Stac Polly Conquest

So after the disappointment of Skye and a brief time back in Aberdeen, off again to the West coast and Assynt, much quieter here as was glad to find. I tried a new site over there, Clachtoll campsite and its idilic white beach, a real gem, even the drive up to it from the main road outside of Lochinver was a treat. Had a wild night as the remains of hurricane Bertha his us, tents blown down and the van rocking from side to side. In the morning the sky cleared and it became such a lovely day if still a little breezy, took a bike ride out onto the peninsula and played around with the video facility on my new camera.  
I didn't have much joy with the fishing around the camp site area itself but after a geocaching walk just outside Lochinver I tried my luck in the harbour, 18 mackerel in about 20 minutes and I nearly hooked a seal.
After a few days at that site I went over to my favourite site at Altandu, did some more exploring on my bike as well. No joy on the brown trout fishing, still after one of those little devils in the lochans above the campsite. After a few attempts over the year, this time a eventually made it through the maze of towers to the top of Stac Polly, a hairy scramble at times, I later celebrated at the Am Faran Bar.

Stac Polly

    

Friends on Skye

August 9th and I was off to Skye for a few days, meeting a couple of friends who recently move onto Skye and another who was just visiting.
Always happy to visit the island especially to do a bit of fishing, not a great deal of luck in that area but I did get put onto a possible spot for the future.
Camped on Steve and Helen's drive for the night before going on a nice lone walk to see macleods maidens .

Camping at one of my favourite site on loch Greshornish. I had decided to do a walk from one of my many guide books, The Islands, pocket mountain series. Up Ben Tianaveg offering views over Portree and on to The Storr. On the way up I met a French guy, said his name was Fred ! and he was from Paris. Anyway he was looking at another guide with a little bit of a different route, his was just up and down mine, was a little more convoluted, he joined me on my walk. We got lost a little along the way, but my navigation skills got us through in the end, but a 2.40 hour walk turned into a 4 hour one. We had explored the area more than we might have and I hadn't expected to take in a scramble, saw 5 white tailed eagles, one came very close, oh and no rain.

Jane needing some first aid from Helen.

Oban and The Lakes.

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.

Round and about Loch Muick.

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

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.

Trip to the Trossocks

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.

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.