Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Pyrennean pictures: 2

This is us on the summit of Besiberri North (3015m). I'm the one on the right looking somewhat thoughtful. I made the mistake of drinking water from the burn on the way up, and it disagreed with me rather. The human body has a great capacity for getting you through things, and I stayed fairly functional through the tricky scramble that led to the summit (about British Diff), and back down it (perhaps even trickier). I then proceeded to feel awful, throw up and generally delay things once on easier ground. I got some rough doctoring from our resident anaesthetist (You're going to throw up again. Yeah, told you so.) and was persuaded to continue, minus rucksack. By the time we got to the nice alpine meadow at the base of the ascent, I was virtually back to normal.

It is a nice hill though.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Holiday at work

Work these days feels like a trip to the seaside, what with the excessive heat, and the screeching seagulls nesting on the roof of the building opposite, not to mention the happy whine of the angle-grinder as the construction site on the other side gets to work. Ah, summer days in the office!

Friday, July 21, 2006

Pyrennean pictures: 1

This is near the dam (Cavallers) that seemed to be the starting point to many of our days.

There's a lot of climbing round here, including loads of very hard stuff that we didn't attempt. It does make you realise how much rock there is, and how little of it we have in Britain. So little that we get all bothered when somebody suggests putting a few bolts in. No such scruples here, and I'm not complaining, as it gets you up those slabs very nicely.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Back again

I've been on holiday for a week (will post some interesting pics soon, I hope) and have spent this week so far catching up on laundry and sleep.

Odd to come back from walking around in Spain to a heatwave. British heat at its most intense is still fairly pathetic.

Today the park near work revealed yet another surprise. Wandering past the herbaceous border, I startled four young foxes who were hanging about there.

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Nice pictures


As you may have noticed, I've just discovered how to add pictures. This was Ben Cruachan in March. Good Windows wallpaper perhaps?

Sunday, July 02, 2006

Buses and beetles


It's a long time since I used any Citylink buses, but it was almost comforting yesterday to discover that a couple of things hadn't changed:
  • The driver thinks he's doing you a special favour to be giving out any change, and never has enough. Citylink owe me a pound.
  • They make any journey into the Highlands seem impressive by doing it nice and slowly. We stopped at Stirling for a 10 minute break (to change horses, perhaps?)
My journey was to Lochearnhead, there to ascend Ben Vorlich. The animal for the day was the beetle. Perhaps the hot humid weather brings them out?

On the way down, the falls at Edinample are very impressive, although the grounds of Edinample Castle prevent you seeing much. There's currently a bridge being rebuilt here too. This means there is no parking and no access to the next glen, from whence the Munros book recommends that you start. Oh, the little loves! Having to read the map and work things out for a change.