Beanie’s Birthday Bash – Part Two

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Susan

On day two we headed out towards Ardnamurchan to enjoy some coastal routes.

In the morning we walked to an abandoned crofting village called Simirisary and then on over the hills to a beautiful white beach looking across to Eilean Coille and other small islands.

Our hearts sank when we got our first view of the village and the flock of sheep happily grazing amongst the old buildings. Fat chance of ‘Brother Biggles’ sticking to his vow of silence. Actually, we’d have been fine if those darn sheep had just stood still. But they bolted and our Beagles went ballistic! Biggles was so outraged he kept his woofer turned to eleven for the rest of the day.

The road-less village has long since been abandoned but many of the ruined cottages have been restored for use as holiday cottages.

The path from the village to the beach is really quite dramatic – it takes you through bogs, across streams and along a cliff edge before descending to a lovely secluded beach. The only other way to get to the beach is by boat.

Beanie and Biggles explored every nook and cranny of the beach:

Searched for crabs in the rock pools:

And STILL the recently ex-communicated Brother Biggles was mouthing off about those sheep:

After lunch we set off on a 10k run to another secluded beach. This time the route itself wasn’t as spectacular – a little section beside a loch then along a bog standard forest track. It did however take us into an area known to contain unexploded WWII munitions; we passed a couple of big red warning signs cautioning us not to disturb any metal objects we might find. Beanie & Biggles of course couldn’t read the signs but that was just as well, because telling a Beagle not to do something is a sure way of getting them to do it as an act of defiance.

Against all odds we made it to the beach without getting blown up. The beach is called ‘Singing Sands’ due to the low frequency sound that is generated when you shuffle your feet along the beach. Even on a dull day it has the feel of a tropical island. Beautiful white sand, lovely blue-green sea and white frothy waves crashing on the beach.

Here’s a short video clip of the run. We actually look more ‘spritely’ than we felt in this video. The previous day’s hill climb had really taken it’s toll on our poor old legs!

Beanie’s Birthday Bash – Part One

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Susan

What do you buy for a little girl that has everything? It was Beanie’s birthday and aside from a squeaky copy of the ‘Dogmopolitan’ (on sale for 70p in Tesco) we couldn’t think of anything she might like that she hasn’t already got. At four she’s a bit old for birthday parties so we decided upon a birthday camping trip to the West Highlands.

We set off at the crack of dawn on Thursday morning and got settled in with just enough time left for a walk up the Pap of Glencoe before darkness fell. At just 742 metres high the Pap of Glencoe isn’t a particularly big mountain but its steep and distinctive cone-shaped summit is a real landmark in the area around Ballachulish.

We’d read that the final ascent is very rocky and scrambly – which makes for a very tricky descent when attached to our Beagles. We decided to invest in a pair of cheap walking poles to see if they’d help any. I found them to be a real hindrance on the way up – they made me feel (and look) like an OAP. I can’t comment on how helpful they might be on the way back down as the boggy slopes of the mountain had swallowed the bottom section of both poles before we reached the summit leaving me with two useless stumps.

We approached the summit at about 5.00pm leaving us just an hour and a half to enjoy the views then make our way back down before dark. As I scrambled up the final few feet it occurred to me that Beanie’s line was much longer than Biggles’ – how could that be? She was now quite a distance from me. Then it dawned on me – her lead had somehow unclipped and my wayward little Beagle girl was loose on a mountain. I forced down the sheer panic building inside me and called out a cheerie “Beanie – here!”. I can’t tell you how relieved I was when my little angel turned her head, wagged her tail and trotted over to me. Clearly she hadn’t realized she was loose – if she had, I think she’d have legged it in search of the bellowing stag on the neighboring mountain and we’d have been shivering at the top of the mountain in pitch darkness waiting for her to get bored and come back to us!

Beanie safely back on lead. The views are so spectacular in all directions that we couldn’t agree on what way to look!

We got back to the car just as darkness fell.

Beanie At Four

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Paul

It’s hard to believe it, but the Beanster is four years old today. There’s a touch of grey creeping in around her face now, but most people who meet her for the first time assume she’s still a puppy and that Biggles is the oldest in our pack. That’s due in part to an endearing trait she’s retained from her time as a zero-year-old: a smile-inducing full body wag that breaks out the instant a friendly face approaches her. These days that wag sometimes has a cynical motive behind it though; it invariably causes the approaching human to bend down to pet Beanie, placing pockets and/or shopping at the perfect height for a lightening fast raid. She hasn’t made any big scores this way of late though, for which I’m grateful, because trips to the vet to induce vomiting don’t come cheap!

Beanie’s new found maturity has changed her in a number of ways. For example, she’s recently acquired a taste for tea. Whenever a hot new beverage appears on the scene she feigns sleep, waiting for it to cool. Then, the instance it’s left unguarded there’s a Beanie snout in the cup and the lapping and slurping noises begin.

She’s also become much more tolerant of affection. In the past, any attempt to cuddle or kiss her would result in her scarpering almost immediately. Now, she frequently presents her cheeks for kisses on a morning when we open the crates and let our two into bed with us for snuggle time. Biggles presents his cheeks too, but more often than not it’s the rear ones and I’m not so keen on kissing them.

So, how does a Beagle princess celebrate her fourth birthday? Well today was a very low key affair. She accompanied us on a shopping trip to Ayr (Mountain Warehouse in Ayr actually allows dogs inside the shop) and on the way back to the car she cleaned the streets of just about every discarded chip and lunchtime sandwich. Later she had a couple of madcap chases round the garden..

practiced her treat-catching skills..

and devoured a tasty pigs ear. So, not bad, but not great either. The thing she doesn’t realize yet is, the real birthday treatment is coming tomorrow and over the next few days..