Friends of Carlotta

Christmas 11

2012-01-11T20:29:00.001Z

Sunrise at Cairn Gorm.

Finally a christmas and new year where I could use the Motor home, a mild winter allowed me, us, to get out, Loch Morlich, Edinburgh and Teesside.

Weather was still a problem, kept me from climbing Cairn Gorm, 100+ mph winds on the hill tops, a little calmer at low level, rocked the van all night. The winds cause lots of damage across the UK but we manage to avoid things like the Forth road bridge closures. Edinburgh for new years eve, but not in the town, back too Mortonhall, on the way Teesside.

Spent almost a week down there with the kids. Managed a little geocaching with them and a van picnic off fish and chips in Seaton Canoe after a visit to the Hartlepool maritime museum. Great time out and about.

On the way home called off for a couple of nights at The Woods caravan site near Alva, at the foot of the Orchil hills. Took a much needed hike up them, a nine and a half miles, 6 geocaches and three peaks one being a Graham.

Home and the next holidays are months away, sigh. Happy new year.

Camper at the North Gare, Seaton Carew

Back on the road again

2011-11-13T22:21:00.000Z

Maragowan campsite, Killin.

10th of September. With the van back on the road we went off to Braemar for the weekend. Wet weekend walk with a couple more later on in the month, bagging a Munro and a Corbett.
Mid October break and we went off to Killin, Stirling and it rained, it rain almost none stop for 3 days. It was just nice to be away in the van with somewhere new to look out the window at.
Killin is at one end of Loch Tay and there is a great big trail of geocaches along its southern shore, one of the reasons we chose to go there, one was even at the site where they shot the famous Killer Rabbit scene in Monty Pythons Holy Grail, but we did one in the rain and gave up, just wasn't fun.
As it rained at ground level it turned to snow about 1000 feet above us, not the first snow of this autumn/winter, there had been a fall a week or so earlier in the Cairngorms, I witnessed the remains it when I tried for Cairn Gorm itself, never quite made it but I am planning a get away to there in the Christmas holidays. That was a good chilled out couple of days.
Moved south on the way to visiting the kids on Teesside, stopped off for a couple of night in Troutbeck, Lake district, one and only reason, to climb Helvellyn.

Red Tarn from Swirral edge.

Really enjoyed my walk up onto Helvellyn, again started of badly, not paying attention to the micro navigation in order to get a good start, think I have now learned my lesson but not been in a situation to test that yet.

Took a longer approach than I really wanted however think it was for the better in the end. A nice smooth approach to Red Tarn then onto the top via Swirral edge, a bit of a scramble but then all of a sudden there I was at the top, took me a bit by surprise.

I had a very nice chat with a couple of guys at the top before returning across striding edge, set off a little later so the decent was in the twilight, got to the van and it was dark. The wife was there, coat, hat and gloves on and armed with torch, notebook and phone, "I was just coming to look for you".

Went off to see the kids for the weekend, they were just breaking up for the holls, we had to go back too work on the monday.

Planning for the Christmas break and a few adventures between now and then.

Motorhome troubles

2011-10-27T18:52:00.000+01:00

A couple of weeks before I was due to break up for the summer the Fiat Ducato overheated and blew the cylinder head. It had been showing signs for a while, I had recently put in a new radiator hoping that would help but no, on a little trip saw the needle go up quite suddenly and she blew. Got it back to the storage and rung around to try to find a garage to take on the job, you would think in a city like Aberdeen, teeming with engineering firms that wouldn't be a problem. I rang a few garages I knew but either they couldn't help or just weren't interested. Finally a firm in Ellon promised me they could do it.
The Ellon garage were rubbish, once they had the van they messed me about something rotten, in the end all they could offer was to import a new engine from Italy, £10,000!. In the end I found a reconditioned engine and a firm to put it in, Essex. They were great and very helpful, but this is it no matter what you want by was of any service in Aberdeen is always so poor and over priced.
On the journey bringing the van home I had a wheel bearing go, to recover the van and replace the bearing, £100. A well known company in Aberdeen charged me £600 for replacing 3 wheel bearings a couple of years ago.
Services tend to be so poor or over priced we have a list but now we have to revisiting the list using firms that were not as bad as the other firms. Anyway that a long (8 weeks) story short.

Summer without the Motorhome

2011-09-06T20:28:00.000+01:00

The Old man of Storr.

Just as the summer started the van went and blew its cylinder head, the problem I had getting anything done was unbelievable. I am not going to bore anyone with the details but apparently they believe this had happened twice to this engine before our ownership. Long and short of this is its now 600 mile away getting a reconditioned engine put in and once thats done I will be down to pick it up and drive it back, looking forward to being able to use it again.
The start of my 6 weeks of Summer hols and I decided to bag a couple of Munros, Mayar and Driesh could be done together. I had a walk from the car park at Glen Doll, up through the Corrie Fee Nature reserve and onto Mayar. Whilst I was up there I was lucky enough to spot a couple of White tailed Eagles, playing with a stick, one had it and the other was trying to get it. I watched them play and followed them for a while, got a little turned around and started to descend into the wrong glen, having realised this I managed to get back on course, i lost a good bit of time so decided to give Driesh a miss, I will go back before winter.
So without the camper I went out and got me a tent, a little low laying 2 man'er a blowup sleeping mat and a gas stove, I retrieved the electric hookup from the van and got a socket converter, glamping of a sort.
I was hoping to go to Kinlochewe but this Caravan club site wont have tents so I went to Poolewe instead, I'v stayed there often. I had couple of days of longer walks the most memorable one being on the Bienn Eighe National Nature Reserve and a day of driving round doing easy caches.

Bienn Eighe

I really like it over at Wester Ross, the weather was great and the Poolewe Hotel has good ale if not good food, pub grub and chips with everything.

Back to Aberdeen for a few days before retuning to the west coast, Kintail then Isle of Skye. Stopped at Morvich CC site, a great place to stay and I will visit whenever possible, I wanted to do a bit of Munro bagging so had a go at Bienn Fhada, I had previously gained permission to place a geocache in the Kintail area so put it on top of this mountain. Had a great walk but again took a lot of time out taking photographs and fail in bagging a second hill close by. Next day off to Skye, stopped off at Kyle of Lochalsh, had fish and chips in the sun, lovely.
Skye, camping at the C&CC site I usually stay at, alternative days, long hill walks, with driving around exploring the Isle as before, for its size Skye is so diverse and interesting especially in it geology.
Highlights of this trip was getting up The Storr and find the sweet spot for capturing The Old Man. A boat trip to Loch Coruisk, the world famous loch painted by Turner and

written about by Sir Walter Scott, “Rarely human eye has known A scene so stern as that dread lake, With its dark ledge of barren stone...”, that was something special.

And I finally got to the top of one of the Cullin hills, always looking at them and wondering, how on earth do you get up those thing? With difficulty its almost shale.

View of the Black Cullins from the sea.

Also climbed The Storr itself, again would have loved to gone further and taken in another hill but time flew as I explored different views of The Old Man, the weather throughout was great. I enjoyed myself so much, so much so I was met at the campsite gate by one of the site managers "do you know you were supposed to leave today?", Hells bells I'd better ring the wife!

Spring has sprung.

2011-06-05T21:45:00.000+01:00

Cairnbulg point.

May 8th to June 5th
Our favorite campsite has gone over to the dark side, Cullen holiday park no longer takes tourers, just interested in statics, so we are looking for a new favorite place on the Moray coast. We tried Findochy which wasnt bad, fine for a weekend but limited facilities, We did spot another whilst out geocaching nr Inverboyndie so will give that a try at some point, need a nice weekend get away, a couple of hours from Aberdeen and overlooking the sea.
Did a high grade geocache D3.5/T5 called The Smugglers, I have a list of the 25 toughest caches in the area so thats one more ticked off and a bit of adventure, walking in forrest, moor and rocky scree.
As Carlotta now gets every second weekend off we can really get about, Braemar and Loch Callater, a very chilly weekend followed by low impact chilled out time at Forfar.
Now planning for the summer break, Springwatch has started a sign the end is in sight, we have a weekend at Findhorn to come and I am taking a sea kayaking course, which could be the start of something. Also need to put a new radiator on the van, try a bit of DIY.

4 years of Geocaching

2011-05-08T21:12:00.001+01:00

Creag a' Choire Dhirich

We celebrated 4 years of geocaching on the 24th of April.

Whilst the rest of the country watched the Royal wedding I went for a 8 mile walk, taking in 3 Munro hills and 7 caches. I say the rest of the country were watching the tele, there were certainly plenty of people on the hills. You couldn't ignore it completely out here because Lochnagar was mostly in view and I drove past Balmoral twice.
We spent a couple of weekends up on the Moray coast, lots of new geocaches up there but a little disappointing as they were mostly micros. One weekend just running around in the Micra, the second in the Motorhome. We used to go to a site at Cullen (see previous blogs) but they have done away with everything but statics. We tried Findochty, nice enough site, we had a bit of a poor spot, I had booked at the last minute and it was full with us.
Just over 8 weeks to go till the big break, plenty to do in the meantime, at least 3 weekends away in the van, just local, dont know where yet except the next will be to Braemar.
Finished this blog with a total of 1,111 geocaches on 8th of May.

Third year with the motorhome.

2011-04-20T22:11:00.000+01:00

Skyscape

Well we have had the camper for 3 years now and still enjoying it. Friends of Carlotta get a silver medal from earthcache.com.
Easter and we took off to see the kids, stopping off a Kielder in Northumberland for a week, the site at Leaplish was quite nice, quiet to start with until the schools in England finished, then folks started to arrive. Highlights of the visit was a walk along Hadrians Wall and Skyscape, all made better with the good weather.
We arrived in pouring rain and that stayed with us for a few days, we did some drive by caches and the weather started to clear a little allowing a bit of walking. Needed to get some supplies in, so went into Bellingham, seeing the weather was looking better off into the distance we kept driving till we hit the sun around Hadrians wall, went for a good walk finding a number of caches.
The campsite was not too bad it had a restaurant and bar, beers were a bit limited and the food was nothing out the ordinary, good pub grub. Lots of bike trails in the area I think there is now a completed one right around the reservoir, the largest manmade lake in northern Europe, the good weather stayed around.
Kielder has an Arts & Architecture initiative in the area, we visited a few pieces one of the most impressive was Skyscape, I had lots of fun photographing it.

Then off to see the kids for a couple of days. We took then on a geotrail around the village of Bishop Middleham, in the Land of the Prince Bishops, County Durham. One of the best geocaching day we have had due to the innovative nature of some of them, kids were a bit none plussed as they werent all big boxes of booty.

Then off back up to Aberdeen calling off at Edingburgh. Visited the exhibition of photographs by August Sander, before walking into town taking in a few DNF's from our last visit. Stayed at Silverknowles site within easy reach of South Queensferry a quaint little village then onto the sometimes an island of Cramond, made a video of our geocaching adventure, next day off home. Left April 3rd returned on the 16th and somewhere along the way I had a birthday.

The elusive 1000

2011-01-17T22:48:00.000Z

Geocaching in Tilery woods.

No Motorhome this winter, lots of snow made that impossible yet again, not only putting payed to that but also the geocaching, we don't much like grubbing around in the snow for them, no matter how keen on the sport we are.
So it took us quite a while to reach that elusive 1000, started getting excited in November but got a lot of DNF's which slowed us up some what, hoped to have got there by new year but it was after when we hit it.

So its a new year, plans to be made, feel its about time we went further afield, meaning the continent, driving on the wrong side of the road.
Just before we were to take possession of the camper I was cycling along Aberdeen beach boulevard, I heard a guy, as he was leaning on his motor home, say, "Yes, as I was driving through Southern Spain". Well I want to do that guy, but a little bit at a time, France first.
Got the cat to think about, he needs his jabs and pet passport all sorting out, maybe in the summer as it take about 6 months.
Have a prosperous NewYear.

Body and Mind

2010-10-23T20:10:00.003+01:00

Pen-Y-Ghent

Started this October weeks break on Teesside with the family, just for a couple of nights, as they hadn’t broken up from school yet. Having lived the vast majority of our lives within sight of Roseberry Topping, I for one had never been up it, so Sunday afternoon we all went for a walk, bagging the geocache and trig point at the top. Teesside rescue and the air ambulance were on manuvours at the same time, which made it even more exciting for the little ones.

We had enjoyed another brief visit to the dales during the summer and still wanted more so we went back to Hawes for a few nights. We paid a visit to the Yorkshire Falconry centre and both got the chance to handle a barn owl, the barn owl is one of the prettiest of all birds. This was followed by a visit to Ribblehead viaduct for a couple of geocaches, got caught in one hell of a downpour but not without seeing the most vivid of rainbows.
The following day was a sunny blue sky day but very cold, I went on a geotrail up Pen-Y-Ghent, the first time I had listened to music whilst on a walk, always thought that it a little strange, but after my last walk on Hill of Fare which I found slightly boring with no birdsong around.

We broke the return journey up by calling in at Edinburgh, two days bagging a few caches and visiting some art exhibitions.
“Another World” was a spectacular exhibition of Surrealist art at the Dean Gallery. I have had an interest in the surrealist’s since I was at Art College, never thought of myself as any sort of an expert but I did surprise myself at how I was able to put the artist’s with the various pieces.
I am particularly interested in collage and assemblage, I was surprised at how small some of the collage pieces were, must have been reproduce large in books, there were also some works by Joseph Cornell, love his assemblages as well as photographs by Paul Nash, I feel one of his images in particular has influenced my photography in a big way.
The Edward Weston & William Wegman exhibition came as a bit of an anti-climax the following day, but I have always liked them both, the Weegman giant Polaroid’s were stunning, sure I would have thought more of it all if I hadn’t enjoyed the previous day so much.

1972 was a long hot summer.

2010-10-12T20:11:00.003+01:00

So off to the Dales and Edinburgh next week but in between time, out and about in the little Micra with it radio now working. Loch Strathbeg is just south of Fraserbrough for a bit of caching and bird watching, an interesting place as its a RSPB site in the middle of an abandoned airfield.
We had a great time driving up to it, listening to the past top twenty charts with Dale Winton, reminiscing wildly about 1972, cue Silver machine by Hawkwind.

The following weekend off, to Edzell, mostly to capture the autumn, but a little caching, we swore always to bring the binoculars from now on because as we went about we saw Buzzards, a couple of Roe deer, some albino Pheasants, a Barn Owl hunting, a Red Squirrel and hundreds of Geese coming in for the winter.

The Rocks of Solitude.

We are also over the moon as our Blog has been recognised, gave me a boost to keep it going,

Dear Carlotta,

Congratulations! Jen here, and your blog, Friends of Carlotta, is a Master

Blog of Geocaching!

We've scoured the web looking for amazing blogs that not only are great in

content, but informative and helpful when needed. And we've determined your

blog to be such! We like to call it a Master of its category!

You can see your blog and others at:

www.mastersdegreeonline.net/top-blogs/top-geocaching/

Fitness regime and a long weekend.

2010-09-28T22:00:00.001+01:00

Kintail

Started a new fitness regimen, also decided to learn more about navigating with map and compass after my experiences during the summer, bought a great little book called The Ultimate Hiking Skills Manual by Chris Bagshaw. full of info on both subjects. Anyway along with the terrain 5 geocaches I have in my sights I also plan to do a bit of Corbett and Munroe bagging.

A long weekend off so we went over to the west coast, taking the road along Loch ness which I had never driven so far. We stopped at the CC site at Morvich, a truly stunning location surrounded by Corbett’s and Munroe’s, teaming with bird life, think I caught a glimpse of a Peregrine at one point, we will certain visit this site again.

On the Saturday we went to the palindromic village of Glenelg, one of the remotest places on mainland

Britain

. Visited a couple of Pictish broch’s around 2000 years old before moving on to Glen Shiel. Weather for this time of year was very good, autumn wasn’t as far along as I thought it might be, there were still swallows around.

Sunday I took a walk to the Falls Of Glomach which is

Britain

's tallest waterfall at 370 feet high, they are rather isolated and is a 10 miles walk, climbing up to 1700ft and a 7 hour round trip.

We bought a new car, well new to us, will get me out onto the hills a the Jeep was unreliable.

2010-09-19T20:35:00.001+01:00

Hardraw force.

One of the best things we did was join the Caravan Club and we started our tour with a call off at there site in Edinburgh, its always nice to break up the journey down to Teesside. We had always been put off by a negative experience we had at one of their sites a couple of years ago, not the CC itself, but its snotty members. Anyway we have used a few of the sites and everything was great, most of the members and particularly the quality of the sites.
After a visit to see the kids and a night out glamping with the grandkids we went off to the Yorkshire Dales. Stopping at the CC site at Hawes we explored the area for a few days, I got to climb Inglebrough at 2373 ft / 723 m, one of the Dales three peaks, hope to do the others sometime as we both enjoyed the are and agreed it warranted more time, also neglected some of the pubs in Hawes.
We moved south to North Wales, stopped at a C&CC site near Bala, visiting places like Beddgelert and Betws-Y- Coed, we hadnt been here for about 20 years. I finally managed a climb high enough to warrant a recording in my Munro Magic page, the Glyders are 2 mountain tops with some fantastic terrain, there is also a few geocaches up there but due to the extremely poor visibility I was only able to find 2, the experience has also made me gain more navigation and pathfinding skills. I really want to return to this area sometime so I can get to see it properly.

Glyder Fawr

We then moved back north to the Lake District, near to Kendal, really would have liked to do a bit of exploring and geocaching in Kendal itself, but the day we went we spent nearly 2 hours trying to find a parking place before giving up. The CC&C site at Windermere, we didn't like it too much, they put us in the family camp area so lots of kids about, the only plus it that it has a bar on the site itself. I climbed Loughrigg fell.
After a few nights in the Lakes we moved on to Garlieston, Dumfries and Galloway, a loverly quiet CC site on the edge of the village, pub was very close, should visit again.
We had hoped, a spur of the moment thing, to drop into Edinburgh for a couple of nights on the way home, but it was full due to the festival, no accommodation to be had so we went to Alva nr Alloa. This CC site has a fantasic view of the Ochil hills, we did a bit of geocaching in the area, I would have loved to explore the hills more and will its a good spot for stopping off on the way home.
Finally it was Gathering in the Glens, geocaching meet, we walked part of "Jocks road" .
I really must write these up at the end of a day, this has taken me weeks.

Wet week on Skye

2010-07-16T20:45:00.001+01:00

The Cuillin ridge.

With some of the north west of Britain suffering drought, other areas basking in the mid 20's, I chose the part of the west coast of Scotland where it never seems to stop raining.

I started my summer holidays off with a stop in Poolewe, where I hoped to climb a hill called An Teallach, the weather report was for 100 mph winds on mountain tops, even keep on the lower slopes it was hard sometimes keeping my feet. In the end I had to contend with a couple of pints of ale named after said hill. I maybe should have known as I had a puncture on the way there, foreboding.

I took the coastal road south to Applecross, a mecca for some people, mostly motor bikers for the Alpine pass approach to it, or exit as it was for me. I stopped for a couple of night and I did see a least one sunny half days here.

Then onto Skye, 3 nights at Glen Brittle, site is a bit basic but I do love it there. Again waited almost a year to come and climb the Cuillin ridge and again the weather beat me back. I expect doing this solo would have been a little foolhardy given the poor visibility. I did spot another route up, in fact it would have been my decent, but it looked better doing it that way round. again I got half way up and was able to do a bit of a recon, next year or maybe even autumn.

After that Loch Gershornish, a great cc&cclub site with new and improved facilities. I did a lot of driving around, small walks, a few geocaches. This was all to culminate in a walk along The Quiraing, again the weather was atrocious, I had only done about 1/4 of my intended walk, I got as far as The Prisoner, then turned back soaked, not quite ti the skin but I would have been by the halfway. Besides all that I could hardly see a thing, the odd dark shape loomed out at me now and again, but I was missing most of what the place had to offer.

Off somewhere else in the coming weeks, surely the weather must be better.

3 years of geocaching.

2010-05-13T20:54:00.007+01:00

A meander on Morven.

We have now been geocaching for 3 years and that anniversary almost coincides with the 10 years since geocaching was invented, we have thoroughly enjoyed it and really its not exaggerating to say it has changed our lives, it has spurred us both on to make or support minor changes in our lives that then flourished into real lifestyle changes. As a thank you we decided to try and put something into every cache we found this year, tired of finding bits of tat (usually paper tat only good as holding moisture in a cache) in some of them, one example went something like "took £2 coin, left business card from local fishery". Inspired by the geocaching snippet from Splinterheads I bought a 100 plastic finger rings from ebay, really quite cool seen them for £2 each in shops, they can even fit in a film canister. We still might take something from a cache but would put something more in its place.

Here in Aberdeen we had 2 extra days off within a 3 week period, one a local Aberdeen holiday ( yay for Aberdeen) and May day. On the first long weekend off I climbed Morven a local Corbett with a geocache at the top, our 770th, weather. The following holiday saw us in Glenmore, camping on the banks of Loch Morlich at the foot of Cairn Gorm.

Evening light on Loch Morlich.

We went on a walk right round the loch chasing a small trail of caches, as well as the both of us climbing a nearby Corbett, Diane's first, with which she was really proud. Later that afternoon we went along to a nearby cafe with wi-fi, I logged the caches and made uploads to Flikr as Di watched the birds and a red squirrel feeding.

As we left for the Mayday weekend a trail of geocaches was put out leading up Mount Keen, the most easterly of Munro's, hoped it would have kept a while but no someone else had planned to do one of our caches close bye and extended his visit to take in these caches, hoisted on my own petard. All the time into early May and still walking in snow.

Easter Fortnight.

2010-04-25T19:04:00.002+01:00

Valley of Rocks.

In an attempt to gain better weather for our Easter break we decided to go South, Devon or Cornwall was on the cards for a possible summer trip but we changed our plans pulling it forward, so off to North Devon. We even managed to squeeze an extra day into our plan and took the opportunity to drop in Morton Hall again on the way down, got in a few local geocaches before retiring to the Stable bar for one of there loverly meals.

Maybe it will be the last visit here, on reading the booking confirmation email, a little later once booked in, I saw they had wanted to charge £3 for Felix the cat who travels with us, can not understand why as he takes no advantage of any of the facilities on the campsite and bring his own cat litter.

After sleeping later than intended we set off for Hayfield,a long drive, a sneaky little multi-cache right outside the campsite satisfied us for that day and off to The Sportsman, an inn serving very good food, fine ales and our friend Tom works there.
North Devon was our next stop for a whole week stopping at

Umberliegh, weather wasn't the best but not the snow they had back in Scotland. Explored a little of Exmoor, Exeter, along with an interesting area called Valley of Rocks and a village called West Down where someone has laid 105 geocaches along the west down way. Needless to say we didn't attempt to go for them all, but did manage 21 a record for us for one day.
Heading back up North we called in at Formby nr Liverpool, stopped on a friends drive and visited the beach, there we did an earthcache where we had to find some prehistoric mudflats at low tide, this ephemeral fossil had the foot prints of ancient people and animals. Final stop off on the way home was Moffat, meeting up with the kids, who were once more staying at St Marys loch. We all went for a walk up the Grey Mares Tail falls to Loch Skeen, once there I decided to leave the group and go on to a high terrain geocache, avoiding yet more snow however the uplands of Scotland are arctic. We also found the cache that we had looked for exactly one year earlier and quite easily, as is often said by all in the geocaching game, sure I'd looked there before.
From now on I must try to write posts for the blog more timely.

Happy first birthday, blog.

2010-03-14T16:05:00.004Z

Over looking Loch Muick.

Its been a over year since I started this blog and its proved very useful as an aid to my failing memory of where we have been and when we where there.

Always seems a long drag from Christmas up to Easter, but the days are getting longer, if only it would stop snowing, we are just about to go into March and its snowed every week since before christmas. We have however managed the odd days geocaching in between the blizzards and a hill walk and no doubt we will get a chance for a couple more leading up to Easter.
Currently planning our next big trip all the way down to Devon with a few stops along the way and having got the van through its MOT, started giving it a spring clean in preparation. Devon looks promising for the walking and geocaching and we are both more than ready for a good break.
I started this entry a few weeks ago and the weather is slowly picking up.
Geocaching.com says there are now 1 million geocaches active across the world ! "We have our work cut out for us" says Carlotta and I am aiming for 1000 caches by the end of the year.

Winter is snow joke.

2010-01-09T20:12:00.001Z

Approaching Carter Bar

The snow started to fall the minute work finished and the holiday break started, it didnt seem to be a problem at first but as time went on and the temperature remained around freezing it became evident we weren't going to get the van out of its compound. The owners of the compound at Dyce caravans placed a notice at the gate not allowing anyone to remove there caravans and motorhomes which was understandable given the state of the ground, nothing less than an ice ring, however the lack of further information or contact details was very much lacking, to this end I think I will look at an alternative provider.

By Boxing day we had given up on the whole idea of the motorhome but were still keen to get out and about so the alternative was the jeep and I had to come up with some alternative accommodation. The journey down to see the kids was tricky going, especially as we reached the Scotland / England border at Carter Bar on the A68, with cars struggling to get along in both directions I put the jeep into four wheel drive, something I had never used till now, we sailed through getting to our journeys end 3 hours later than expected but safe and sound.

A few days on Teesside with the kids including a visit to Durham. Geocaching was limited and very difficult, the snow made it a very wet and cold business.

Off to Edinburgh for new year but instead of our usual stop off at Morton hall being in the camper, we stopped in a wooden wigwam, nothing more than an insulated shed really but very comfy, warm and had a television.

Didn't go into the capital of hogmany for the celebrations themselves, the bar at Morton hall is great, big open log fire tasty food and the guys behind the bar are welcoming.

Took a couple of walks, new years day we went over too Holyrood park and the following day along the Water of Leith, that was a particularly blizzardy day and again the geocaching was hard with such a white featureless terrain.

It snowed a lot over night, the motorway had been closed down and it took me over an hour to deice the locks of the jeep, but all in all it did us proud. A week after returning home and the motorhome is still inaccessible at Dyce as its still freezing conditions.

No big plans till Easter which is well over 2 months away, must get in a few hill walks, maybe a weekend away as the light nights come in.

Suzuki jeep and wigwam.

Soon be Christmas

2009-11-28T18:46:00.021Z

Millstone hill, Bennachie forrest, Aberdeenshire.

Just felt the need to make at least one blog entry before November was out. Its been pretty quiet, a couple of geocaching days in the jeep and mostly work.

Now its looking forward to the Christmas break, with a visit to the kids, maybe take in Durham and a stop over in Edinburgh for the new-year festivities, plenty of opportunities for photography and geocaching along the way.

In the meantime we got our fastest FTF (first to find), to cut a short story shorter the cache was secured 15 mins after the email came in, as it was around the corner in Old Aberdeen, once secured it was into St Machar bar for a celebratory wee dram.

Started running a few weeks ago, mostly too keep fit and
in a effort to loose a few pounds as I see I am borderline
for my ideal weight. Seems to be doing me some good and
I get a buzz out of it.

700th Geocache

2009-10-25T17:00:00.012Z

Grouse up a hawthorn bush.

17th to 24th of October.

The October break brought us our 700th cache find, on a week trip to Northumberland, a return to Hayfield and back to see the kids on Teesside.

First stop was Dunstan Hill with a very interesting geotrail around Berwick on Tweed, looking at the areas visited by the painter L,S, Lowry, it was only recently discovered that Lowry holidayed here on a regular basis, I wasn't a great fan of his work but the trail did change my opinion towards it for the better.

Berwick upon Tweed.

Decided to go back to the Peak district. Edale is a loverly valley with lots of walks including some onto Kinder Scout, I had planned to go up onto Kinder from Hayfield but as the campsite doesn't have electric hookups, we had quite a drain on the leisure battery so it need a bit of a run to recharge it. I took a little walk onto Nether Tor. Again plenty of reasons for a revisit at some point, but not for a while.

On the way home we called off to see the kids for a couple of days. The little ones are growing up fast and quite getting into the "treasure hunting for little toys". Found a nice little trail of caches along the River Weir, five in total starting at Sunderland Bridge. a village just south of Durham, chose this as they were all fairly close together, the little ones like to do a few but cant walk too far, but at just under 3 miles round trip, they did very well.

Geocache find 700.

New acquisition.

2009-09-05T22:17:00.003+01:00

Suzuki, Vitara, Fatboy.

Bought this Jeep off Ebay, a little project to cleanup and do up, something that can be used generally to take me out and about, locally so as to not rely on the motorhome.

Gathering in the Glens.

2009-08-27T20:44:00.009+01:00

The Craigs of Loch Brandy

22nd of August 2009.

Gathering in the Glens, is a geocaching event that been going on for a few years now in Glen Clova. We have only been going for the past two years but the event seems to be gaining in popularity and attendance. Its a wonderfull setting with lots of geocaches to be found, there is the opertunity to camp out which the kids will love, some people stay at Glen Clova hotel's bunkhouse, a quieter alternative, we stay at the campsite just ourside Kirriemure.

I tackled a fantastic little walk, about 4 hours with a snack break, around Brandy Loch, a circular walk that starts just out the back of the hotel, was six and a half mile, maximum hight 850 meters or around 2800 feet in old money. Some great views of the glen from up there as well as Mt Keen and Lochnagar 22nd of August 2009.

My First Munro

2009-08-16T21:56:00.006+01:00

Field of small boulders
Originally uploaded by FoC Friends of Carlotta

11th August.

Lochnagar - Meikle Pap, a Munro top at 980 meters (3215 ft) not the hardest hill walk I have had but the highest, for about an hour when I reached, Lochnagar - Cac Carn Beag, 1155 metres (3789 feet). Will have to do it again as I couldn't see a thing.

Seeing family and friends.

2009-08-15T21:08:00.011+01:00

28th July to 6th August.

Saltburn pier and Huntciffe.

A quick trip across to the other side of England to see the family and friends, in the form of people and places we hadn't seen for a while, just in case we were feeling home sick.

On our way to Loftus we had fish and chips on Redcar seafront then on to Saltburn where by a stroke of luck we bumped into my brother. An evening in the pub was followed by a visit to Staithes, nothing had changed much.

On returning to see the grandkids we took them out for the day, a trip in the campervan with ice creams can be a big adventure, especially if a little geocaching in the offing, all that done we decided a visit to Dorman museum may be a good idea, put it into the satnav and off we went. We were a little surprised to see the satnav trying to take us into the River Tees, as we turned a corner we heard here say "And now board the ferry", it was the transporter bridge, something I hadn't ridden since I was about 5 or 6.

Portmeirion

Next day we left for Oswestry, where!, no I'd never heard of it and it was a bit of a "dart in the map" destination. Seemed kind of central for exploring a few places and handy for Derbyshire which was to be our next stop.Oswestry was an interesting little town to walk around and the following day we went off to Portmeirion, North Wales.

The Peak district, Light and Dark, visited Cassington Water, an extremely popular place for a family day out. Dovedale seemed to be popular as well but you could get away from the crowds a little. A walk from Castleton to Hope, that was a very interesting area with its crags and caverns so I must visit again.

Over Hayfield.

Finally Hayfield to see a friend I hadn't seen for a good long while, didn't get a great opportunity to do any big hill walking but I must revisit Tom and do a lot more walking and photography in this area.

Have been to some great places over these hols most I would certainly go back too, the drive back was arduous but very do able.

One thing I learnt on this trip, strong coffee and driving in town doesn't mix.

Oban and The Lakes.

2009-08-07T19:55:00.018+01:00

Deer in Glen Etive.

20 th - 27th July.

We set off for almost three weeks on the road, Oban then down to the Lake District, across to Teesside seeing family and friends then down to the Peak district. We started off with a satnav adventure where the Garmin took us down Glen Etive only to find the forrest "track" she intended taking us down was closed, the upside being we saw a Golden eagle and the scene above.

Oban is a quaint little port, fairly busy with tourists even though it rained most of the time, so much so the windscreen wipers packed up, but were sorted by a very helpful garage even when they were snowed under at the time. A few geocaches in town and a visit to a waterfall, An Rhuadh Darach which was only discovered recently.

Off then to the Lake District and Keswick, We have both visited the "Lakes" a few times in the past and did try to go at Easter but left it to late, being all booked up. It is a very busy place and the poor weather (still raining) didn't seem to put the crowds off. Thats the problem with the lakes, too crowded and I think the landscape of Scotland has really spoilt me for this area, pretty as it is.

Castlerigg stone circle.

We visited Castlerigg stone circle, The Bowder stone in Borrowdale and Ambleside tried to find Kurt Schwitters grave in which I had found 8 years ago but couldn't re-find but that was very much a spur of the moment thing.

We did go out for a few ales in Keswick on the Friday night, it was very nice being in a town with none of the usual Friday night ruckus, however we made it an earlyish evening but it did all seem very civilized.

At the time I wasn't that enamored by our visit to the lakes, it could have been the weather or perhaps that whenever we have visited its always this particular area, next time I will go further south.

The back door of "Crow Crag" Cottage.

Talking about a few ales, as we left to take the short drive across to Teesside, we felt there was plenty of time to take in a walk somewhere along the way, so as it had been in the news recently we wondered if we could find Sleddale hall which had been, Withnail's uncle Monty's country cottage in the cult classic "Withnail & I". We found it and found it worthy of a cache placement.

One thing I learnt this trip, you don't get your money back if it rains whilst camping in the Lakes.

Wester Ross & Skye

2009-07-15T20:27:00.015+01:00

Loch Coire Mhic Fhearchair

Enjoyed a few days solo over on the West coast, at Wester Ross and the Isle of Skye. First stop was Laide, a place I was at a few years ago before moving on to Poolewe. Love this part of

Scotland

and if your lucky enough to get good weather it can be almost tropical. I did what I found to be quite a challenging walk up through the Coire Dudh Mo to Loch Coire Mhic Fhearchair in the Torridon area, not the highest I’d been but so hard on the legs.

Then off to the Isle of Skye, first staying at the Glen Brittle campsite, a bit basic but in one of the most fantastic settings I have ever been in, I shall return. Then too the C&CC site at Loch Greshornish a place we stayed at last year and great for exploring the North of the Island.

The Cuillin Ridge.

I have now done all the geocaches in the Northern half of Skye, which involved several short walks the best just a little way into the Cuillins, next time I will try to go further as they took me to some of the most pretty little places.

Managed to get a bit of sea fishing in as well, not to any degree of success.

One thing I learnt this week, walking poles just seem to transfere blisters from the feet to the hands

Bridges, lichens and some dreams realised.

2009-07-06T21:26:00.008+01:00

The Forth Rail Bridge.

Ever since moving up to Aberdeen we have always wanted to stop off at Pettycur Bay campsite to take a closer look at the coastline, but with lots of potential places to visit in the van this little area of Fife (sorry Kingdom of Fife) got pushed down the list till this weekend. It had always looked great, located on the edge of the cliffs overlooking Firth of Forth with views across to Edinburgh. Another place often seen from afar as we crossed either of the Forth bridges and always wanting a visit was North Queensferry,

June 3rd the start of 6 weeks away from work, started a little ominously with a “server outrage” at Geocaching, com not a big drawback as I had most of the area covered by GSAK but I had left some out.

Day 1 was Aberdour and Burntisland, pronounced Burnt Island or Burnis Land depending if you’r posh or not, its definitely not posh, only good if you like all the fun of the fair. Aberdour had the most too offer, lovely part of this coast and a quaint little village. Found 3, DNF 3, bit of a poor show but as someone once said “It’s not about the numbers”.

I have always been taken by the abundance of lichens found in Scotland, not least the bright orange ones found by the sea. Whilst at a beach cache here I came across a small group of professors organising a field trip for 30 lichenologists from the OU. I over heard them discussing the two main types of lichen found, apparently they can be distinguished thus, one is an orangey yellow and the other is yellowy orange.

The following day North Queensferry and Dalgety Bay, too look in awe at the giant marvels of engineering, we had a great time walking around picking up various caches promoting the best viewpoints, also great for watching the world whiz by and chill out, on a hot day. Dalgety Bay functions largely as a dormitory suburb of Edinburgh and seemed a little souless.

Something I learnt this week. The collective noun for a group of professors is a pomposity.

Monifieth and Dundee

2009-06-14T22:31:00.010+01:00

Standing stones artworks in Montieth.

Trouble with the van so we had to cut the weekend short. Took in a great bunch of urban caches around Dundee, as well as a bit of shopping. Stayed at Tayview campsite at Monifieth and for once used public transport to get into town, which proved sensible.

Had trouble starting the van the previous day but felt I had solved it but when we got to the campsite it failed to restart, a nice guy helped us out. The next episode was on the way home, stopped off at Crombie country park, stalled it and again it failed to restart, again a nice couple offered us a jump lead start.

Still working on geotagging and finally got GpicSync to work properly, I like it due too its simplicity. Will continue to work with this program and Geosetter.

The main thing is that its now under three weeks to the hollidays and six weeks off traveling.

Round and about Loch Muick.

2009-05-26T20:20:00.018+01:00

Loch Muick

Loch Muick is situated just outside Ballater in the Cairngorms, a loverly place for a walk around but also as a starting point for an ascent of Lochnagar or Meikle Pap. Ever since we moved up here people have been telling me how we must visit the area, this weekend we had the chance.

The walk was a wet one, lots of rain, we had waterproofs but never put them on as it always looked as if it was about to stop, but never did. These was of course a geocache on route but I did want to see the lay of the land for a possible Munro visit sometime, soon.

Sunday was a better day, working our way back to Aberdeen we visited Burn 'O' Vat, Sloss of Dess and Crathes Castle, five caches on the way.

Been looking at free software that will geotagg my photos, saving time with Flickr as I do like to show where I shot the image and seeing as I am always using the technologies anyway. GPiSync looks good but on testing didn't show the correct positions on Google Earth, couldn't figure out why. Copics Photomapper is very simple to use, has a big image preview but no map, I couldn't get it to show the tags on Google E, will work with it a little more. Microsoft Pro Photo Tools works with virtual earth and seems to have a lot to offer. My favorite so far seems to be Geosetter lots of features detailed Google maps, will continue to try them all.

Springwatch started this week, a sign the holidays are not too far away.

A long Mayday weekend

2009-05-04T21:51:00.014+01:00

Rainbow Lossiemouth.

Originally uploaded by FoC Friends of Carlotta

It was great to get away for a nice long weekend. Took ourselves off to Cullen situated on the Moray coast, northeast Scotland. Its a quaint little place, offering such culinary delights as fish & chips, Cullen skink and the local ice cream.

The biggish hill overlooking the area is called Bin Hill or Bin of Cullen (1053ft), once climbed for a geocache as well as the exercise, we continued along the coast to Findochty and then Buckie, not staying in ether place too long, both rather unremarkable. We were heading for Spey Bay with its wildlife centre and were privileged to spot an Osprey circling above, giving us a wonderful flying display.

On the way back to Cullen we decided to do just one last cache of the day. As we went through Fochabers ( love that name ) we stopped of at the Whiteash Winding Walks, a maze of paths which wind through magnificent firs and spruces in a steep-sided gully. The original paths and bridges were built in the 19th century by the Duke of Gordon, cache no 6 of the day.

Minimalist Landscape

Sunday was mostly spent in a small Foresty commision wood south east of Lossiemouth, which doesnt seem to have a name, the edge of which runs along the edge of a shingle beach with lots of tank traps, pillboxes and gun emplacements. The day was quite blustery but we were protected from this in the wood and it was very pleasant. A 6 mile walk on flat terrain and 2 geocaches.

Along too Lossiemouth (Lossie to its friends) for a brief look around and finished off the day with a visit to Duffus Castle, interesting enough with its well kept motte and bailey, a cache and dash as it was quite exposed, cold and windy, 4 caches today.

That evening as I processing my images, posting them on flickr, logging caches and tweeting. A new cache came up in an area on our route home, but we weren’t about to rush at it as we had other plans.

Monday, Mayday, arose later than usual, always sleep well in the camper even when the winds trying to roll it. Off for a little walk along the coast just out the back of the campsite. Wonderful coast just here, which we thought was well worth of a cache, so off we went to place it. Chose a nice tricky place lots of elevations with good views, lets see the reactions. Back to the van a final cup of tea and a second breakfast before the off. The people who run this site are really nice, friendly and helpful, it clean and well kept.

Cullen Bay

Carlotta wanted to visit the Peregrine watch centre nr Huntly, I keep promising every time we pass, so this time, determined to make this all too short a break last as long as possible. Viewed the Peregrine on its eggs via CCTV and watched the Chaffinches and Siskins darting around. Off to find another cache in the same woods that didn’t take too long before we were off again.

Ok here we go, it’s a potential FTF (first to find) but it’s a bank holiday, so plenty of opportunity for others to be out and about and it was now 2.45 in the afternoon. We took the longer but a less steep approach to the cache site, it was less than half a mile anyway. Found it no problem but very apprehensive on the approach and retrieval. Yeah! a ftf swapped stuff and dropped off TB’s, there you go. We returned the quicker route and on our way back saw some folks in the car park with what looked like a GPSr, as we approached then I recognised them as geocachers and proclaimed to them that they were just too late, 20 minutes was all the difference it would have needed. Had a victory cup of tea and scone at the “Country Emporium” on the way back home, a fun filled day, weekend in fact. 12 finds 0 dnf

Something I learned this week, Bin means hill, already knew Ben was mountain.

Back to work.

2009-04-20T21:56:00.006+01:00

Back in the compound
Originally uploaded by FoC Friends of Carlotta

Well that's the Easter over with, so sad to see the van back in the compound, but then May bank holiday is only 2 weeks away.
We found our 500th geocache at Cruden bay and it was a first to find, so that was a bonus. Never got a really good hill walk in, thats something to look towards. On the whole a good couple of weeks, weather has now decided to pick up, but isn't that always the case. With the upsurge in the popularity of holidaying in the UK , I think I need to plan further ahead, hoping to go to Cullen for the Mayday long weekend, I can taste those wonderful fish and chips already. until then its back to work.

Search for our 500th cache.

2009-04-16T11:19:00.017+01:00

St Mary's Kirkyard.

I suppose holidays this time of year are hit or miss with the weather, especially in Scotland, at least the rain wasn't torrential and things did improve during the second half, if only the same could be said for the geocaching, you would think after accruing almost 500 find in 2 years things would get easier but they don't.

A visit to Stirling on a drizzly day was made worse when I found the cache details hadn't loaded into the GPSr for some reason, dammed technology !, but I did have them on the PDA with Memory Map, yeah ! technology. Apart from the famous view of the castle from the approach in, I found Stirling uninspiring.

A visit to Bracklinn Falls brought a nice surprise as we bumped into some other geocachers, something that doesn't happen as often as you may think. I had given this one up in order to take a photo but Carlotta kept going and her persistence payed off. We did want to visit nearby Callander but the place was heaving with the Easter weekend traffic so we gave that a miss. Took an after tea walk from Milarrochy bay C&CC site too Balmaha this was a round trip of just under 6 mile, to find this other cache in the shadow of Conic hill.

A visit to Mugdock County park was very productive, a good number of caches in a relatively small area but an interesting area to boot, views of Glasgow from afar, lots of archaeology old and newer, a very popular place but plenty of space. A DNF here meant we did not reach 500 today.

Off then to the Borders to meet up with the kids, a loverly area to be in but we could only stay 2 days, a visit to the Grey Mares Tail waterfall then off home, but we had to stop off to try to find our 500th cache at the Kirk of the Lowes, again a very interesting spot St Mary,s graveyard overlooking St Mary's loch lots of atmosphere but a DNF for us, when is it going to come.

Something I learnt this week.

Before we set of I noticed the water in fuel filter indicator stayed lit all the time, I tried to remove the water from the filter and buy a new one both unsuccessfully, after a little internet detective work I came across a blog about the poor quality of Tesco fuel. I decided to try other supplies, I had in mind Shell, Esso or BP however it was Asda in the end, no sooner had I gone about half a mile, the light was out and stayed out.

Trip to the Trossocks

2009-04-09T10:12:00.007+01:00

Isle Loch Lomond
Originally uploaded by FoC Friends of Carlotta

Day one, of our Easter break in the southwest of Scotland. Arrived at Loch Lomond mid afternoon, once everything was sorted it was time for tea and with the rain we just settled in for the night. Watched Withnail & I to get us in the holiday mood, amazing surround sound rain effects, had a bottle of Innes & Gun ale, did I say it was raining.
Day two, rain eased off towards the afternoon, 4 caches found but 2 did not find, whilst walking parts of the West Highland Way, a disappointment in one way but loverly spots along the banks of loch lomond. Rain is coming into the toilet/shower as we seem to have lost a cowling off the roof, can’t think how. Had a bottle of Old Jock Ale, was quite nice.
There's still some snow on the top of some peaks so wont be going to high.

We've gone on holiday by mistake !

"Blue door" riverside walk, Edzell.

2009-03-22T16:49:00.010Z

River North Esk, HDR.

So we finally managed to get out to Edzell and do a little geocaching along the "Blue door" riverside walk, which runs beside the river North Esk. Bad weather had stopped the trip earlier due to the snow but today it was fine, starting out very sunny but as we left the van cloud came over, light was poor for photography. Its a great little place lots of rapids, popular with canoeists I see, as well as salmon fishing. Lots of remnants of a bygone age, old walls, bridges, a tower and of course a small cluster of geocaches to be found.

The walk is easy going about 2 miles down to a place called the Rocks of Solitude, which is a wonderful enough name to entice anyone out here, undulating paths but nothing too taxing. I was told about this place a few years ago but the directions were all a bit sketchy. Red squirrels can be found here and we did see one crossing the road as we sat in the van. I must come out here with a film camera some time and do some serious photography.

Went into Edzell for a look around, quaint little village with a tea shop, dare say it could be quite popular in the summer.

Next trip off to the Lake district at Easter and looking forward to the break and yet more geocaching, hope to visit some high caches.

One thing I learnt this week, our motorhome appears on google earth's street level images.

Mither Tap, hill walk.

2009-03-15T16:35:00.008Z

Ascent of the Mither Tap.

Originally uploaded by

FoC Friends of Carlotta

Climbing the Mither Tap was the first bit of real exertive exercise I’v had since well before Christmas and it was quite telling, had been looking forward to this for a few weeks now but weather had not been on my side. Last summer we climbed Craigshannoch at the start of the break then Oxen Craig ( the highest on the Bennachie range ) and Craig Watch at the end
I am currently planning a couple of trips, a small geocaching trip to Edzell at the weekend then a longer one probably to the Lake district for the easter, where we look forward to more hill walking and of course more geocache finds.

Geocaching what is it all about.

2009-02-28T19:32:00.003Z

We started geocaching nearly two years ago, first it was something to do when out for a walk, now we go out for a walk to find a geocache or cache.
This sport or game is now getting us fit, you need to be sometimes to keep it up, we walk for miles and up mountains to boot, but we are addicted.
Other interests are also raised, you definitely need a love of the outdoors and all that can bring.
There are caches inside the Arctic circle down to the Antarctic, some under the sea and the tops of mountains. There is probably one just around the corner from you.
Its taken us from the most beautiful scenery in Britain to some of the grubbiest city back streets and show us places we never knew were just around the corner.
We live in Aberdeen which seems to be the microcache capital of the world.

We chose the name as it could be a team all the family can join, the kids think we are sad, but the tiny ones think its magic.

Introduction

2009-02-28T18:31:00.005Z

For some reason I felt that this may be a good idea, well we are up for most things.

There is nothing Carlotta and I like better than traveling around in our campervan, (ok its a motorhome but that sounds too pretentious) the cat (Felix) comes with us and we geocache as we go, It is our only vehical so I cycle everywhere else, it keeps me fit and I really enjoy it.
I have set this particular page up so I can nurture our, but particularly my, inner geek and to find ourselves within the wider world, this is us having fun. We love nature and the great outdoors and geocaching shows us some of the most interesting and exciting places.
One of our favorite films is Dead men Dont Wear Plaid, hence the geocaching name, but I love the old film noir anyway. And I dont mind a bit of art.