Weeks holiday, woop!
After Nick got in we headed off to get his car then heded up to Ballacuilish to meet the rest of the posse.
Soph arrived like a whirlwind with a walking stick for Phil and a vast medical bag, trying hard to get Phil to agree to at least *something* she'd brought. He delinded and said he had his own cure as he glugged down his guinness, wine, champagne....
That theme carried on for rest of evening, there was much hilarity & i crawled off to bed aroud 2.30am. Nick decided to go home in moring as he was still feeling sick and aparently he came in and hugged me & said goodbye, i have no recollection of this at all! Phil headed off home too, hobbling :(
Anyhoooo, everyone got up had brekkie and got ready for run in Glen nevis area. Well when i say everyone, a scary looking creature came through growling at everyoe and eating porridge occasionaly growling things like "never again" I later found out this was my good friend Soph! ;)
We left the scary creature to bang her head on kitchen table and headed off to Glen nevis. Car Park was heaving! First sign we come across was this
Andy, Teacher, Father of 4 and Duke of Edinburgh Assessor, w
anted us t cross this> Spot the red tape on it folks, it's there fo
r a reason. Mike & Andy got across to find one of the cords had snapped that held it on at other other side! lol Ther
was no way me, Karen or Lucy could've even stretched our short ass bodies between those "ropes" even the rest of the boys sturggled to hold o
n.
Wasn't until after we'd all had a look, decided it was a no go that we saw the sign stuck to it saying DANGER, DO NOT USE! Andy spotted it and hid it :-o *cancels plans for duke of edinburgh award* ;)
Here are Karen, Lucy & I watching as the boys think of ways to get over...
So, maps out and new route planned. It was clear after few miles that the pathway we were on wasn't gonig to improve and the long route planned was abandoned.We passed group of teenagers out doing thr Duke of Edinburgh award and Andy was quizzing them all lol, then we came across an assessor who was out looking for them exasperated. I do wonder if this was same group he was pissed off with, i fear it was! >
The boys wanted to cross a river but me, Karen & Lucy who had sore knee by this point declined, it was only going to add 2 miles onto route so we decided to head back.
Karen ended up thigh deep into a bog and fell over every time i looked at her lol.We had great fun on way back after finding an actual runnable path near the "bridge"
Back to our *hut* and Karen went off to Aberdeen to see George, Ian went home and we were down to . After showering and discussions we decided to head across bridge(real bridge, see!) to Hotel to eat. Or not as case may be, customer service it wasn't. "we're full" was what we were told. I wandered around and tol them they had at last 12 tables free, "all booked" they said. Now most places would
've said, ok we can squeeze you in but you'll have to be off table for X time... no, not them. Avoid the balacullish hotel....
Last year at exact same time we were in Braemar and Andy was our guide, this year it was diferent location, few of same face & few ones. Whilst we were wandering round dodgy area of Glasgow
they'd been doing 24 miles around Glencoe area. When Andy first proposed somewhere to stay in was appalled, it's called the Alex McIntyre hut, i said there is no fuckin way im staying in any hut! But it's not, after finding out i had bed, fridge and hot water i was happy. It's actually a lovely house, well it *could* be ;) it's not quite the hilton but hey ho
they'd been doing 24 miles around Glencoe area. When Andy first proposed somewhere to stay in was appalled, it's called the Alex McIntyre hut, i said there is no fuckin way im staying in any hut! But it's not, after finding out i had bed, fridge and hot water i was happy. It's actually a lovely house, well it *could* be ;) it's not quite the hilton but hey ho
To book this you have to be a member of Mcofs >Mountaineering Council of Scotland. so at least 6 of us had to join, which i duly did. They sent me a map of Ben Nevis with my membership card, the wrods Head nor tail might describe my feelings when i opened it!
I'd already told them to have the champagne chilled for my arrival and it was. Within minutes of geting out car i got hug from Karen quickly followed by a very chilled glass of Champagne. Bliss. Phil told me he dragged the champagne in with his teeth whilst hobbling around in pain, i told him to shut up & drink ;)
Soph arrived like a whirlwind with a walking stick for Phil and a vast medical bag, trying hard to get Phil to agree to at least *something* she'd brought. He delinded and said he had his own cure as he glugged down his guinness, wine, champagne....
That theme carried on for rest of evening, there was much hilarity & i crawled off to bed aroud 2.30am. Nick decided to go home in moring as he was still feeling sick and aparently he came in and hugged me & said goodbye, i have no recollection of this at all! Phil headed off home too, hobbling :(
Anyhoooo, everyone got up had brekkie and got ready for run in Glen nevis area. Well when i say everyone, a scary looking creature came through growling at everyoe and eating porridge occasionaly growling things like "never again" I later found out this was my good friend Soph! ;)
We left the scary creature to bang her head on kitchen table and headed off to Glen nevis. Car Park was heaving! First sign we come across was this
They werent kidding, was precarious slippy path and one wrong foot and you'd be hurtling down a very steep ravine! Andy had a route planned out for us,the *path* we took was extremely wet & boggy but good fun all the same. We got to this "bridge" i use that term very loosely obviously...
Andy, Teacher, Father of 4 and Duke of Edinburgh Assessor, w
anted us t cross this> Spot the red tape on it folks, it's there fo
r a reason. Mike & Andy got across to find one of the cords had snapped that held it on at other other side! lol Ther was no way me, Karen or Lucy could've even stretched our short ass bodies between those "ropes" even the rest of the boys sturggled to hold o
n. Wasn't until after we'd all had a look, decided it was a no go that we saw the sign stuck to it saying DANGER, DO NOT USE! Andy spotted it and hid it :-o *cancels plans for duke of edinburgh award* ;)
Here are Karen, Lucy & I watching as the boys think of ways to get over...
So, maps out and new route planned. It was clear after few miles that the pathway we were on wasn't gonig to improve and the long route planned was abandoned.We passed group of teenagers out doing thr Duke of Edinburgh award and Andy was quizzing them all lol, then we came across an assessor who was out looking for them exasperated. I do wonder if this was same group he was pissed off with, i fear it was! >
The boys wanted to cross a river but me, Karen & Lucy who had sore knee by this point declined, it was only going to add 2 miles onto route so we decided to head back.
Karen ended up thigh deep into a bog and fell over every time i looked at her lol.We had great fun on way back after finding an actual runnable path near the "bridge"
Back to our *hut* and Karen went off to Aberdeen to see George, Ian went home and we were down to . After showering and discussions we decided to head across bridge(real bridge, see!) to Hotel to eat. Or not as case may be, customer service it wasn't. "we're full" was what we were told. I wandered around and tol them they had at last 12 tables free, "all booked" they said. Now most places would
've said, ok we can squeeze you in but you'll have to be off table for X time... no, not them. Avoid the balacullish hotel....Back across Bridge we go and end up in Loch leven Hotel, thankfully! Great service, fabulous food! what more can you ask for, go there if you're ever passing it was great! :)
Back to *hut* few more drinks and off to bed. Up in Morning to decide plan of action but Lucy's knee was sore and Scott's Achilles hurty so no running for them, giving that i was getting lift back with them i decided against holding them up & passed on run. Andy & Mike headed off to Bridge of Orchy to run across Rannoch Moor. I'd done that the week before devil but still felt a guilty about not joining them,madness seeing as I'd done the race, then glen Nevis next day!
I was knackered by time got home so I'm kinda glad i didn't run. Ran 5 miles next day to loosen off legs, i ran my first ever training route ever. whole 2 miles down to Lasswade, then i used to call Roger to come pick me up! lol It's all downhill and there was no chance of me running, or even walking it back then. I did of course run back and tagged on bit extra too to make it worthwhile.Had a sloth day on Wednesday nt even getting dressed entire day. I'm on holiday, it's allowed. Went bit stir crazy though so decided on long run next day.
Had no real plans, put on sealskins in case it ended up bein Pentlands as it was monsoon weather day before. But on stepping out door i decided to revisit another old route. The one i used to do for long run when marathon training. All road :-o Basically downhill then flat to
o, headed down to Musselburgh then right along coast to cramond. 20.5 miles, i wanted to bit more but my feet were getting bit sore so i bailed.
o, headed down to Musselburgh then right along coast to cramond. 20.5 miles, i wanted to bit more but my feet were getting bit sore so i bailed. Had plans to meet Roger in town anyway so headed up there, had lunch then pink bubbles outside in sunshine @ Tigerlilly's, my fave place in town.
Waiting on Susan arriving now, Ladies who lunch day
ie- lets go out and get pished! :)
Lovely bloggage Santa, glad you're having a great time :).
ReplyDeleteLoL @ scary looking creature... :-)
ReplyDeleteWill have to get the sunshine order in earlier next time. Thanks for coping with the *hut*!
ReplyDelete