Sgurr Mor by Boat… or not?

Mon 5th & Tue 6th August 2013

Quite a few years back now, I was in Conistone in the Lake District browsing the boating shops and saw they were selling inflatable boats – both kayaks and rowing boats. Also for quite a few years, I’d had a yen to approach the remote Munro of Sgurr Mor across Loch Quoich instead of using any of the long walking routes. Being fairly insane by character, I suddenly had the mad idea that an inflatable rowing boat was my solution!

Loch Quoich Camping & Munroing

Wed 19 – Fri 21 June 2013
On the Wednesday morning, I left Cumbria in bright sunshine and drove north on my way back up to Scotland for another Munro-bagging trip with the aim of bagging my first Munro that evening. The bright sunshine continued over the border… up through the Eastern Highlands… westwards through Glen Spean and then I reached Spean Bridge to turn northward again for the Great Glen. At this point the sky went black and it started to rain… By the time I reached the lochs of the Great Glen the cloud was actually sitting right down on the lochs.

Winter Camping on Skye

During the cold winter of 1976/77, when I was in the Army and based on the Outer Hebrides, some of the lads decided they were going to Skye on a camping trip and extended an invitation to the WRAC girls. My mates and I were the type of lasses who’d agree to almost any daft scheme so we immediately said yes without really giving it any thought. As the Uists almost never freeze (maybe one or two days per year) we didn’t really think about it being cold elsewhere – this is despite being able to see Skye’s Cuillin hills well plastered in snow. We were soon to find out just how cold it can be in a tent in snow at minus 10 degrees!

Jabal Harun, Jordan (plus links to The High Place & Wadi Rum Docs)

Apr 2002

The highest peak in the Petra area of Jordan is Jabal Harun (or Haroun), the summit of which has “Aaron’s Tomb” situated on it in a white building atop the summit crags. The mountain is steep sided and has a plateau running from south to north with an area of large crags on the north end and a breach running up the middle of the terraced area on the east side of the mountain. The north side is also terraced but much steeper – there is a way up those terraces too but much harder.

Arrochar Cave Trip Plus Some Soggy Munroing

5 October 2010

The Arrochar Cave meet was the end of a frenetic two weeks for me – and what a fantastic end it was – it really saved my fortnight! I’d been wanting to spend a night in the historic caves since I’d read about them in various Scottish Mountaineering/Bothying books. They really are a part of Scotland’s early mountaineering history as the famous ‘Creag Dhu’ climbing club used to regularly sleep in them back in the 1940s (probably up to the present time) when spending climbing weekends away from Glasgow.