Things I Can Do While the Wife Is Away

No, not those kind of things. Tracy is spending 3 weeks in Florida, what should I do?:

1. Race up mountains - see previous post.
2. Watch baseball - usually the TV is either occupied by Tracy or Andre, my boss who we are staying with for a few weeks. But he's away at his home base in England and I can check out ESPN America.
3. Watch cricket - not a sport people associate with the north of Scotland but the two teams in town were playing today at a quaint and traditional looking cricket field in town. Perfect excuse to sit out on a warn summers afternoon.
4. Check out history - I have more stamina for this than Tracy so enjoyed a day doing my own thing last Sunday after dispatching her to Glasgow with friends.

I will no doubt add to this list as the 3 weeks go on!

Because I Can

The weather has been great up here all week, and every day I see Ben Wyvis looming to the north as I walk in and out of work. So what better way to make use of the long evening (dark around 11pm) Friday than to climb the mountain? I debated the idea (and put my hiking gear out in case) but didn't decide to go for it until my last patient canceled and I was free at 4.40pm. A quick walk home,change, throw gear, water and snacks in the car and hit the road to miss the "rush hour" (it does actually back up getting out of the city, especially to the north.

4.58pm: On the road, the car thermometer reads 25°C (77°F) and after a brief delay at the roundabout south of the bridge I was free and clear for the scenic 30 miles to the base of the mountain, with the Wyvis massif visible for the later part of the journey.

5.40pm: The base car park is nicely developed by the forestry authorities with plenty of spaces and a well built path through young trees bringing walkers onto the lower slopes of the hill. Initially there are glimpses of the summit of An Cabar, the most prominent point of the massif from this direction, through the trees and the rest of the hill soon appears as the trees around are soon young and small. In the sun the upper slopes of the long ridge behind An Cabar shine brilliant green with their unique covering of moss.

6.10pm: I leave the wooded area (having passed 5 people walking down the hill) and now have uninterrupted views of the main hill with Little Wyvis also becoming more impressive on the right. It is possible to see the whole path up the slopes of An Cabar and a mighty steep 650m (2100ft) it looks. The path has been well made and a great deal of time and expense has gone into setting a line of small boulders for much of the way up to protect the surrounding flora and decrease erosion. I stop for a snack half way up the climb and admire the hazy view of mountains stretching west, with Little Wyvis dominating on the left, before resuming an immediately spotting two other hikers heading up just above me. I didn't expect to have company on the ascent this late! I soon pass them as they take a break, they decided to take a walk as the evening weather was so good. A bit more effort brings me to the summit of An Cabar, from where a distinct path leads across a long, relatively flat, mossy ridge to the actual summit.

7.00pm: The wind is blowing pretty hard from the east, and the views in that direction are fairly murky, but I enjoy the long easy walk on the ridge with views over a steep edge into a coire on my right before reaching the summit trig point and taking a rest in the shelter of a low wall built around the top. The wind is really howling now and the clouds are gathering around me, making it difficult to perch the camera for the obligatory summit shot, before heading back swiftly to warm up.

7.30pm: The wind is generating cloud as air is forced up over the lip of the Coire which makes for an unusual effect, while I get interesting views of a distant loch to the west reflecting the sun. As I near An Cabar again I see the other couple sheltering in the lee of the summit cairn, brewing tea on a camp stove, and I greet them again before hurrying down to pick up calmer conditions and the warmth of the sun.

7.50pm: It is warm again on the lower slopes of the mountain so I take the chance for a rest and to admire the beautiful hazy views of mountains to the west.

9.00pm: Back at the car. The walk down is pretty easy on the well made track and the evening sun makes for some good pictures looking back at the mountain. All in all a great way to spend the evening.

Midgees

Many places might be proud of the ferocity of their biting insects, or even the relentless annoyance of non-biting ones (Aussie flies!) but few in my experience can compare to the Scottish midgee (especially those resident in the west of the country) for driving you nuts. Similar to no-see-ums or sandflies in the US they thrive in the damp environment and cool humid weather that constitutes much of the Scottish summer.

We were reminded of this fact camping on the west coast on a cool damp weekend last week. Our run in the woods was going well Saturday until we stopped in the woods for a beer break... and a million midgees gatecrashed the party. Cue speedy bottle opening and drinking on the hoof. From then on all weekend we had several instances where the breeze dropped and the insects took over. Now we'll remember to bring repellent wherever we go.

As I knew from 20 plus years ago midge bites bring me out in large welts, but they only irritate a lot for maybe 30 minutes. Tracy, however, thought she was pretty immune, but was complaining of itchy legs a couple of days later. Don't underestimate the little b%&((*^%s.

Q: Why dont you kill a midgee?
A: Because another 10,000 will come to the funeral.

Where is this, the US?

I was driving on a highland road the other day and there was a dead deer on the road. A common enough sight in upstate New York (stinky rotting deer, bits of deer, exploded deer, explosions of deer blood etc etc) but not one you see much here. OK, it was a pretty small deer too, but there were a couple of locals checking out whether to pick it up... they didn't.

Real Ale

One positive feature of Scotland these days is the proliferation of excellent micro (and not so micro) breweries producing a great range of real ales and bottled beers. When I lived in Glasgow most of the beer was produced in industrial quantities by Scottish and Newcastle or Tennants breweries, with only a few outlets for something better (including of course the venerable and still excellent Bon Accord). But now just in this area we have the Black Isle Brewery to the north and Cairngorm Brewery to the south, while further south we've already visited the Bridge of Allan Brewery and will be at the Stewart's Brewery in Edinburgh at the weekend. Meanwhile an increasing number of pubs have at least one real ale on tap and we've found a couple of pubs nearby in Inverness with a great range. It could almost threaten the popularity of Scotch Whisky...

The Fickle Scottish Weather

Yes, after not posting for several weeks I come up with a subject that rivals Ursine Woodland Defecation and the Pope's Religion for obviousness... but I can't resist. First we see out the end of May with temperatures touching 26°C(80°F), which took in my 4th attempt at running a marathon (details here). Then just as we think the summer has arrived our camping weekend on 5th June begins with maximum temps of 12°C (54°F) and winds that threatened to flatten our New Zealand dome tent. Only anchoring it firmly to (and in the lee of) the car kept it from flying to distant parts.

At least the rest of the weekend was bright, even if the temperatures never rose...