Written 23 March 2010 on roof and Scotland's expedition

Tue, 23 Mar 2010

Thanks v much for the news.  How are Wayne and Andy getting on with our
roof?  Is there any scaffolding up?  Can you ask Wayne, from me, to ensure
that there will be no condensation problems in the loft, like we have had
in the past.  I think their new breathable felting will prevent
condensation but, do check if you see him, please.  I don't suppose there
has been any contact from Nick of Oxby Warm Air, has there?  He doesn't
want to do the job, unfortunately, after I told him that he wasn't giving
me the confidence that he knew how to repair the Pulse!

A third Corbett yesterday to make 40 out of 220 now summited.  A rest day
today and back to this magnificent hotel for two course lunch before
getting back into position for a fourth summit tomorrow.  Then, I'm heading
south to, possibly, visit Dunottar Castle and, Dundee for the cycleway.

Yesterday was very windy on the 2K summit ridge with the high point at the
very end after four minor summits that had to be climbed and all in a
straight line, so you could never see which one was the highest until you
got to it - rather demoralising!  There was a brief snow shower on the
summit and more rain on the long walk out.  Part of the Gairloch estate
that I walked through had been planted up with native species of Caledonian
pine, downy birch, aspen and holly that were doing well having been fenced
off to stop the deer from eating the young trees.  There were
interpretation boards, too on the archaeology, history and wildlife.  I was
out for 8.5 hrs but kept warm and dry.  Your chicken sandwiches I ate on
Saturday with no ill effects.  Use by 18 March cheese and salad baguette I
ate yesterday and the last, tomorrow on my third and last big walk!

When I got back to the car, my hands were so cold I didn't have the
strength, at first, to turn the key to start the engine.  I then motored
back to Achnasheen and their Rolls Royce public toilets that are heated,
lit as you open the door, have two large washbasins with plenty of hot
water - and, even plugs!

Lots of love

Tim xx

March 2010 Scottish expedition

Sounds like you are enjoying quite a few creature comforts! Hope you had a
good meal. Its
been a lovely warm spring day here with plenty of sun. I walked up to
church, enjoyed my lunch while watching 'Larkrise to Candleford' and then
visited Steve this afternoon. he was not in the best of health- a little
vacant and difficult to keep a conversation going. He looks as though he
has lost some weight too. I suspect he was in pain as he clearly wasn't
comfortable in his chair- it's sometimes so hard to know quite what to say
to him. I was leading the evening service and am now ready for bed and
catching up with Becky on her weekend. She is straight back into cooking
again- banana fairy cakes, delicious! Have a good day's walking tomorrow.
lots of love, Linda x
Subject: March 2010 Scottish expedition
To: dance4joy123@hotmail.com; timweller1@googlemail.com
From: Tim.Weller@birmingham.gov.uk
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2010 13:14:53 +0000


Dear Linda

Thanks for the e-mail.  This is also for my mountain blog and to test out
the effectiveness of the city council's 3G experiment for agile workers
like me.  Not that I'm working; just being very agile!  Skip what is of no
interest like the route detail I'll describe, below.

This work laptop with its Vodaphone 3G connection is working remarkably
well, albeit a little slowly.  On Fri eve I had a signal strength of 3 bars
out of 5 but this morning, in front of a hot coal fire in the magnificent
Ledgowen Lodge Hotel, it has gone up to 4 bars.  This is in Achnasheen,
Wester Ross miles from anywhere but probably at 1,000 feet - with its own
rail station, village hall and the most Rolls Royce of public toilets all
in the one building.  I've just had coffee and will have a two course lunch
to justify the warmth and comfort I am enjoying in the hotel that I could
not resist returning to.  Tomorrow, I'll try another two Corbetts a little
further down the road in another 7 to 8 hrs walk and climb.  The weather is
good but very little sun, patches of blue sky and one very brief shower an
hour ago.

Yesterday, Saturday, was cloud over the higher summits to the N but
improving visibility as the day went on.  The previous day, Friday was so
windy that when I lifted the car bonnet to check oil and water, I had to
steady the bonnet to stop it crashing down onto my head - and this was at
sea level in the huge Inverness Tesco car park!

Back to yesterday; I saw no-one else all day; made use of the first class
Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve mountain trail - the like of which I
have never seen before - to get up on to the plateau.  Two booklets and
stone cairns interpret the geology,  natural heritage and wildlife that you
walk through.  My failure to study the map led to a most inappropriate
route up the second Corbett that, too late, I discovered was completely
guarded by crags and scree.  My route took me diagonally up the huge E face
of scree and out on to the summit ridge to the S of the crags above the
scree.  My return took me down the orthodox route through the scree to the
col and, then, a much pleasanter walk over high but level ground to
eventually gain the mountain trail.  Even then, I didn't bother to check
the map and took the longer half of the circuit back to the car park.  The
tendon stood up well and, so far, no limping.

7 family members who own the hotel live here, I've just learnt on the
conducted tour I've had round the rooms on the ground floor.  The house was
finished in 1905; wooden framed, double glazed windows were fitted last
year.  There is a bunkhouse and chalet on the estate.  The bunkhouse is £13
ppp night.  The hotel seems to get well used.

Now for my lunch in the bar!

Love

Tim  xxx





             linda weller
             <dance4joy123@hot
             mail.com>                                                  To
                                       <tim.weller@birmingham.gov.uk>
             20/03/2010 20:59                                           cc

                                                                   Subject
                                       RE: BRIGHT LIGHTS AND A VOICE IN
                                       THE BLACKNESS OF THE NIGHT!

Sounds as though you have had quite a memorable start to your holiday! Hope
your foot is coping with the pace. Been to a Passover dance celebration
this morning at Oasis church 5 ways, then to mum and dads for lunch and to
start clearing out their loft. Made soon good progress amid the thick dust!
Will visit Steve tomorrow afternoon. Hope you get a better night's sleep
tonight. lots of love, Linda xx

> Subject: BRIGHT LIGHTS AND A VOICE IN THE BLACKNESS OF THE NIGHT!
> To: dance4joy123@hotmail.com; eatbrazilnuts@hotmail.com;
wellerjon9@hotmail.co.uk
> From: Tim.Weller@birmingham.gov.uk
> Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2010 21:31:23 +0000
>
>
> 19 March - climbed Ord Hill, N Kessock on the Moray Firth. Iron Age hill
> fort on summit; then onto the cluster of dwellings, a village pond and a
> rail station that doubles up as the village hall! This was the mighty
> hamlet of Achnasheen with its fine public toilets and 2 or 3 Kw fan
heater
> that was blasting out the heat that I promptly switched off! Earlier,
> visited fine hotel in Birnam nr Dunkeld of 'Macbeth' fame for coffee,
then
> wash and shave after a night sleeping in the car. A sleep that was
> interrupted by a bright light shining all about me like a Damascene
> conversion. It was two eager young policemen with their torches.
> "What's your name and where are you from?"
> "Tim Weller from Halesowen in the West Midlands", satisfied them. "I'm
> just having a night's sleep on my way north for some hill walking and
> cycling. You know that you have signs on the main road saying, 'Tiredness
> kills. Take a break'?
> "Have you been drinking?", said the one.
> "Certainly not", I retorted indignantly. "You're remarkably conscientious
> in checking parked cars."
> "Yours was reported as possibly abandoned" came the reply.
> "Sorry to disturb you", one said on leaving.
> A public spirited motorist had rung the police, would you believe! I had
> parked in a country lane about 25 metres from the A9 trunk road, late
> yesterday evening. No sooner had I arrived, than the first or second of
> only four or five cars that passed me all night phoned the police!

The Far North for summits, trails and hotels!

The Far North for nostalgia, comfort, meeting the locals and, exploring settlements, coast and hinterland.  And in gratitude to Ben Armine Lodge and, the Langwell and Braemore Estate.

For the first time ever, for me, visiting the big hills in remote Scotland over more than 40 years and, this time, I had only three nights car camping but the strange luxury of eight nights staying in seven hotels for bed and breakfast.  Normally, only one hotel at the very end as my reward for a little energetic activity - and that only in recent years:

Loch Ericht Hotel, Dalwhinnie

Marine Hotel, Brora

Belgrave Arms Hotel, Helmsdale

Sutherland Hotel, Brora

Crask Inn, in the middle of nowhere - Caithness.  Douglas the host and Scottish Episcopal lay reader.  The other guests were Ian from Kirkcaldy, Fife and Lesley from Peebles in Borders Country.

Lairg Highland Hotel

Allan Ramsay Hotel, Carlops - 2 nights as the paying guest of Rosemary and Kenny.  Explored the Pentland Hills in seven hours.

DISORIENTATED IN CLOUD!

12 days of cold and wind and cloud but not too much rain.  The worst day saw me summit two of the remotist Grahams over 700 m, near Rogart in nine hours - see Weller the wimp, below.  The second worst weather day saw me visit the two summits of one Graham twice - quite unintentionally!  I took a wrong bearing from the second summit, failed to double pace and walked in a circle as I tried to correct myself and landed back where I had come from!  I then took the correct N bearing, followed it with map/compass stuck out in front of me like a ship's helmsman steering by compass and, this time, I landed back where I wanted - on the first summit as part of the return walkout.  It was so satisfying to get it right, at the second attempt!

WELLER THE WIMP

I am so ashamed at accepting the offer of 4x4 truck with the bike slung in the back.  It was entirely my own fault for asking for help at the very end of a long, exhausting first day.  I had never done that before.  I simply needed a sit down on the bench by the lodge where I had propped up the bike.  I would have been fine after some food, drink and a rest.  This was the nine hour day in wind and rain and low cloud.  Anyway, it ended with my driving the truck, fearful of meeting the promised husband who was due home with not a single passing place in 9 Kms!  What would he think?  I drove the truck almost all the way to the end of the private road.  I did meet the young man but at one of the gates where there was a good passing place.  He quite understood.  I left it, as instructed, on the only patch of grass off the track with the key stuck in the sun visor.  What brilliant women to trust me!  Did the truck need to be returned, anyway to the end of the road, I wondered?  I hope so!

LANGWELL AND BRAEMORE ESTATE were magnificent.

First, well constructed and clean estate roads for the mountain bike to zoom along.  Near the beginning of the second day on the estate, I was stopped by the Head Keeper, near the grand entrance at Berriedale.  Quite rightly, this old boy from urban England, was a "pain" for appearing on the very day they were out stalking to cul deer.

"I know you are free to roam and I can't force you to turn back."

"I certainly understand and don't want to spoil things.  Can I walk in from the north?  Would that help?  I've done every Munro, every Munro Top, every Corbett and now I'm trying the Grahams and you've got Scaraben", I explained.

However he, very kindly, after looking at his digital OS map, let me continue the long cycle ride.  I was to leave the bike at the fishing hut, 10 Kms from the A9 at Berriedale.  He would inform the others of my presence on the hill.

BLACKPOOL PLEASURE BEACH on Scotland's North Coast 500

I was at Ceannabeinne Bay on the 5 April 2008.  What a stunning spectacle in a gale force N wind, not a soul about and, with great N Atlantic rollers crashing on to the vast expanse of white sand and rocks.  Then, I had the company of one otter as I walked over the sand.  Imagine my shock and horror when, on rounding the corner, the desolate beauty had been transformed into every parking place with a car or motorhome in it.  A large new car park, too.  There must have been about fifty children, young people and adults.  The youngsters were screaming from the zip wire and free jump as they zoomed over the bay.  All that was missing was the Big Dipper, the dodgems and the chiming ice cream van spewing out greenhouse gases!

For me, all this was as unwelcome as my bizarre appearance on one red mountain bike a day or two before, for the Head Keeper.  I thought, "Is nothing sacred?  Can there be nothing left to Nature?  Do we really have to concrete, brick and tarmac over every single square Km of fertile soil and natural habitat, as we humans overrun the entire planet to eventually make it uninhabitable for even ourselves?"

And the capitalist entrepreneur has devised "North Coast 500" to bring in more business as we all rise to the challenge of driving in car or motorhome round the 500 miles of north Scottish coast.  Night and day, laybys crammed with our internal combustion engines to soak up every gram of oil!

New roads and road widening schemes will soon be next, courtesy of 'The Highland Council'.

DORNOCH'S 14 SOLAR PANELS ON THE NORTH FACING ROOF!

Slightly east of true north, with 22 on the south side of a prestigious new block of apartments on the corner of Kennedy Avenue and Grange Road, Dornoch.

When resources are finite we must confine solar panels to E, W, S pitches where they can do the most good, I would have thought.

BEN STACK'S STRANGE SUMMIT

Another Graham without a date in my 'Munro's Tables'; so there it was, to be climbed straight up from the road.  What an unusual summit that looked as though a giant with an axe had tried to split the mountain in two.  You came first to a shortish aerial next to a low, square stone hut.  The other summit, across a low steep-sided valley was the trig point at 720 m.  But the map has the trig pillar at 719 m where the aerial and stone hut is!

4 NOISY WORKERS ON THEIR DAY OFF!

I heard them before I saw them as I struggled up Morven.  I was expecting them to overtake me but I reached the summit, this time with glorious views and still no company.  I got back to the car and found that one of them was suffering from a complaining tendon, so all of them turned back at the foot of the steep E face.

They were all ex-oil and gas platform men but now working on offshore wind turbines in the North Sea.  One plied me with coffee and water bottles that was good of him and we all had a good chat.  They were not impressed with my shabby appearance in my torn and ancient old waterproofs - worn because I was expecting a much muddier and puddle strewn bike ride.  They had walked the full distance, so I was able to catch up with them at the car park.

ONE MAN HAS TWO FLASH SUVs

On my day exploring Brora, I came across a 78 year old who had lost his wife five years ago.  However, he still keeps and maintains in pristine condition two new cars - his and hers.  One is a Mercedes 4x4 and the other a BMW 4x4.  He drives the one one week and the other on the other week.

Both were recent and may have been bought brand new.  His job was as an electrical contractor.  His enormous bungalow was immaculate and was south facing.  But no solar panels to help subsidise his high living, high emission lifestyle.

THE HELMSDALE STATUE to remember the emigrants, the victims who, in their turn, sired descendants who drove the natives off their ancestral home.

Displaced off land their ancestors had lived on for centuries only for the emigrants' descendants to inflict similar misfortune on the indigenous peoples and tribes who had simply but sustainably lived off their land over very many millennia! 

Last 2 Corbetts and a twin pinnacle Graham on Rum Cuillin traverse

I did one stunning, twin rocky pinnacle Graham on Rum when I did my very last two Corbetts at the end of April.  I had to climb both pinnacles just to make sure!  It was then a terribly steep descent with thin air between my feet that meant I had to go way over to the left to find safe ground. I finally did the last, fifth summit at dusk and then had to find the bothy.  Never did, so had a semi emergency bivy on the bare hillside.  I was cold but survived to see the bothy below me a little over a Km away when dawn finally came.  I caught up with some sleep at the bothy and had a 3.5 hr march out to Kinloch in the afternoon on the coast path.  That night I slept in the smart, new, four year old bunkhouse in the only settlement on the island.  Very comfortable it was too. Met two other guys in the morning one of whom has done many more Scottish summits than me!  My tally is over 700 different ones visited at least once since the 1970s.