Autumn colours in Glen Feshie

Christine's visit coincided with amazing weather and the peak of the Autumn colours here in the Highlands. Ordinarily we may have tried to persuade our 'visitor' on a more ambitious walk up a mountain, but Christine insisted on a more relaxed itinerary with plenty of cafe stops for cake, coffee and soup infinitum (I'm not complaining!).

We headed to the Cairngorms, firstly stopping for coffee and cake (of course), before going to the Glen Feshie Sculpture trail. The trail passes by many thought provoking sculptures created by Frank Bruce and it is amazing. Its set in a great forested landscape bordered by the beautiful Feshie river. 

Its claimed that Frank Bruce is one of Scotlands greatest sculptors. And that there is little in his early life to suggest he would become an artist, being born to a fisherman in a small village near Fraserburgh and leaving school at 13 to work in a sawmill. But he was clearly determined, overcoming his dyslexia, education himself and when not working at one of his numerous manual jobs he spent a lot of his spare time developing his skills with wood and a chisel. 

Frank refused to engage with the commercial world, and appreciated the relatively brief life span of his wooden works which will quickly return to the earth from which they came. 

After taking in the trees, woodland, river and sculptures we explored the forest and soaked in the Autumn colours and beauty of the landscape. I would highly recommend the Glen Feshie Scupture Park and surrounding woodland, and I guess we have Christine to thank for allowing us the privilege of visiting it.

Now wheres the next cafe.... ;-) 

French visit to the Highlands!

Kev drove all the way to the Highlands from Frances Massif Central. Admittedly he was doing other stuff in the UK, and visiting other people too, but boy what a long drive! I caught him in the Peak District last weekend and climbed at Stanage. This was lush, and I really miss the gritstone....

Climbers on quietus - Stanage

Kev feeling the nar...

Rain stops play!

But other than gritstone the Highlands has sooo much to offer, with the friendly welcoming people, the weather, snow, sea and coastline, the mountains, the massive wild tracts of land to name but a few things. Its a  heavy price to pay, but worth it for now at least ;-) (hope my Scottish friends don't see this)!

Abi can't wait (for Kev haha)

Beautiful Cairngorms

So having lured Kev nearly to the top of the UK it was good to have a good forecast for the Sunday after a particularly dreich Saturday. We decided to mt bike in the Cairngorms, and headed down after a night on the finest french Fitou!

There's so much good mt biking in the Cairngorms and it was hard to pick a route, but with half a day to play with we headed from Bothy Bikes, through the forest to Coylumbridge, then headed due South on a great track that breaks free of the forest and after numerous river crossing and miles gets you to the spectacular Loch Einich.

Made it!

Check out the waves!

I love Loch Einich, surrounded by steep brooding hills. Today was quite breezy at the Loch, in fact I'd never seen such big 'breakers' on the loch (looked like the sea) as we sheltered behind a rock to have lunch, before the wind assisted return to the sanctuary of the beautiful Rothimurchas forest.

time to escape!

Abi makes a strong entry

A return via loch an Eilein topped it off, and I think we all agreed it was a great day. Sadly Kev had to start the migration back to France, as Abi and I headed to Glen Feshie to the Potting Shed for tea and cakes (after getting lost). A great day, with great company.

I make a wet entry!

Bye for now Kev, bon voyage...

Sun, sweat and bruises on Ben Wyvis

Janet and Rob decided that they would leave the sanctuary of the Lakes and head North on the maiden voyage of 'The Bongo' their new camper van. Before they arrived in the Highlands they had a few challenging weather days in the Trossachs and I heard a rumour that they threw the awning in the bin after the first night! It wasn't all bad as they still managed to climb a couple of munro's.

Proud of 'The Bongo'

After the wild weather week we were very lucky to have a great forecast for the weekend and the plan was hatched to climb Ben Wyvis, our local Munro (that we hadn't been up yet). Loz had said it was quite boring and suggested it was saved until winter, so I wasn't expecting much....

There she blows

There was a first light frost on the ground when we set off (lateish) from the packed carpark. Interestingly there were 3 Bongo camper vans in the car park so it looked like some kind of Bongo convention.

Gaining height

le top

The sky was clear and sunny, and it was a nice walk up through the forest until it breaks out into open ground and eventually the well made path starts to get steep. Dramatic views unfolded west to the Ullapool/Torridon hills and up to the far Northern munro's.

After a slog we got to An Cabor and headed across Glas Leathad Mor to the Ben Wyvis summit. I was very impressed with the 360 degree views over to the Cromarty Firth and down to Inverness.

At the last SE corrie before the top we could hear stags calling as its the start of the rutting season. The deep throated sounds carried in on the breeze from far below in the corrie and this added great atmosphere.

As we headed down a few showers came and went, but this just added great light, atmosphere and rainbows. All went well apart from Abi intimately inspecting a large boulder with her right cheek bone after a slip and head butt! We all agreed that it had been a fantastic walk, and far from boring (sorry Loz)!