There Will Be Blood

Well, that was quite a weekend.

It seems like there are a lot of wee stories to tell:
the solo drive to Tyndrum with Nirvana and Spacemen 3 blaring on the stereo;
meeting up with mrs s (briefly) and Julia and Christina before setting off towards Auchtertyre in the wonderful left hand drive camper van with no power steering;
the joy of seeing Ian heading up the trail looking really strong;
meeting the bundle of excitement that was HappyG back at Tyndrum;
the prescient words of Alan No Mates;
the shock of finding no midges at Bridge of Orchy;
Minty taking a power nap before setting off up "Murdo's Mount";
my relief that my leg felt fine on the descent to Inverarnan;
the weird colours on Minty's leg;
seeing new ground on the stretch from Forest Lodge to Ba Bridge and finally covering every part of the Way;
burger and chips and hugs from mrs s at Glencoe;
the beautiful rainbow seen from Altnafeadh;
the drive to Kinlochleven to get ready to support Minty to Lundavra;
and possibly more.
But all of that would just be a prelude to the events that happened on the Lairig Mor at some time shortly after midnight. The Lairig Mor doesn't often appear in anyone's "my favourite bits of the West Highland Way Race" list. It's an uneven, stony path with a number of small streams and a few puddles; fairly hard going at the best of times, difficult when tired, treacherous in the dark. Nevertheless, Minty and I were making decent progress despite wet feet and me almost walking off the path once. We had reached the corner and turned northwards, we could see Lochan Lunn Da Bhra in the pale moonlight, and knew we were about two miles from the bonfire at Lundavra where we would meet up with the rest of the team again. And then there was a small thump and I heard Minty say something along the lines of "ow! I've tripped and hit my head". And there he was, face down on the path with a grazed cheek and a bit of blood above his eye. OK, not a problem, let's get him back on his feet and take a proper look. Except that he was a bit wobbly on his feet so we sat down again and I decided to give him my buff to wrap around the cut which thankfully wasn't flowing much. And then, he took a turn for the worse and slumped a bit. Thankfully, some other runners had arrived up the trail and we got his feet elevated and tried to keep him talking to check how he was. Which wasn't great - he wasn't making much sense and at one point fainted briefly and was slightly annoyed to come round a few seconds later as we having such a good dream apparently. Of course, there was no decent phone signal there but one of the other support runners ran on ahead to get help, and I sent out an emergency text after we got Ian wrapped in a couple of foil blankets in an approximation of the recovery position. At which point he said (quite clearly) "I'm going to be sick" and retched a few times. His condition generally seemed to be improving so it seemed like a good idea to try and head up the trail, towards warmth and safety so we got him back on his feet (on the second attempt) and we resumed our journey, more slowly than before, with Minty holding on to me, shivering, and realising that he'd also bumped his leg. Oh well, I was thinking, another mile or so of this and he can get warmed up and taken off to the hospital to get checked over.
Next thing I know, my phone goes off - it's the police, following up on my emergency text, and happy enough to stand down when I explained that the injured runner was back on his feet and close to getting extra help. And shortly after that, George called to try and find out more information - I explained what was happening and as he conferred with Dr Chris at race control, the battery went dead so we just had to keep going and hopefully, we'd be able to better find out what was happening when we met up with the crew at Lundavra. By this time, Minty's head torch was blinking occasionally to indicate that the batteries were getting a bit low, and I was worried we'd have to stop and wait in the dark which would have been bad news as we were now moving at a better walking pace, talking a bit and starting to warm up again. So it was a great relief to see a head torch heading towards us and to have Neal Gibson join us, especially as he was able to donate a very warm jacket to Minty's cause, and to further raise our spirits with more chat. And very quickly, the certainty that this race was over dissolved and it became clear that Minty would want to keep going, depending on how things looked when we met up with Julia and Christina at the meeting point. And almost before we knew it, we arrived at the bonfire, and sat down to warm ourselves and come up with a plan. Communications with race control weren't very clear so it came down to the support crew to decide on the best course of action. Our runner obviously wanted to continue (and I'm not sure we could have stopped him if we'd tried), bleeding had stopped, he had been moving well, talking coherently, he was taking on food and drink, and he was just 7 miles from the finish. Christina was due to take over buddy runner duties but very sensibly said she wanted another runner as well. Julia wasn't keen to accompany them on that section in the dim light, so I agreed (in less than a heartbeat) that I would continue on foot with them. And so, we set off, looking forward to seeing the sunrise over Ben Nevis. The sunrise was less spectacular than hoped for, but we covered the miles in good time and in good spirits and we were soon on the final climb and getting our first glimpse of Fort William. Thankfully, there were no tears for me this year. And when Minty suggested we run down the hill, I was happy to break into a jog all the way down to the bottom. Even the road to Braveheart Car Park seemed shorter than usual and it was great to see Mike there and be able to congratulate him on his brilliant finish in 6th place. He then scooted off in the car to let Julia and everyone else at the finish that we were on our way. Julia came out to meet us at the edge of Fort William and we all ran to the finish together feeling relieved and elated. He'd done it! Minty would be collecting his crystal goblet after all. At least, he would be as long as he was out of the hospital which was where Silke told him he was going to get properly checked out.
I was exhausted, but decided to get a shower at the Leisure Centre so I could wait with mrs s for our friend, Wee Rhino to complete the race. It was brilliant to see her finish but then it really was time to get to the hotel for some sleep - we'd heard by then that Minty had got a couple of stitches and they were keeping an eye on him but he was doing well so we slept fairly soundly for a few hours before heading up to the Nevis Centre for the prize giving. Minty had been released from the hospital so it was fantastic so see him get his goblet along with the other finishers, all of whom will no doubt have their own stories to tell.
I want to say a massive thank you to everyone who helped us out - the runners who stopped and assisted, the guys that ran on ahead to get help, all the folk at the bonfire. You were all brilliant and your help was greatly appreciated by everyone in Team Minty. I also want to say that I was very pleased to be a part of the team; we all got on really well, had some fun, and got the job done. And finally, I want to say well done to one of the most determined, meticulous, kind-hearted, wonderful, and mental runners I know. Ian Minty, you are a legend.

More Mountain Climbing

But this time, we took the easy way up to 2150ft and got a nice hot chocolate from the restaurant. We walked all the way to Sgurr Finnisg-aig (about 10 minutes walk) to take in some decent views and get a lungful of mountain air. There were a lot of other people there, many of them with bikes and wearing a lot of protective clothing. Not surprising since the downhill track looked mental - we were treated to the sight of a couple of crashes as we made our way back down in the gondola.

A message from 4406ft

This message was recorded on the summit of Ben Nevis using my camera phone. It is fairly awful - my voice sounds dreadful and the camera work is of the lowest quality. I think Vikki looks pretty good in her pink hat though.



Vikki, Amy, Dave and I went up Nevis on the Wednesday. We kept it simple and went up the Tourist Route, starting from the Visitor Centre at 9am so we could get an update on the weather forecast; bit of cloud, chance of some showers, close to freezing near the top. It turned out to be fairly warm and sunny for much of the climb, with the clouds nearer the top giving us brief glimpses of the views, and making it cool but not really cold. Our trek back down was fairly slow thanks to some sore legs and, sadly, Vikki didn't see anywhere she felt was going to be private enough to try the SheWee, so the Ben Nevis Inn at the base of the mountain was a very welcome sight - a chance to relieve bladders and slake thirsts before heading back to Fort William for a barbecue.

In case you're wondering, the boys spent the day with their grandparents at the beach. I'd like to include some photos from their day out but I think they're still on Andy's phone. The best of my photos are here:

Dinosaurs, Gem Stones and Waterfalls

On Tuesday morning, we had a visit to the Treasures of the Earth museum in Corpach (more pictures here). It was fairly good with lots of gem stones and some fossil stuff including Diego's skull.
After lunch we drove down to the end of the Glen Nevis road, and following advice from Dave's parents, walked along to the An Steall waterfall. The wire bridge looked a bit ropey in the wet so we stayed on the North side of the river and took a few photos. It was a very enjoyable walk which I'd recommend to anyone in the area. It's also a good starting point to many of the big mountains in the area - I've got a vague notion in my head for a multi-day walk in this area taking in several Munros and a few extra tops. It'll probably never get off the ground, but I can dream.

Train in the Rain

The train journey from Fort William to Mallaig passes through some great scenery which has featured in a number of films including Highlander, Local Hero, and (most notably if you're Japanese and have a camera it would seem), Harry Potter travelled across Glenfinnan Viaduct on his very roundabout route from King's Cross Station in London to Hogwarts (aka Alnwick Castle). This is also the area where Bonnie Prince Charlie landed in Scotland and raised an army in 1745 and where he hid after the Battle of Culloden before fleeing to Skye and thence back to France.
Once we got to Mallaig, we decided to go on a wee circular walk which, according to the Guide Book, would have given us nice views of the islands of Eigg and Rhum, had the weather been a bit better. As it was, we could just about make out Skye through the rain.

Here are some pictures. Some of them have been nicked from Amy and Dave's collection so you might have already seen them:

Cow Hill-abunga, Dudes

In the afternoon after we got to Fort William I decided to leave everyone else to get on with cooking tea and go for a run as part of my training for the Aviemore Half Marathon (despite my good intentions, this turned out to be the last run I managed to do for a whole week which is a bit of a set back but shouldn't be a major problem). I decided to follow the track up Cow Hill which sits between the town and Ben/Glen Nevis. It's a tough wee hill for a run but it felt good after being stuck in the car for so long.
The next day, we decided to all go up to the top and see the views which were pretty good although partially obscured by low cloud. Unfortunately, it was a last minute sort of thing and we didn't take any bribes for the kids, so they moaned a lot - even lots of splashy puddles didn't cheer them up that much.
Anyway, here are the photos - some of them are from my run and some from the walk. The smaller ones are from my phone so the quality's a bit iffy.

Another Holiday In The Highlands

Fear not - this blog has not been hit by a general malaise and neither have its authors been abducted by aliens. In fact, we've been away gathering new material for the blog or, in other words, having a holiday. For the last two years we've stayed in Scotland and been relatively lucky with the weather. Last week we were in Fort William (at this house which is here) and our luck ran out; it rained every day except two and was generally dreich for most of the time. We still had a lot of fun and took full advantage of the few spells of nice weather. I'll add more details and photos later but for now please enjoy the views from Dalaraban House:

The picture above is our view of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Scotland. Most of the time, it was shrouded in (or completely obscured by) cloud so this was a rare glimpse of the summit.

This autostitch panorama shows the view looking over Loch Linnhe. The hill on the left is Meall an t-Slamain. The towns of Corpach and Caol occupy the centre and Cow Hill is the one on the far right with the communications mast.