eBothy Blog

This month’s TGO has an article by Chris Townsend on that ever debatable subject of lightweight footwear in the hills. Chris is an aficionado of walking shoes as opposed to walking boots and I’ve come to think the same way, although only fairly recently. I don’t normally blog about gear in the eBothy but I realised that, being an ML, I should know about gear, not in as much depth as someone like Chris but I should be able to give advice to the people I lead, in both summer and winter. I can only say what’s worked for me over the years but the gear scene has certainly come on leaps and bounds since I started walking in the mid eighties (I’m still a spring chicken you see!). So I thought I’d perhaps start a new category in the eBothy for gear tips and advice, in my capacity as an ML. I’m not a gear reviewer but I’ve used a fair wadge over the years so hopefully I’ll be able to pass on my experience. With that, I thought I’d add my tuppence worth to the lightweight boot debate and here is the fashion parade in which my feet have variously been spotted over the years.

You couldn’t make this up if you tried. A survey has just found that Edinburgh is the most miserable place in Britain. All Glaswegians are no doubt grinning from ear to ear at this joyous news! But how can this be? Scotland’s capital full of glowering grumblers? Well, it’s true. The good burghers of Auld Reekie recently tried to ban bagpipes in the city and the latest wheeze is “bangless-fireworks“! You know what they say about people from Edinburgh – they think “sex” is something they get their coal in and when it snows, they drag their fridges into the street and leave them open on their backs with the door open! Man, they must really hate the fringe. All that laughter and singing in the streets. It’s just not on.

It’s very autumnal here and the word on the streets is winter might be coming early. Well, it’s come early to Alaska according to An Gaidheal Alascanach (The Alaskan Gael). Translation is:

A little early for this type of view

We’ve had a real humdinger of a storm. Loads and loads of water and there was no sign of the mountains behind the town until yesterday when the clouds cleared a bit and this was the view opened to us

Following on from my Toubkal post, I thought I’d post some comments on prices I’d made at the time, May 1997. Prices are in Dirham (DH). The exchange rate at the time was around 12DH = 1 pound.

Having a rummage through some old scans and information, I came across our honeymoon trip to Morocco, where we climbed Jbel Toubkal, in the Atlas mountains of Morocco and at 4176m (13,670ft) the highest mountain in North Africa. We just did it ourselves, with some help from Marrakech Express, a now defunct Glasgow booking service for Morocco, for the first night’s accommodation. We flew Glasgow to Casablanca, then jumped on the train to Marrakech, where the hotel had no record of us but were most helpful when we mentioned we were on honeymoon. We then spent a day in the souks of Marrakech, a totally new experience for us and utterly fascinating. After that, we jumped in a taxi at the Bab er-Rob, where we started getting some hassle as I kept getting out of the taxi to check on the gear in the boot as a lot of people were arguing round the taxi and looking in the boot. It was getting a bit hairy at one point, until the driver jumped in and we sped off with a full compliment of about 5 or 6 I think. As we sped along the dusty roads, the chap next to us leaned across and said “I know, Aaamish Braown”! I knew then that we were among different people and heading for the mountains. I remember the taxi ride to Ansi was an experience. Very loud Asian music blaring from the stereo as we sped up narrow roads overlooking deep gorges.

This is fantastic. The Pheonix lander has just snapped the first frosts of the Martian winter. The lander is currently around the same latitude on Mars as northern Alaska on Earth, so it’s in for a real winter. They’re predicting 3 feet of frost and ice. At the moment, it’s a balmy -22degF although the nighttime temperature drops to -115degF. If there was a bothy network on Mars, you could imagine the scene. Lying in your sleeping bag with a column of steamy breath rising to the rafters. You get up, bang the ice out of the coffee mug and step outside for a stretch and a fart, (know as doing The Bothy Yoga). Not a soul in sight. Not a sound to be heard. Just the tingle of cold air on skin and the feeling of change in the air (CO2 actually). Overhead, a small point of light arcs across the sky. Smile, you might be on candid camera!

We were down for a relly wedding last week, staying with the in-laws near Telford, so before the rain came back on, I took the offer of a lift to Minton and walked back to Little Stretton, going up Packetstone Hill, round the head of Callow Hollow and down Round Hill and down the side of Callow. The weather down south has been pretty bad all summer apparently, unlike up here on Skye where we started off with 3 months of unbroken sunshine and no rain. It’s been the complete opposite on Albion’s Plain. Rain and floods all summer. It was Monday in Minton though and I headed up the rather steep slopes out of the sleepy wee village, into the tundra of the Long Mynd.

My brother-in-law’s car!

Another couple of tunes on the guitar. This time it’s the Irish air Carrickfergus followed by Doc Watson’s Deep River Blues. Carrickfergus is a really nice tune to play, very relaxing, while Doc’s is a bit harder!

 

 Carrickfergus [2:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Deep River Blues [1:51m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Was alerted to Streapadair‘s area on SmugMug. Superb pictures, some all the way back to the 70s. Just loved this image and its story:

The Angel of Camasunary

btw – Streapadair is Gaelic for Climber.