Pottering About, 7 September 2013

Over Glenfinnan Viaduct, as featured on at least one Scottish banknote and also in that bloomin' movie.  

The Jacobite Express furnished us with a ride on a proper steam train, which took us up to Mallaig for chips by the harbour. Steam, smoke, Irn-Bru and rainbows...

Multiple Choice Highland Flings, 6 September 2013

After a long week of exploring, it was a day of many options, so one group went for a short but scenic walk around Glen Nevis, another team scaled the nominatively-titular Pap of Glencoe, and one solitary snapper explored the Glencoe Lochan, landscaped to look like a bit of Canada.

Another contribution from the pap-arazzi

Surf's up, 5 September 2013

With all those tired legs, today was a recovery day in Glenfinnan, including lunch in an old railway carriage and a long leisurely cruise - with barely any waves at all, to be honest - on the freshwater Loch Shiel.

Big Ben, 4 September 2013

Summit day, or rather double summit day for some of us!  The main group headed up the Ben Nevis tourist track, while three of us scaled the ridge.  Up on Carn Mor Dearg, we actually had a view, and a rather splendid one it was too - worth all the planning.  Of course, there was a cloud covering the top of the ben itself by the time we got to it, but no change there!

There were some very tired people on the way back down, but we all made it safely back to base having rendezvoused on the hill.  An exciting day out and, oddly, for those of us who did the adventurous route one of the easiest ascents of Ben Nevis that we could remember, although that may just be because we had plenty of variety and weren't getting bored on the pony track.

Back to the hostel for very hot showers and very malty Scottish ales to follow.

Wafting Not Distilling, 3 September 2013

Sitting in Oban, a surfeit of islands meets the eye - these will all need exploring, sooner or later, but that's for another expedition.

Today's more modest fells and bens were covered in tarmac, and led to a distillery, where a rather formulaic (we're such awful whisky snobs) commenced.  

Home via Castle Aaargh (Stalker Castle, officially, but we all know better now, don't we?).

Wet weather testing, 2 September 2013

Glencoe sees a lot of rain, and it was falling in big sloppy buckets this morning, but we were in training for Munros so off we set up the A82 to explore a hidden valley.  The low cloud meant that everything was hidden, and indeed sodden, but we carried on regardless and were soon stuck in Glen Etive.  The rain was so torrential by this point that no-one was risking getting cameras out to take a picture, so here's one we made earlier (and yes, it really is where we walked):

Thankfully, two hardy souls were up for marching on to find the cars while the rest sashayed along a B-road just fast enough to stay warm - as it was too late to stay dry!  Back to base for excellent onion soup and a highly entertaining quiz, while our kit steamed gently in the drying room.

Kinlochleven, 1 September 2013

Around the corner from this week's hostel base, and the valley past amazing mushrooms and four deer. Then four intrepid amblers forded a knee-high stream and headed on up to the dam, encountering a surprised eagle en route. Over the old dam, and on to the track next to the culvert for a steady march back to the pub, down beside a few leaking high pressure pipes - the most scenic smelting plant in Scotland, surely.