As part of the ongoing Munro quest, Thursday 19^th saw Elaine and I “Bag” Mayar and then Dreish in Glen Clova.

The weather was good to us and the views fantastic. Easy accessible Munros with well trodden paths.

Glen Esk

The Sat Map Stats for the trip round Loch Lee on the Friday were:

17.4k, 5 hours, Elevation 262m, Max Climb 684m.

For those not up to speed on Sat Map Lingo – it was a long trek, up steep slopes over a heather grouse moor in the lashing wind and rain .  And Not even a Munro

3409 Ft .   Sunday 15^th August

With plans for the afternoon the best option for this walk was to set out early (rather than postpone).

Kathy and I got up 4.10am, DC arrived at Powmill 5.10am, roadworks on the Glendevon meant that we had to detour to get to Crieff to meet Robert and Elaine at 6.10am.

Got to Killin for around 7.00am and were ready to hit the hill by 7.10am.

The (almost) hourly photos below show our progress.

The benefit of starting early was that we had the hill to ourselves and it is a great feeling when walkers just starting out as you return comment how impressed they are that you have already bagged the Munro and it’s not even lunchtime.

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There are no post walk photos – but the rest of Sunday involved, beer, lawnmowers, beer, lunch, snooze, beer and in DC’s case a BBQ (where there possibly was beer)!

7.10am. Ready to set out

8.10 am

9.10am and still a bit to go

10.00 - Top of Meall Ghaiordaidh

11.10am Easier on the way down

12 Noon and back to where it all started. Calvin's face says it all !!

Occupation: I work with Tickety-Boo Training in Dunblane providing training and development within the hospitality industry.

Reason for taking part in the climb: I’ve enjoyed many years of fun and challenge in the hospitality industry (no, I’m not that old but I had my first waitressing job when I was 11 years old!) Now it’s time to give something back and what better way than more fun, challenge and fundraising for a worthy cause.

Likes: Good food and wine – let’s hope the training can balance that out. Music of all sorts but after hearing Fred’s whistling on Saturday I hope my ipod solar charger works on Kili.

Dislikes: the cold and heights – oops!!

Training to date: First Munro Ben Vorlich in May – they’ve all been colder since!

A lesser known fact about me: It hasn’t happened yet but I am going to be the inventor of the first kinetic/solar powered hairdryer. (Most probably before January 4^th next year – keep watching Dragon’s Den.)

This was a first for the Kilimanjaro expedition! Firstly we were piped to the summit of Lochnagar by the ever energetic Billy Bell, and secondly, he provided some much welcomed fine wines for the climbers at the end! All in all it was music to our ears in every sense!

The climb covered 20 kilometers of beautiful scenery and some cliff side walks that weren’t for the faint hearted. A tremendous achievement all round and roll on the next challenge!

Beauly for 3 days was the initial plan, but set off a day early so that Elaine could do the Stob Dearg Buachaille Etive Mor that we had done as a group in June.

The cloud cover was even lower than when we were all there – so we only did the one this time round. We knew all would be fine even if the weather closed right in – car park with 6 RAF Mountain rescue vehicles (training exercise) was reassuring.

Tuesday saw us in Glen Affric. Early start and beautiful scenery. 30 minutes in and trousers converted to shorts and the sunglasses on.

Double Munro Bag on a fairly well established route – first stage up Tom a Choinich (3648 Ft) –, which still had pockets of snow in sheltered areas. It seemed miles looking from the Cairn at Tom a Choinich to the Cairn at Toll Creagach (3458 Ft), but didn’t take that long once we got going. 8 hours from starting in sunshine to getting back to sunshine at the end. Great route

Despite seeing the BBC weather on the Wednesday morning news and the forecast of rain, rain and more rain – set out anyway – a 12 mile flat route round Loch Affric was always planned, so the low cloud not an issue. A few swollen burns coming down off the mountains (the ones that we had climbed the day before) that had to be waded through , but other than that it was a fine jaunt out. It was one of the good old Scottish weather days of “Wet Rain”, not “Cold Rain”!

There are 17 Munroes in the Affric and Strathglass area, so am sure that I will be back another time to Bag a few more and would recommend it, even in the rain!

Although have to say the midgies there are a hardy breed and had no fear at all of Skin So Soft. Worse than the midgies though for me were the clegs – a few bites resulted in a visit to the pharmacist in Beauly to get antihistamine and cream to reduce the swelling on bitten finger, hand & throat.

Buachaille Etive Mor, part of Glencoe, is a great climb over two mountains (this time we meant to climb two!) and a gave us a real sense of achievement. It was tough going in some places, but the whole party finished strongly and it can only get easier, we hope.

Hello,

Having been involved in the training walks that Alan Hill and David Cochrane were doing it was a privilege and total surprise to be asked to join the team going to climb Kilimanjaro for HIT Scotland.  An opportunity not to be missed.

I missed the deadline for the Catering In Scotland Magazine article, but thought it best to stick to the same format to tell you more about me.

Occupation: MD of Stag Shopfitting Ltd, specialists joinery manufacturing company in Stirling .  Have fitted many Hotels and Restaurants throughout the UK

Reason for taking part in the climb: I have recently started some serious hill walking and found it really exhilarating, so when the chance of going on this exciting challenge was presented to me I couldn’t resist.  The fact that I was helping towards a very worthy cause made it all the more worthwhile.

Likes: Golf, walking and spending time with my family, but also very fond of gourmet food and wine! Hence the need for the exercise to keep me in shape!

Dislikes: Late starts and missing the best part of the day, have to admit that I am an early bird.

Training to date: Spent quite a few Sundays recently bagging Munros with fellow sufferers, but, although tough and freezing, thoroughly enjoyed myself!  Perfect too for getting to know the GPS better  (boys and their toys!)

A lesser known fact about me: In 1993 I was responsible for surveying and manufacturing the shopfittings and transporting them to  Russia to then furnish  the first Scottish shop in St.Petersburg.  .This shop was then opened on St Andrews day (appropriate since St.Andrew is the Patron Saint of both nations).

We then started off, forgetting  to look at the signpost and ended up doing the much more strenuous West route up to the top, firstly the top of Ptarmigan and then traversing onto the peak of Ben Lomond.

The last few metres were scary, scrambling up a steep rock face with the wind blowing all around! The views from the top were spectacular and as there were so many of us, some other climbers thought a bus party had arrived! A quicker descent followed down the route we should have taken, and I think all agreed, we had done the climb the right way as going down the steep side would have been pretty tricky!

After a quick look, back at base camp, at the Catering in Scotland magazine with its excellent article, some people headed off, and others went to the Boathouse at Cameron House for a fantastic informal bite to eat. Everyone had a story or two about their thoughts on Kilimanjaro….all very positive!

I bet everyone slept well on the Sunday night….ready to take on Ben Nevis next month!

Definitely an intrepid journey though the jungles and rivers of deepest Tanzania! We could, of course, have just been to Animal Kingdom!!!