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Coast to Coast

About to run a traditional canoe skills afternoon for a variety of staff from around the county. Have posted below a run of pictures from a trip I did last year from Kinlochleven to Perth. Lots of dragging; poling; sailing; trolleying; carrying; grunting; falling over; swearing; singing; collapsing. All good fun. Hope this inspires some of you to enjoy and challenge yourselves in the summer to come.

 

Apologies for the poor quality of many photos. We forgot a camera and these were taken on the cheapest camera we could find in Fort William – £20 from Tesco.

Here are the photos from the afternoon. Poling seemed to be the activity that people enjoyed the most and providing the most opportunity for amusing photos.Well done to all who took part and best of luck with all your adventures by canoe – whatever/wherever they may be. For those impressed by minibus and trailer driving skills please take a quick look at the bonus video at the end of the slideshow – the container is 4cm wider than the trailer!

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PL overnight at Hopes

As part of their Life Skills program a party of PL S3s spent monday and tuesday camping and exploring the Lammermuirs above Hopes Reservoir.

The group walked in around reservoir on the monday and set up camp near the shore. After a brew and and come chilling it was an evening hike up to the summit of Lammer Law. The route was up Sting Bank Burn, now affectionately know by the students as Death Valley. Partly because of the large number of dead sheep that the winter snows have claimed, and partly due to the plethora of vermin traps. These included bridge traps for weasels and stoats and snares for foxes.

After a fine nights camp the group completed the walk around the reservoir and back via West Hopes Farm, here yet more killing machines were in evidence in the form of a larson trap.

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Of Rangers, Ring Ouzels and Celandines

Friday was a walk up and round Hopes on a re-validation for the East Lothian Council’s Local Hillwalk Leadership Award. The group was made up staff form the Countryside Rangers and the Outdoor Ed Service.

A re-location of Rangers
A re-location of Rangers, and Keith

Despite the Rangers being subjected to some devious navigational challenges, it didn’t seem to deter them from some eagle-eyed wildlife spotting. Highlights for me included seeing my first Ring Ouzel in ages – and of course the Lesser Celandine.

For those that want to pick over the details of where we went, the following is a live map of the GPS track of our route – unfortunately I forgot to turn off the device before driving home (again)! You can zoom in and turn on the satellite photos to see exactly where we went, or click on the ‘Start Marker’ to open in the Garmen Connect player. It is pretty accurate – the lack of points in some places is unfortunate and probably due to the fact that I confused the darn thing by adding on an additional 15km drive at well above walking pace. (And NO I didn’t use it to ‘cheat’ through the day, it was in my bag!)

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So that was Winter

Seems like we left for the Easter hols in the winter snow and have come back to summer sunshine … ok with a dusting of ash.

But what a winter it was! So click on the following image for a wee movie reminder of the activities we got up to in the best winter conditions for years.

(You should enable sound for full auditory satisfaction, and do be patient it’s a big vid).

Best of Winter 10
Best of Winter 10