Last minute hitches.......

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.

Buachaile Etive Mor

Photo Bomb Time .............

Heather photo-bombs the Buachaile

Eventually they arrive ...........

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!!!

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.

What a view

Howard says "okay I'm coming"

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.

The locals say hello

They still have all this to climb and times running out!

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.......

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.

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.

Me on top of Craigshannoch

Lianne on top of Craigshannoch

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!

Me at the top of Oxen Craig

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.

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.

4 weeks to go :-)

The training has taken over our lives over the last month! 

Heather and I have been up Bennachie  and Glen Muick several times dragging poor Howard along with us Hee Hee.  This weekend Howard and I were up in the highlands of Scotland at Assynt as part of a photographic workshop Howard was running, I'm the help!

Panoramic showing some of the stunning lochs and mountains of Assynt

Assynt is spectacular and a great area to train for our challenge trek up to Machu Picchu.  We visited the ruins of Ardvreck Castle on Loch Assynt on our first day.

Ardvreck Castle, Loch Assynt

As you can see we were very lucky with the weather, it was fantastic all weekend.  On day two we headed up the river towards the Bone Cave, so called because of the archaeological discovery several years ago of Polar Bear bones left over from the ice age when Polar bears were common in Scotland.

There are some lovely photographic opportunities on the way up to the caves including several waterfall and wild flowers.

Howard enjoying the lovely weather at one of the many waterfalls we saw.

As you can see Howard is acting as a spotter for the photographers as this is where the models will sit, while the models get ready.  As the "Professional Photographer" he carries his camera bag and helps out the clients and models.  Whereas, I carry my camera bag AND the first aid bag!!!

Karen (Me) laidened down with my camera bag, the first aid bag and jackets etc. Photo by Tillie Feather

Great training practise for Peru I was told !!!!!  The funny thing is I think he was right, I was very pleasantly surprised how easy it was to carry it all, so the training must be working; maybe I won't die at the challenge after all LOL!!!

An early spring Bee enjoys the nectar from some Alpine Primroses

Over the weekend we enjoyed several walks up the hills to enjoy the mountain views, but it wasn't all a hard trek.  Assynt is so beautiful, when you get the weather, that even the lochs and waterfall found near the roadside are worth a visit.

Loch Assynt

Waterfall

These views were all worth it, but now for the bad news as this is where it all went wrong!  Our last location was this very impressive waterfall, unfortunately the trek to get to it can be a challenge in its own right and yes I slipped on the shingle and twisted my ankle very badly.  It has swollen up like a balloon!  Oh well thankfully I have 4 weeks before the challenge and it will probably be fixed in a couple of weeks, I am just going to have to be very, very careful!  Right now I am spending the rest of the holiday weekend following the RICE effect (Rest Ice Compression Elevation).

Don't forget you can still sponsor us for our challenge up Machu Picchu through our Just Giving Accounts here Karen and Heather.

What a night!!!

There is less than 8 weeks left now until we head out to Peru to take part in the Inca Trail for Macmillan Cancer Support.

This last week has been really busy.  As well as heading to the gym to train, I have been busy getting my rabies and yellow fever immunisations - mum doesn't need to get them as she already had them for her previous trips to Kenya.  I was also meant to renew my Tetanus, Thyphoid and Hepititis A jabs on Friday but when I called the GP to let them know I was going to be five to ten minutes late the very rude receptionist told me not to bother going in and that I would have to wait another 2 weeks to get the injections.  I thought I was being polite by phoning to say I was going to be a little late but looks like I shouldn't have bothered phoning and instead I should have just turned up late - at least that way I would have gotten the injections.  On the other hand, at least by waiting two more weeks it will give my poor arm a wee chance to recover from yellow fever and the first 2 rabies jabs.

What I most likely looked like during my injections.

We have also been busy getting our very expensive kits together and we now have most of what we need.  I ordered my Tilley hat today and mum very kindly bought me a new camera bag for my NEX (one that can be attached to my bag strap to save me having to dig into my rucksack everytime I want to take a photograph.  We now only have a few bits and pieces left to get and we are sorted!!

My new Tilley hat.

On other news, last night we got some friends together and did another fancy dress pub crawl.  It was freezing cold, really windy and was a little dribbly but we still braved it (without jackets) in the name of charity.

Waiting for the others to arrive in the freezing cold.

Lianne, Me, Penny, Sarah, mum and Val about to start pub crawling

With the weather being a bit on the crap side and with it being a week before pay day town was quite quiet.  This however did not stop it from being an eventful night for us.  In fact, in the very first pub we went into, Sarah was propositioned by an elderly gentleman who offered her £1000 to spend the night with him, she sadly declined.

Lianne the pirate wench, mum ready to go to war, me ready to clean somebody's house and Sarah being a bit mad hattery, minutes before being propositioned.

We went into another pub and Val, our sexy nun, had tenners thrust into her cleavage and I was asked by a couple of guys to kiss them in exchange for their donations.  Whilst leaning in to give one guy a peck on the cheek he slyly turned his face at the last second, cheeky bugger!!

Signing licences and getting ready to begin our pub crawl.

Apart from the frisky men in town we did not have any trouble from drunk people or with getting into pubs like we've had in previous pub crawls.  In fact, Lianne even had a homeless man stop her on the street to donate some of his takings into her charity bucket.  What we did find last night though, was that since pay day wasn't for another week more people than usual were declining to donate any money which left us feeling as though we hadn't raised a lot of money.  How wrong we were!!!  In fact, despite it being quiet and slow, we actually raised more then we ever have before, we even raised more than last time which was just after pay day, which was in part to do with the amount of £5, £10 and £20 notes people had put into our buckets.

Penny, our cheeky but loveable school girl.

The last time we did a pub crawl I took in £252.30, mum took in £157.02, Lianne made £112.64, Penny made £182.36, Pauline made £67.50 and Daga made £68.76 making a total of £840.58.

Lianne as the cowardly lion, mum as a witch, me as a burglar, Pauline as the queen of hearts, Penny as wonder woman and Daga as herself.

This time however, I made £262.19, mum made £180.21, Lianne made £159.18, Penny made £154.95, Val made £110.26 and Sarah made £104.93 making a total of £971.72, which takes our grand total to £6308.87 which is 96% towards our target of £6600.

Group shot.

So, with our target very much in sight and another 3 pub crawls in the pipeline, it looks like we will smash our target, or perhaps we should increase our target to £8500??

Either way, we are most definitely raising a lot of money for Macmillan Cancer Support which was our main goal and it feels great to have accomplished this, and it would not have been possible without the support of all of our friends and family and of course the very kind and generous (and drunk, and frisky) people of Aberdeen.

Remember though, that although we are doing very well with the fundraising, we do still have another £291.13 to reach our original target and if you would like to help us reach this then please click on our links below to sponsor us.  Thank you!!

http://www.justgiving.com/Heather-Kennedy5
http://www.justgiving.com/Karen-Kennedy5

9 weeks till Machu Picchu

Train Train Train - that's the name of the game now, as we have a lot to look forward to!!!!

The final invoices for our trip to Machu Picchu came through this week and they have confirmed our regional flights from Aberdeen to London.

Machu Picchu

More importantly though, we now have confirmation of our extension trip to Lake Titicaca :-)  We will be heading there by train after the trek to Machu Picchu.  Once at Lake Titicaca we head out on a boat to see the floating island of Uros, enjoy the Titicaca National Reserve and then staying on Amantani island where we stay with a local family and enjoy the community lifestyle.  While on the island we will have a chance to visit some pre-Inca ruins and enjoy the famous Inca weaving.

Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca map

We both had the weekend off this week, so up we got up early and headed out to climb Lochnagar.....

Lovely day we thought as we headed into the glen, should be great we thought and the sun was shining and making it look fantastic.  We parked the car and crossed the waterfall at the start of the path, this was our first clue on how strong the wind and sun was.  The snow melt was in full swing and the wind was blowing the trees quite strongly.

Heather and Karen in front of Loch Muick
 

The wind was so strong, it took all our strength not to get blown over, and at present that's a strong wind to blow me over LOL!!!

We passed a second waterfall that is usually just a trickle, it was not a trickle just now!

Small waterfall?

So lets think ..... what to do .... we have to train for a long distance walk on rough terrain and we're here now ..... we checked the maps and decided to circle the loch instead.

Glen Muick has several tracks that don't include going all the way up Lochnagar so we chose one that was about 8 miles long but safe in windy weather and off we went!

We headed up the left side of the loch towards the lightning path (a path that looks like lightning and heads up a very steep side of the hills), this path splits half way up giving you the choice of climbing the Munros or circling the loch.  There's a waterfall at the point where the path splits and we had to stop and take photos.

Karen and Heather at the lightning path waterfall.

 

Howard, Karen and Heather at the lightning path waterfall.

As you can see we managed to get Howard to join us this week, its amazing what a bit of sun can do!

So after making our decision and enjoying the views of the snow melt water rushing down the hill, we headed round to the other side of the loch for lunch.

Karen, Heather and Howard enjoy lunch in the best looking restaurant in town.

So far we had managed to stay one step in front of the rain, but the clouds were threatening all day, could we make it back without getting wet?



Heather and Howard as we headed back along the deer fences.




After lunch we continued round the loch through the trees and passed the deer fences and sapling trees, enjoying the beautiful sunny weather and fighting the wind but the only time we got wet was passing along the shores of the loch down in the glen.  No photos of this I'm afraid, the cameras were all kept in their bags, but it was fun when the wind lifted the water off the loch and sprayed it all over us.

There is a serious reason behind all this of course.  Now that the Inca Trek trip is getting closer it's easy to forget why we are doing this.  We may be training to ensure we beat this challenge and make the most of our opportunity but a lot of people out there have a much bigger challenge on their hands, with the prize at the end for them being LIFE!

Cancer is one of the biggest diseases of our generation, I am sure you all know someone effected by this disease.  Macmillan Cancer Support do as much as they can with every £1 they receive but are limited by their funds, more funds mean they can help more families effected by cancer.  Please consider giving a donation to Macmillan Cancer Support through our just giving links here: Karen and Heather.


10 week count-down

If you recall Bon Accord Lions Club helped us put on a fantastic Race Night in February.  Well we got some great news from them again this week, it seems they pick charities occasionally that they feel are the most worth-while and refund their £100 fee.  Well yes you guest it they chose us this time.

Thank you very much Bon Accord Lions Club

In fact thanks to the generous people of Aberdeen, our fundraising is well in hand.  So far we have raised £5, 319.39 of our target £6,600. 

Thank you Aberdeen

 

 

 

With the fundraising coming along well and the Trek to Machu Picchu only 10 weeks away, Heather and I felt it was time to increase our training regime dramatically.

 

As we both work full time and different hours getting training time together isn't easy but luckily for us we live in the North East of Scotland so hills are not to far away.  Hills like Benachie which is only 30 mins drive from here.

 

Benachie

 

So two weeks ago we headed up here for the first time and Heather being younger and fitter than her dear old Mum was at the top in 45 mins, I was about 15 mins behind her but I did it.  Yipee!!!!

 

 

Heather up Benachie

Karen up Benachie

 

 

 

Okay this is definitely going to have to be a regular trip until I beat Heather up the hill, like that will ever happen.

 

 

Heather waiting for me again

 

 

 

Okay so the following week, Heather ends up waiting for me again.  Doesn't she look cold oops!

 

 

I decided I was going to have to do something here, so for the next week I left the car at home and walked to work every day.  Then yesterday we all headed out to Dunnottar Castle and I kept up with Heather Yipee!!!

 

 

 

Heather and Karen at Stonehaven

 

 

 

Its a great walk with a very steep start up the cliffs from the village, we headed along to the war memorial and Heather, Howard and I were all surprised just how many members of the same families were listed as having died during the war.

 

 

Howard and Heather at the War Memorial

 

 

Next step the castle and what a view you get from this cliff top path.

 

 

Heather enjoying the view of the castle.









 

 

Dunnottar Castle is set out on cliff separated from the mainland with smuggler caves underneath, this is one of the most interesting looking castles in the north-east with a even more interesting history. 

 

Heather waits for Howard to catch up!

 



Heather, Karen and Howard at Dunnottar Castle

 



To get to the castle itself you have to climb down and back up again several steps, the largest single section has 178, yes we counted them and laughed afterwards that we would have to do that regularly too to practice for the 3,000 steps we have at Machu Picchu.

Today I headed out on my own as Heather had to work, but lets face it I need more practice than she does, Howard had enough yesterday.........

So back up Benachie it is....

 

Me up Benachie

I did it though getting better all the time...........still a long way to go but I will be ready, if it doesn't kill me first!!!!!

However, don't forget what we are doing this for, Macmillan Cancer Support help to tackle challenges like these every day for people suffering from cancer as well as helping their families in their hours of need, so if you haven't already donated to our fundraising cause please do so by clicking here Karen and Heather.