More Unfinished Business

We've just had a holiday down at Center Parcs in Cumbria, and it was a lot of good fun. There will be photos and possibly blog entries about the rest of the week, but I'm just going to cover Wednesday here.

Wednesday was hill-walking day when Vikki, Amy, Daviator, and I escaped from Center Parcs to climb Helvellyn. The weather looked a bit iffy, but we were hopeful it would improve as the morning wore on. It took an extra 30 minutes to reach Glenridding thanks to an overturned van on the road, and then we had a false start thanks to Dave missing his pocket with his wallet!

Once we got going, the walk wasn't too bad and the rain came and went as the wind blew the clouds around - we kept thinking it was about to get better. By the time we reached the hole in the wall and got a good view of striding edge, I realised my legs were completely soaked and weren't going to dry out (I'd lent Vikki my waterproof trousers in the mistaken belief that as soon as the weather changed, my trousers would dry quickly), Vikki and Amy were indicating that they weren't having much fun, it was apparent that the wind and rain weren't going to let up in a hurry, and Helvellyn itself was still blanketed by low cloud. All in all, it seemed like the best idea would be to head directly for the pub and leave the hill for another day.

The beer was fine and the sticky toffee pudding was not bad either, but I do feel slightly annoyed that I have to add Helvellyn to my list of unfinished hills where it now sits with Ben Lawyers, Ben Ledi, and Mt Keen. I'll be back for these fellows at some point, I'm sure.

On a slightly different note, I picked up two leaflet from the tourist information office in Glenridding - "Beer by Bus" and "Real Ale by Rail". I'm now trying to figure out how I can combine a bit of camping and walking with pub crawls by public transport.

Coire Fee

(or Corrie Fee) can be reached by a fairly gentle two mile (each way) walk from the car park in Glen Doll, and it's well worth it. We took a wee walk up there on Sunday and really enjoyed it, despite a few showers. Even Lachlan didn't complain that much - a packet of fruit pastilles and his own water supply seemed to do the trick. As you can see from the pictures, Magnus travelled in style and had a great time judging by the noises he made.

All in all it was a nice trip and we rounded it off with a pleasant drink at the Clova Hotel.

Click on the picture below to see the album:

2009-05-03 Coire Fee

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:

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.

A walk on the wild side

It's sometimes difficult, when planning an expedition, to find something interesting and challenging without overstretching anybody. Unfortunately, today's trip to Invermark at the head of Glen Esk was probably a bit too much. It was a bad sign when both boys were car sick and we had to stop at The Retreat in Tarfside on the way there for them to be sick.

We set off following the route on the map below, a 7(ish) mile route with a bit of a hill that didn't look too bad and would mainly be on a fairly decent track.

It started off well enough with a walk down the road, past a dead snake, and we found the bridge where I expected it to be. The gate at the end of the bridge looked locked so we climbed over, at which point the gate swung open under my weight. At this point we also acquired another travelling companion, a white collie who followed us for a mile and a bit, over three cattle grids, past a bunch of horses who tried to scare us away from a foal (and chased the dog off), through a farm with heaps of other dogs barking, and only deserted us after we stopped for some lunch and didn't give it any.

The walk up to Cairn Caidloch dragged a bit and the boys were both moaning before we reached the top, despite some nice views (none of Loch Lee which was slightly disappointing). You can imagine their reaction when they learned we had another summit to climb before the final descent.

Family relationships were being stretched near breaking point but we continued along the track over Burnt Hill until it turned into a thin path with a stream running down it. Calum could hardly keep his feet so he ended up on my shoulders as we made our way down the bank of a stream which was getting steep and boggy. By the time the path started again, we all had dirty, soggy boots and trousers and were tired and fed up. The tramp along the banks of the loch back to the car was uneventful but seemed to take longer than expected. The whole walk took 5hrs 45min after my initial estimate of 3-4 hours.

Next time, if there is a next time, we'll be trying to find a shorter walk, with a maximum of one hill, with a toilet near the start/end, with a guarantee that there'll be a really good path all the way. Wish us luck. I love walking in the hills, and really want the family to be part of that but it's difficult to meet everybody's needs all the time.
Despite everything, the day ended really well when we stopped at The Reatreat on the way back for our dinner which was very nice and cheered everybody up.