Schiehallion

Posted on June 30, 2010 by Paul

Schiehallion comes in at number 6 on this handy page of “easy” munros. A bit of Googling got us a more complete description of the walk than that site provides, and crucially, satnav coords (Lat 56°40’32.88″, Long -4°2’9.6″) to the car park at the start of the walk. As previous posts have shown we’re both really good at getting lost, so precise satnav directions are always a boon. I know these gizmos can sometimes let you down, but since replacing the standard female voice with that of Mr T I’ve been even happier to entrust all navigation to the power of satnav. Can you imagine Mr T ever getting lost? No way fool!

All the write-ups I could find for this walk enthuse about the quality of the recently upgraded path. Some note that the path doesn’t go all the way to the summit, but still rate the walk as pretty unchallenging. This created a vision of an easy 4-5 hour stroll in our heads, and the first hour or so of walking matched our expectations. The path was just great – some sections were steep and kind of monotonous, but it was shaping up to be the easiest munro we’ve done.

A while further on we hit a little plateau with a cairn on it:

That cairn effectively marked the end of the clear path we’d been on so far. From here on in you mostly had to pick your own way through an increasingly boulder-strewn landscape.

Some of the time a trail of rubble indicated the way forward, and after a while we had the reassurance of another cairn, this time with a short wall extending out from it. I have no idea what the wall was for, but apparently it smelled quite nice.

From this point there was never any doubt about which way to go – we just had to follow the ridge up to the top. I was very glad we both had substantial walking boots though; some of the rocks were loose and it would’ve been quite easy to end up with a sprained ankle.

The best way to make good progress was to dodge the rubble and aim to step on only the more substantial rocks. Easier said than done when you’ve got a couple of eager Beagles trying to pull you in different directions! In the end I decided to stop trying to lead the way and pretty much followed Biggles. He seemed to favor the bigger stones, whereas Beanie seemed determined to weave her way through every little nook and cranny.

Biggles – the ultimate Sherpa Beagle

I must admit I started to really enjoy walking over all those rocks. Having to pick and choose every step took my mind off the effort of the climb, turning it almost into a game. At one point we saw another cairn above us and for a second we wondered if it marked the summit, but it was just an impostor. A little further on we found another, though this one was obviously a fake. I was very doubtful when I saw yet another, but this time there was nowhere to go beyond it and I realized we’d finally hit the top.

Not too far now!

The last cairn!

Made it!

Obviously it was time for treats and some bold exploration:

Some more shots from the top:

The way down was straightforward if a little hard on the knees, and back at the bottom I was tired but my leg muscles didn’t feel burned in the usual way – I think walking over all those boulders was more of a challenge for the stabilizers than the main driving muscles, so to speak. It’s close, but overall I reckon Schiehallion was our most enjoyable munro to date!

A bad day for Shaun the Sheep

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Paul

OK so we’re out on our morning walk and Biggles squats down for a numero deux. Ordinarily Biggles produces very healthy, consistent output, but this time all is not well, and as he adjusts position I get to see the problem. I don’t want to get all graphic about this but.. remember that Star Trek song with the line “There’s klingons on the starboard bow” ? Well my little boy has a string of klingons attached to his aft section.

As I dither about trying to get a poo bag over my hand to help extract them, he tries shaking those klingons off, but they’re not budging, so he sits down to do a bit of bottom surfing on the path. Unfortunately, the klingons are still swinging as he touches down and he ends up smearing them all over his right bum cheek, thusly:

Well that’s what was left after an emergency clean up with a poo bag and a couple of tissues, but a further cleansing was called for because my boy was a bit smelly and his rear end was attracting flies like, well, like the stuff that was smeared all over his butt cheek. So, when we got him home, we called in Shaun the Sheep:

If you think Shaun looks a bit apprehensive in that first photo, you’re probably right. When we bought him in the supermarket he probably thought he was going to make bathtime fun for little kiddies, not help scrub away Biggles’ worst ever skid mark. He came through for us though and restored my boy’s botty to its original condition, at some cost to his own personal hygiene and mental well-being.

I think it may be a while before Biggles forgives me for not being quicker with the poo bag though; every time we met somebody on the way home they took one look at Biggles’ rear end and held back from giving him the strokes and pats that he usually receives.

In case the worst happens!

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Susan

Just a quickie post.

We’ve had a lot of bad luck and sad times in recent years – we lost my parents and Paul’s mum in quick succession after a series of long and unpleasant illnesses, hospitals, nursing homes and hospices. Each and every time this meant getting Power of Attorney, selling houses and winding up of estates. It was a non-stop onslaught for about 4 years and solicitors caused us no end of unnecessary stress – and we had to pay them for the priviledge!

Towards the end of all this (just before Biggles was born) we found the most amazing solicitor. She was sooo nice, so helpful and it actually felt as if you had your best friend looking out for you. She helped us sort out Paul’s mum’s afairs and held our hands through buying and selling our own house.

The loss of our parents made us realise that nothing is guaranteed in life and we decided to include Beanie and Biggles in our wills to make sure that they have the best of care if anything happened to us. Our lovely solicitor Linda took care of this for us too. I can’t recommend her highly enough – and her prices are extremely reasonable!

So, if anyone is looking for a solicitor her details are:

Linda Monson and she works for McAuley McCarthy & Co in Renfrew.

And just to finish up on a happy note – the bad stuff is all behind us and it’s hard to imagine how life could possibly get any better than it is now! Thanks to our lovely Beaglets. I don’t know what we’d have done without them. Speaking of the Beaglets: