day off with the British Night Orienteering Championships in the North Pentlands hills. Night O is always a bit scary but not do bad when you know the location well. Horrible first leg which was really long and complex got me off to a bad start. Found a long and safish route to it. Couldn't find controls 4 & 5 so headed off the hills early (after 1 hr 19 mins !) having found 7 of the 11 controls. The BBC were out on the hills filming for the Adventure Show. Hopefully they will edit me out as I wasn't a pleasant sight struggling to find my way round in the dark.

Flight Home

Return journey on Sunday to arrive at a freezing cold Edinburgh.

Return to Cairo

Long 7 hr drive back from Safaga to Cairo. Not a pretty landscape.

Red Sea Snorkeling

A great day out on a boat in the Red Sea. 3 different snorkeling sights the last of which was a wonderful sandy island in the sea. Wonderful fish and much more pleasant temperature by the sea.

Long drive to the Red Sea

The next morning we got on a coach for a 4 hour drive through the desert to the Red Sea. Spent the afternoon by the pool. Bought a drum for Hannah at the hotel shops.

Luxor

A very early morning call for a boat across the Nile and a long and thrilling donkey ride to the Hatshepsut Temple. After this we travelled on by taxi to the Valley of the Kings to see the old tombs. Hot Hot Hot.

In the afternoon we decided to give Karnak a miss and enjoy a pleasant afternoon by the pool and pizza in the evening.

After breakfast we floated a little further down the Nile before meeting a coach to take us to Kom Ombo and the Temple from 2nd Century BC. After this we travelled on to Luxor by coach and went out to an Egyptian restaurant in the evening.

Felucca Trip

The adventurous in our group headed off to Abu Simbel at 3 am in the morning but we decided a morning by the pool was more appealing. At noon we got into our felucca and sailed down the Nile in the direction of the Med to have a sleepless mosquito bitten night on the boat by the shores of the Nile.

Aswan - St Simeons Camel Trek & Nubian Village

We arrived in the hustle and bustle of Aswan in the early morning by train and then got a taxi to our hotel. Without much further ado Colin & Max headed off on a boat across the Nile to meet our camels for a 45 minutes trek across the desert to St Simeons Christian Monestary. After a tour of the ruins we had a short camel ride back to the boat.

Hannah and Cherry enjoyed a morning off by the pool.

In the afternoon we all headed off by boat to the Nubian village on the banks of the nile for home cooking and the chance to see a real Egyptian home. Hannah suffering from the exceptional heat.

Cairo - Pyramids and Sphinx

Up early to a hot and sunny Cairo and a trip to the pyramids and to view the Sphinx. Finished the day at the railway station and a long overnight trip to Aswan.

Temperatures soared during the day to very high levels and Hannah suffered in the heat. She throw up on the station platform as we waited for the train.

Egypt - Day 1

Arrived at our hotel late on Friday night after a day travelling through Heathrow to Cairo.

Orienteering Big Weekend

Saturday saw the Edinburgh City Race. Max and Colin took part and both had reasonable runs on quite long and demanding courses.

On Sunday Colin did the JOK Chasing Sprint on Arthurs Seat. Hard going in the freezing weather and picked up the wrong map on the prologue.

A Dug, A Dug

Hannah is a finalist in Scots week with her fantastic rendition of A Dug A Dug.

Click Play button to listen

Sprint O at Bo'Ness

Colin and Max rushed off to Kinneil Wood at Bo'Ness after sleeping in to 9.30. Colin had a good run over the two sprints coming in the top 20 or so. Max wasn't feeling great and just ran the first race.

Loch Leven

Colin headed out early on Sunday morning for a run round Loch Leven and one of the hills to the edge of it. Conditions however weren't good. The Loch was totally frozen and paths were like skating rinks. Made it up to Benarty Hill from the Vane Farm carpark and then a very small run/walk along the frozen paths before giving up. Went for a 1 hr run round Cramond on the way back.

Orienteering at Bush Estate

Colin & Max went out for the first orienteering in quite some time. Bush Estate is a nice science park at the edge of town making a nice mix of semi-urban and woodland. The ground was still covered in (melting) snow so conditions were quite tough. Max had a good run on the Orange course coming in 4th place. Colin did well on Green coming in ahead of most of his usual rivals.

Snowy Pentlands Again

Colin was out again for a trek in the Pentlands. Headed out early for a walk from Flotterstone to the summits of Turnhouse, Carnethy, Scald Law and South Black Hill before descending through some thick drifts to the Glen Road and a run back for the last 3.5 miles. Tough, windy, cold conditions.