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[Suff]

Well I took off up the hills on Friday afternoon. I had a tent ordered with Tesco which only weighed 2.5kg and took 60 seconds to get up and pegged out. Needless to say it did not arrive.

So off I headed with my 7kg tent on my pack dragging me down. Goal to get up onto Fafernie and walk from there. I only got going at 6pm in the end after picking up bits and pieces in Tiso's in Dundee.

It rained, it poured and it blew a gale. I gave up at crow craiges at 23:20 as it was really coming down, I was, by this time, soaked and I could see it would take me another 2 hours to get up Fafernie. After a lot of hassle putting the tent up (2 man setup), in a howling gale which took all of my 45 years of tent assembling skills to manage to actually assemble it, I finally wound up in my sleeping bag (slightly damp), trying to get warm. I had to get up twice in the night and re-peg tie down's which had moved. It was a rough night and I woke up with a sore throat and a headache.

However I got out on Saturday at mid day and headed for the hills. I had managed 3 Munro's by 5pm when I was heading towards Tom Buidhe. I was tired and flagging when I looked behind me. I could see the clouds which had threatened to close in all day were finally closing in and that I would be caught in the rain for at least an hour before I could get back. So I changed path and headed back up one of the Munro's I'd already walked over (Tolmount), to head back to the tent. 30 minutes after I got back to the tent the rain and the storm came down again and it sounded like the tent was going to take off again. However most of my clothes had dried during the day and I had a much warmer evening.

Woke up on Sunday to feeling like the cold had progressed. I had intended to do a horeshoe over Fafernie and back round the south Esk but, in the end, after walking around and checking how I felt, I decided to go straight down and not push it. Which turned out to be a good decision. The tent was now around 10kg with the dampness and a lot of damp clothes made my pack circa 30kg which is about as much as I can tolerate when walking 7 miles down a nearly 700m drop.

I arrived at the car somewhat knackered but still on my feet. The ranger had just been looking at the notice on my car giving route details and times so I let him know it was me and he could stop worrying.

I dragged out my soaking shorts (cleanest legwear I had) and my last, slightly damp, T shirt and changed in the toilets.

On the hill I'd met quite a few people. When I arrived at the car I met a couple who had been walking the route, over Faferine, that I had intended to walk. They arrived about 5 minutes after me and were younger, slimmer and only carrying day packs. I'd never have made it in time. On the Saturday I'd met a couple who were camping and walking. I met them on the route down Jock's Road on the Sunday and we leapfrogged each other with our different stops. They had told me they were going on to Glen Clova to the Clova hotel. Now I know that road is about 5/6 miles and hard on the feet. Also it's a single track road with passing places. Not the best road to walk down. So, as expected, I caught up with them about half way down the road and offered them a lift. Which was gratefully accepted. My car is big so they just dumped the packs in the back. None of us were smelling too good as we'd all been out for days without access to showers but that wasn't a problem for us.

At Clova I had a Guinness and a Steak pie which were both excellent. I'd suggested they try the hotel bothie instead of wild camping but whereas it was £2 back in 95 when Mrs S and I walked coast to coast, it's £20 today. Each. So they declined. They stopped for a beer and headed for the woods to wild camp.

I got in the car and headed home. But whilst driving I casually scratched the side of my left knee and realised that my fingers were wet. Which was not what I was expecting. I looked down and realised I had a large rash with raised blisters on it. Now I'd been walking with joggers on so it was not from something that bit me or a scratch or any direct contact. I had, however, been drinking the untreated water and from a lot higher (less fall and more chance of animals in it), than usual. After all the notices I'd read about weil's disease in Germany I decided that I'd better drag myself to A&E (my GP is not in Scotland) and at least get it checked out.

Seems I'm fine but will be checking.

Well, anyway, that was my weekend and why I've been unusually silent...

To top it off I came back and have just finished watching Andy Murray win his second Olympics Gold.

Work tomorrow

I'll put some pics up when I've worked out what I want to use. Google has just borked picasa and put it into google photo's which I don't want to install, flickr is not what I want to use and photobucket is being a total PITA as it keeps telling me I've changed my password successfully then refusing to accept it...

[Kaz]

Not my idea of a fun weekend Suff, but glad you are (mostly) safe and sound anyway Hope that rash clears up, some over the counter hydrocortisone cream would help xxx

[saundra]

Wow stuff what a weekend it was different to say the least
Now you have piles of wet clothes to wash and a tent to dry
Hope you have a dry weekend next time

[Ally]

Look after yourself Suff. x

[Suff]

Thanks guys,

I'm kind of stiff today but otherwise not bad. The rash is fading and the blisters have gone.

Most of the washing is done, the weather, of course, is now glorious and warm too. However I'm heading up to my son's on the motorcycle. He's finally passed his direct access test and wants to show off his 1200cc BMW bike (which I suggested he get), to me. he's off today/tomorrow so we'll go out for a ride tomorrow.

On the + side I lost 4.5kg in weight. As that was part of the purpose of the exercise I'd call that a success.

[molly]

Most people who travel all the way from Edinburgh to deepest France every other weekend would spend the weekend without the travel to put their feet up………………

Are you seeing anything at the Edinburgh Festival Suff? My sister is up there for a week seeing as much as she can.

[Suff]

Hi Molly,

To be honest I'm never in the city in the evenings and I find the festival a bit of a pain in getting around. In all the years we lived in FIFE I've been to one Tattoo and nothing in the festival.

I went to the site to look at the festival and, as I expected, it proclaims the "arts". Now for me every time I hear someone raving about the "arts" I think of those people who raved about paintings made by cycling bicycle wheels covered in paint over a canvas. Don't get me wrong I love Titian's work and others, but when I hear "Arts" I'm usually turned right off.

Dance? I get enough of that at home and, believe me, you can become significantly tired of "dance" even if you are a dancer.

Theatre? I love the shows we go to in London, but, generally, I'm not a major theatre buff. Music? I have a very broad taste in Music but I doubt the festival is really going to blow me away. Opera? I really want to go to some operatic events but, as the choral event I went to in St Andrews proved to me, I have no interest in the unintelligible 4 singers in the middle, I absolutely love the power play of the supporting background chorus but don't have a lot of time for the principle "artiste"... Just how my mind works.

The Fringe? Ah the Fringe. You could pay good money to watch a 7 month old baby on the lap of a person for 45 minutes..... In all I've ever read or heard about the Fringe, for me it's going to be like Real Ale. In general I hate the stuff but, very occasionally, there is one which is really outstanding and worth drinking. But, here's my viewpoint. Why keep on paying to punish yourself on the off chance that you get something really good.?

As you can guess, my inclination to head for the festival is low. So it's just a traffic and tourist commuter problem for me mainly.

And before everyone gets the impression I'm a total philistine, Mrs S and I could have been part of the Scottish Country Dance sets at the Tattoo for a decade if we'd wanted. We were offered enough times. But you had to give up your whole summer to do it and the hlils and France always beckoned.

[pederito1]

Are we allowed to know what Mrs S had to say about your week end

[molly]

Are we allowed to know what Mrs S had to say about your week end

Bet she thinks he is bonkers!!

[Suff]

She's jealous.....

Because I was in the cold windy and often rainy highlands on the mountains we love. Whilst she had to endure beating sun, 40c and an afternoon in the pool....

Takes all kinds as they say. She's remembering all the times we walked. But she's not remembering that I always carried the larger pack, the tent if we were camping out and all the cooking gear. Plus the dog if she became too tired, she went in the pack until she was recovered. Or it stopped raining, whichever came first.

I was talking to the young couple I gave a lift to about the time that we walked the seven sisters over on the west coast. The month before we'd walked the Lairig Ghru and Mrs S had fallen and hurt her knee. So we walk over these absolutely fantastic seven mountains. But Mrs S' knee gives out towards the end. I had to pick her up and carry her and her pack and my pack down some of the steeper slopes to get us down. Then, after all that planning, we realised that we had 6km of hard, uphill, road to walk to get back. We did, in the end, get a lift. But a bit of foresight and we'd have brought the bikes and left them at the bottom ready to cycle back.

Mrs S remembers that one as a really good walk...

Yes, we're both bonkers. But most hillwalkers are.