Handsomest rescue dog in Invergarry!

Dylan has done us proud at this years Invergarry Highland games!

Hill races, dance competitions, the heavy events, pah! The dog show was the big draw at this years games, I even spotted a world class climber from Fort William (hello Dave!) appreciating Dylan's award winning good looks.

6 categories altogether, Dylan was eligible for four and took prizes in two! He lost the puppy class due to some cute little contenders (and some underhand tactics from Ken - sending his dog in with his cute little nieces!) but he got a prize in the "rescue dog" category and the big one, "most handsome male".


Next year he's going for number 1 and I might even enter a race, or at least encourage Jenny to. Now, if I could just stop that dog from strutting around like he owns the place....

--Matt

A working holiday

We've had the inlaws (Jenny's side) up here this week and what a busy week it's been.

Days out to Inverness, taking in the local castles (Eilean Donan and Urquhart), visiting Glenfinnan to watch the Harry Potter train steam over head, mountain biking at Laggan Wolftrax, walks in Glen Nevis, boat cruises on Loch Ness, day trips to Skye and long walks in the Grey Corries and along the Shiel Ridge. Unfortunately, none of that was us....we were busy doing jobs around the hostel (mainly gardening) while the guests were out having all the fun.

Maybe one day they'll come up and it won't turn into a working holiday. Saying that, hostel sitter extraordinaire (my mum) is coming up next week and there are already comments in the guest book about her and she hasn't even arrived yet!

--Matt

Glengarry Highland Games!

We'd thought we'd better let you know that this weekend is the Glengarry Highland Games in Invergarry, 1pm at the shinty pitch.

We had great fun at the last one - watching the strong men toss the cabers and throw the weights, watching the Highland dancing competition and the pipe band, considering entering the races but eating sweets instead.


There's also a pet dog show so we may even take Dylan along, he did pretty well at the Lochaber Agricultural show last year, he's still proud of his rosette (don't tell him but everyone got one just for entering).

Hopefully we'll see you there!

--Matt

I should mention that I borrowed this photo from http://www.fife.50megs.com as can't find ours from last years games.

CMD Arete (with extra scrambley goodness)

Rich and I decided to head up to the CMD arete but made it slightly more interesting by adding an extra little ridge on the way.

The traditional approach is to start up the mountain track and cut across to Carn Mor Dearg, we thought we'd miss out the steep ascent of CMD by ascending up the east ridge of Carn Dearg Meadhonach from Allt Daim. From the lovely secluded glen (nice wild camp spot?) we headed up some lovely pink granite slabs for about a 100m and then continued up a slightly loose boulder field to the pinnacles (not difficult but slightly windy) with a couple of stops to admire the west face of Aonach Mor




Over the pinnacles we where presented with fine views of the north face, although the skies had clouded over, the way the the north face is suddenly presented to you as you come over the top from the pinnacles was great. We saw a few other walkers looking tried after their steep ascent and decided we'd made a good decision.

After a quick stop for photos, lunch and the "Hill food: frozen butties versus refrigerated butties" experiment results (long story, but since you asked....tasted the same but the frozen ones had kept their shape better!), we carried along the splendid looking ridge.



The going is easy but very enjoyable, the hardest part is the slog up the steep boulder field the reach the actual summit. You can stick to the crest of the ridge for maximum enjoyment but there seems to be a path slightly lower down so you can avoid anything you don't like the look of.

We spent a while at the summit looking for climbers on the north face (none) before heading off down the zig zags with half of Fort William (it was Rich's first visit to the Ben and he was amazed at how busy it was - he likes his mountains a bit quieter!) before splitting off at the half way lochan. The sun had come out again for the walk back to the car.

--Matt

More Wild Swimming...

There been a bit more wild swimming for team Invergarry Lodge (me, the wife and the dog). Thought I'd post a quick picture to make you jealous and let you know about the fine weather we are having up here...get up here and enjoy it while it lasts!

This not-so-top-secret swimming location isn't as idyllic and secluded as our other spot but this one has the advantage of being closer to an ice cream shop. It's a tough decision...

--Matt

Strathfarrar 4 - Dylan 9

I had a favour to do for someone which meant I had to head up north, I figured I may as well combine it with a Munro or 4.

I've always said the great thing about living up here is being able to wait for the nice weather before you head out for the hills, unfortunately that doesn't really explain why today I was out in gale force winds and ice cold horizontal rain.

The 4 Munros down Glen Strathfarrar are a funny mix, two nice interesting hills and two big round lumps. I was planning on heading east to west, doing the featureless lumps first, before getting to the interesting hills further along the ridge. The wind was supposed to be about 40 mph so I decided to do them the other way round so the wind would be partially behind me.

The weather looked like it might be ok but as we approached the ridge it got pretty bad. Dylan kept stopping and looking me - now I don't speak dog, but if I did I think Dylan would have been raising his eyebrow in a knowing way and nodding his head towards the way down.

I ignored him and pressed along the bleak looking ridge helped along by the wind. After the first summit things started looking up, the horizontal rain had stopped and the ridge ahead had cleared up so we headed up to summit number 2 for a spot of lunch.



Half way to summit number 3 we met some walkers I knew from staying with us at the hostel, they confirmed that I'd made a wise decision doing them west to east, they looked pretty windswept.



The last Munro passed uneventfully (apart from the rain was back) and we made our way back down to the glen which was bathed in glorious sunshine for our 6 km walk back to the start.

These four hills put Dylan's Munro total up to 9 - he's really excited about soon reaching double figures - well, he was excited, currently he's out sparko on the sofa and has been for 4 hours.

--Matt

Invergarry Bowls Champion....

.....Almost

A couple of weeks ago the Invergarry Bowls Annual Knockout competition finally came to a head and yours truly managed to make it through to the final - but tripped at the last hurdle.

I only started playing when we took over Invergarry Lodge last year but have thoroughly enjoyed it. I struggled a bit the first few weeks using a different set of borrowed bowls every game but my grandparents came to the rescue by donating their old faithfuls to Team Invergarry (Me and Jen).

Grandad had obviously taught his bowls to play well because they were great - made all the difference. Jon and I had a tense final, but I couldn't get the better of him.


Runner up's not bad though - I was even presented with a certificate (along with a hug!) from Marigold - much rather from her than the club president Dave! Notice the extreme through-the-legs technique and the mis-spelt name on the certificate.

Anyway, until next year Jon.....

--Matt