Third year with the motorhome.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.