The last two weeks have been full of ups and downs;
Heather and Howard headed up Ben Nevis last weekend, Scotlands biggests mountain reaching up to 1,344m and they had a fantastic time. Unfortunately, I was stuck at home with a sprained ankle. Poor Me!!!! :-(
Heather and Howard had a great time. They headed out at the crack of dawn for the long drive to the Nevis Range. On the way the unusually beautiful Scottish weather allowed them to enjoy our gorgeous country, stopping to photograph the iconic Buachaile Etive Mor.
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| Buachaile Etive Mor |
Photo Bomb Time .............
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| Heather photo-bombs the Buachaile |
Eventually they arrive ...........
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| Howard stops to photograph a waterfall |
They can't put it off any longer say's Heather as Howard contemplates what he has agreed to do!!!
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| Howard in full contemplation |
Time to start climbing - slight problem though, Howard may not be very tall but even he is taller than Heather and the first two thirds of this climb includes scrambling over huge rocks LOL!!! The view on the way up though is breath-taking.
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| What a view |
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| Howard says "okay I'm coming" |
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| Heather's training is paying off "This is easy" she says |
Time is getting on though, and even the locals are wondering if they have enough daylight left to reach the top and back down again.
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| The locals say hello |
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| They still have all this to climb and times running out! |
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| and this is what's behind them, its a long way down! |
Okay decision time they guessed they had climbed three quarters of the way up, so what to do - they decide to head back down, after all the mountain isn't going anywhere but Heather can't risk going over an ankle because its got dark this close to the Machu Picchu trek.
On the way down Howards bombs Heather's photo.......
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| Now that's a happy expression - Oh yes they are going down hill aren't they!!! |
After treating themselves to a venison burger meal at the Kings House, they eventually got home about midnight.
So how is my training going I hear you say; well this week it was Heather's turn to stay at home. No she didn't hurt her ankle, she has the flu instead. Poor Heather!!!! :-(
After damaging my ankle two weeks ago I chose to take it easier and stay close to home instead of heading as far a field as Ben Nevis. I did need to push the length of the walk though, so I contacted Lianne and asked her to join me at Bennachie.
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| Me heading up and please to see my ankle is not hurting Yipee! |
We do not want a quick 1 hour walk though, so decide we are going to do all 5 peaks of Bennachie. We pass Hosie's well and head for Little Johns Length. From their the path heads up to Craigshannoch where we find the first fort walls.
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| Me on top of Craigshannoch |
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| Lianne on top of Craigshannoch |
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| Lianne over looking the trails, the right trails. |
We headed over to the right first to Little Oxen Craig and then up to Oxen Craig the tallest point of Bennachie, okay its only 528m, not 1, 344m like Ben Nevis, so I guess in height we did about half what Heather and Howard did, but at least we reached the top of all four main peaks and one small one LOL!
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| Me at the top of Oxen Craig |
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| Lianne at Oxen Craig looking toward the Mither Tap |
Okay, this is where we made our big mistake, which gave us more exercise. Yes we took the right path here thinking it would take us over to a small extra point like the one at Little Johns Length, only it didn't. Once we realised we were at the tree tops on the way down hill towards the Bennachie Centre and Mill Stone Hill, we turned round and climbed back up to Oxen Craig to take the left path to the Mither Tap LOL!!! Oh well it did give us an extra 200m to climb aprox.
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| Lianne enjoying lunch on the Mither Tap |
What a lovely day it was, loads of people head up to the Mither Tap at the weekend, but it was great doing the other peaks too, as most of the hill was empty and peaceful.
As you can see, both Heather and I are ready for this trip to Machu Picchu Ha Ha!! We Hope!!!!
We may be having it tough sometimes, but we can still have a laugh doing all this training, we know at the end of it we are climbing Machu Picchu and by June all our hard work is over.
But for all those cancer suffers out there, the fight is never ending and its only because of people like Macmillan Cancer Support that they can keep fighting and yes occasionally have a laugh too. So PLEASE MAKE A DONATION TO OUR JUST GIVING ACCOUNTS.
To donate to Heather's Just Giving click
here.
To donate to Karen's Just Giving click
here.
