--Matt
Disclaimer: We at Invergarry Lodge cannot promise that this list is genuine and has not been photoshopped.
Saturday 26 September 2009
Scottish Wildlife
There's a wealth of wildlife to see in the Scottish Highlands, we saw our first sea otter the other day (we also held a python at the Skye Serpentarium!) and we've even had deer in our garden. Here's a list of what they've seen at the swing bridge up the road. The bridge wardens have sharp eyes and often see golden eagles and pine martens amongst many other species. The list is from earlier in the month showing what they've seen so far.... wait a minute, what's that one at the bottom? That monster gets everywhere!
--Matt
Disclaimer: We at Invergarry Lodge cannot promise that this list is genuine and has not been photoshopped.
--Matt
Disclaimer: We at Invergarry Lodge cannot promise that this list is genuine and has not been photoshopped.
Tuesday 22 September 2009
Ben's First Munro (A Scottish weather special!)
After having to shorten our fishing trip due to high winds, Ben (Invergarry Lodge's Fishing Guru) decided he'd like tackle his first Munro instead.
We decided on Sgurr a' Mhaoraich down by Loch Quoich, I've done it before so decided we'd make it slightly longer by heading in to Glen Loyne and climbing it with Am Bathaich. The weather forecast wasn't great but the tops where clear as we headed down after lunch (we had Ben helping out with hostel duties in the morning).
We parked up and it started raining. Then it stopped. Then it started again. Then it..well, you get the picture.
After a small stream crossing (imagine how good that photo would be if you'd jumped across Ben!) we headed up the tight zig zaggy path to the ridge of Am Bathaich where the winds picked up significantly.
About two minutes after this photo it started raining quite heavily and didn't stop until we where nearly back at the car - a freak localised squall that followed us around for two hours! The winds on the final summit were vicious so we didn't hang around and after a small navigational issue (we couldn't see anything) where soon safely back down to the glen.
Not one of the best days on the hill, character building at best but I don't think it's put Ben off too much, maybe next time we'll try something a little harder.....
--Matt
We decided on Sgurr a' Mhaoraich down by Loch Quoich, I've done it before so decided we'd make it slightly longer by heading in to Glen Loyne and climbing it with Am Bathaich. The weather forecast wasn't great but the tops where clear as we headed down after lunch (we had Ben helping out with hostel duties in the morning).
We parked up and it started raining. Then it stopped. Then it started again. Then it..well, you get the picture.
After a small stream crossing (imagine how good that photo would be if you'd jumped across Ben!) we headed up the tight zig zaggy path to the ridge of Am Bathaich where the winds picked up significantly.
About two minutes after this photo it started raining quite heavily and didn't stop until we where nearly back at the car - a freak localised squall that followed us around for two hours! The winds on the final summit were vicious so we didn't hang around and after a small navigational issue (we couldn't see anything) where soon safely back down to the glen.
Not one of the best days on the hill, character building at best but I don't think it's put Ben off too much, maybe next time we'll try something a little harder.....
--Matt
Monday 14 September 2009
Burn, Burn, Burn, The Ring of Steall
The Ring of Steall is a real classic mountain route combining the traverse of four Munros with scrambling along narrow, rocky aretes.
I finally got underway after a late start (beds to change and DIY supplies to buy) and was mentally doing my checklist as I set off up the 'best half mile in Scotland' to arrive at Steall Falls and blue skies.....Suncream, No.....Shorts, No.....Extra Water, No......Sun Hat, No..... oh, well I'm already half way up the first one, I'll be fine. Well, fine-ish, the first one proved to be a long slog, great views to the back of Ben Nevis but definitely a long slog. My energies where quickly revitalised after getting to the top and along a short scrambley ridge before stopping for lunch with this fine view in front of me, the Glencoe hills just poking through the cloud.
It felt a bit strange sat on the top of a mountain on a lovely hot day, blue skies all around and autumn colours coming through and me eating my first mince pies of the year, delicious (as an aside - mince pies do not hold up well to the strains of hill walking, they were more like mince and pastry crumble).
Anyway, another top and then another long hard slog up to the summit of Am Bodach, the third Munro for the day and where I ran out of water and mince pies.
From here you have to cross a much narrower ridge called The Devils Ridge which only really has one awkward section (which can be bypassed) the rest is just a little exposed.
From this point it's all down hill, I confess I didn't hang around on the way down, I had a hot date with the stream at the bottom of the glen and the bottle of water in the van. Happy days.
--Matt
I finally got underway after a late start (beds to change and DIY supplies to buy) and was mentally doing my checklist as I set off up the 'best half mile in Scotland' to arrive at Steall Falls and blue skies.....Suncream, No.....Shorts, No.....Extra Water, No......Sun Hat, No..... oh, well I'm already half way up the first one, I'll be fine. Well, fine-ish, the first one proved to be a long slog, great views to the back of Ben Nevis but definitely a long slog. My energies where quickly revitalised after getting to the top and along a short scrambley ridge before stopping for lunch with this fine view in front of me, the Glencoe hills just poking through the cloud.
It felt a bit strange sat on the top of a mountain on a lovely hot day, blue skies all around and autumn colours coming through and me eating my first mince pies of the year, delicious (as an aside - mince pies do not hold up well to the strains of hill walking, they were more like mince and pastry crumble).
Anyway, another top and then another long hard slog up to the summit of Am Bodach, the third Munro for the day and where I ran out of water and mince pies.
From here you have to cross a much narrower ridge called The Devils Ridge which only really has one awkward section (which can be bypassed) the rest is just a little exposed.
From this point it's all down hill, I confess I didn't hang around on the way down, I had a hot date with the stream at the bottom of the glen and the bottle of water in the van. Happy days.
--Matt
Sunday 13 September 2009
Nessie News - The Monster Lives!
For those of you who missed it in the news recently - the Loch Ness Monster lives! The full story can be found here but basically someone has spotted Nessie whilst browsing Google Earth...
You can find it in Google Earth yourself by looking at these coordinates 57 12'52.13"N, 4 34'14.16"W.
--Matt
PS. What do you mean it looks like a boat?
You can find it in Google Earth yourself by looking at these coordinates 57 12'52.13"N, 4 34'14.16"W.
--Matt
PS. What do you mean it looks like a boat?
Tuesday 8 September 2009
The Forcan Ridge (plus a bit of bagging)
I knew one of our guests this week from an online forum so we headed out together to tackle the Saddle via the Forcan Ridge. The Forcan Ridge is a classic Scottish scramble, not difficult but has a few exposed sections which can all be easily bypassed if you wish. The weather has not been great this week (better from tomorrow apparently!) but we took advantage of the best looking day and headed out.
The wet weather chased us up from the bottom of Glen Shiel, cleared slightly, then came in again as we got on the ridge proper, this was to be the case all day with the weather, all the seasons in one day.
The ridge provided lots of fun, proving a little more straight forward than when I last did it in the spring snow. Adrian took the lead and found every little bit of scrambling that the ridge had to offer. The interesting down climb proving to be the most, er, interesting bit.
From the Saddle we headed down and then easily back up to the next munro Sgurr na Sgine. I knew the next summit was a Corbett before heading over to Creag Nam Damh for another munro tick for Adrian. He told me as we headed over that we couldn't claim the tick as it was a twin Corbett, and that the summit 2 1/2 km to the south was exactly the same height and you had to do them both!
As I'd already done the Munro he was heading to I left him and headed south for the other Corbett summit before retracing my steps and meeting him back on the main ridge before descending.
That 5km proved to be very hard, the going was fairly easy, just one steep wet grassy section, but my legs were tired and I felt under pressure to be quick and not leave Adrian waiting for me - he had less ground to cover. I was rewarded with some moody views across to Knoydart before I turned and headed back, we got back to the descent path at pretty much the same time, both feeling pretty tired.
This time it was safe and enjoyable, but remember, if you meet strangers from the internet, be sure to tell people where and who you are meeting!
--Matt
The wet weather chased us up from the bottom of Glen Shiel, cleared slightly, then came in again as we got on the ridge proper, this was to be the case all day with the weather, all the seasons in one day.
The ridge provided lots of fun, proving a little more straight forward than when I last did it in the spring snow. Adrian took the lead and found every little bit of scrambling that the ridge had to offer. The interesting down climb proving to be the most, er, interesting bit.
From the Saddle we headed down and then easily back up to the next munro Sgurr na Sgine. I knew the next summit was a Corbett before heading over to Creag Nam Damh for another munro tick for Adrian. He told me as we headed over that we couldn't claim the tick as it was a twin Corbett, and that the summit 2 1/2 km to the south was exactly the same height and you had to do them both!As I'd already done the Munro he was heading to I left him and headed south for the other Corbett summit before retracing my steps and meeting him back on the main ridge before descending.
That 5km proved to be very hard, the going was fairly easy, just one steep wet grassy section, but my legs were tired and I felt under pressure to be quick and not leave Adrian waiting for me - he had less ground to cover. I was rewarded with some moody views across to Knoydart before I turned and headed back, we got back to the descent path at pretty much the same time, both feeling pretty tired.
This time it was safe and enjoyable, but remember, if you meet strangers from the internet, be sure to tell people where and who you are meeting!
--Matt
Foraging in Glengarry Forest
Now that our busy summer season has ended we have a little bit more time on our hands, and we're both keen to make the most of it before our baby arrives in November. So when the opportunity arose to join the Great Glen Rangers for a day out foraging for wild food in Glengarry Forest we signed up straight away.
Unfortunately the weather didn't look on us kindly and the rain showed no signs of stopping for the day, so we kitted ourselves out in all our waterproof garb and headed out, picking up Helen along the way. We are already regular visitors to the forest with Dylan, our big black labrador puppy, but today we were looking forward to exploring at a more leisurely pace, with time to take in the things which usually pass us by in a blur as we get pulled along. We pulled into the car park to find a good few other cars already there, along with a big white gazebo tent under which the rangers were busy preparing for the forage. After an initial briefing to introduce the rangers we headed off, following a footpath alongside the River Garry and it wasn't long before the rangers spotted some interesting mushrooms to show us.
Although not experts, the rangers were very knowledgeable on their mushrooms and had some good horror stories to tell us about some of the more poisonous varieties, and it certainly helped hammer home the message that you can never be too careful when it comes to picking wild mushrooms to eat. Someone in the group even managed to spot this lovely specimen - the rangers narrowed it down to two varieties of mushroom, both of which are among the top three most deadly mushrooms in the UK:
Eating just a sliver of one of these innocuous-looking beauties is enough to kill a human, so it was quite awe-inspiring just being in its presence. After examining the mushroom it was thrown back deep into the bushes and everyone who had handled it was very sensibly instructed to give their hands a thorough clean.
As we continued on the walk, we went from the extremely poisonous to the really rather tasty, finding a good stash of chanterelle mushrooms. The rangers told us how to pick edible mushrooms in such a way as to minimise damage to the main plant underground, and to ensure the longevity of the plant.
After this we moved onto other types of edible wild food, including yarrow which can be used to make tea, the roots of silver weed, and hazlenuts.
We then headed into the bilberry terrain to try out some of the commercial and home-made devices the rangers had brought along for bilberry picking. As veteran hand-pickers it was interesting to try the tools out, and they did certainly make the job somewhat faster and less messy, but I still think hand-picking is the most enjoyable method, as long as you don't mind having purple stained fingers and nails for the best part of a week afterwards.
We were running out of time so at this point we headed back to the car park with our findings and found the head ranger had been busy cooking up a storm while we'd been gone. We'd been out in the rain all morning so it was fantastic to be given a hot cup of tea, and then after we'd all washed our hands we were treated to a demonstration on how to skin a rabbit and gut a fish, and the fish was then cooked on an open fire for us all to try, accompanied by a zingy wild sorrel sauce. We then moved on to sample the rabbit stew which had been cooking all morning, and which was truly delicious. Among the other things on offer were wild nettle soup (also delicious), some pig nuts, wild sorrel, fresh hazelnuts, a plethora of jams and jellies served with bannock (a simple traditional scottish bread), and a vast array of cordials and syrups made from various foraged berries.
The day ended with a short overview of some of the good foraging books available to buy, and a quick feedback session. I couldn't believe how much had been crammed into this day - so much delicious food and such an interesting and inspiring day out. There was a lot of information to take in, but luckily the rangers were well-prepared with recipe booklets and information leaflets for us to take away with us.
We couldn't recommend this day out enough - our thanks to the Great Glen Way rangers for a wonderful informative day and lots of inspiring ideas.
Jen x
Unfortunately the weather didn't look on us kindly and the rain showed no signs of stopping for the day, so we kitted ourselves out in all our waterproof garb and headed out, picking up Helen along the way. We are already regular visitors to the forest with Dylan, our big black labrador puppy, but today we were looking forward to exploring at a more leisurely pace, with time to take in the things which usually pass us by in a blur as we get pulled along. We pulled into the car park to find a good few other cars already there, along with a big white gazebo tent under which the rangers were busy preparing for the forage. After an initial briefing to introduce the rangers we headed off, following a footpath alongside the River Garry and it wasn't long before the rangers spotted some interesting mushrooms to show us.
Although not experts, the rangers were very knowledgeable on their mushrooms and had some good horror stories to tell us about some of the more poisonous varieties, and it certainly helped hammer home the message that you can never be too careful when it comes to picking wild mushrooms to eat. Someone in the group even managed to spot this lovely specimen - the rangers narrowed it down to two varieties of mushroom, both of which are among the top three most deadly mushrooms in the UK:
Eating just a sliver of one of these innocuous-looking beauties is enough to kill a human, so it was quite awe-inspiring just being in its presence. After examining the mushroom it was thrown back deep into the bushes and everyone who had handled it was very sensibly instructed to give their hands a thorough clean.
As we continued on the walk, we went from the extremely poisonous to the really rather tasty, finding a good stash of chanterelle mushrooms. The rangers told us how to pick edible mushrooms in such a way as to minimise damage to the main plant underground, and to ensure the longevity of the plant.
After this we moved onto other types of edible wild food, including yarrow which can be used to make tea, the roots of silver weed, and hazlenuts.
We then headed into the bilberry terrain to try out some of the commercial and home-made devices the rangers had brought along for bilberry picking. As veteran hand-pickers it was interesting to try the tools out, and they did certainly make the job somewhat faster and less messy, but I still think hand-picking is the most enjoyable method, as long as you don't mind having purple stained fingers and nails for the best part of a week afterwards.
We were running out of time so at this point we headed back to the car park with our findings and found the head ranger had been busy cooking up a storm while we'd been gone. We'd been out in the rain all morning so it was fantastic to be given a hot cup of tea, and then after we'd all washed our hands we were treated to a demonstration on how to skin a rabbit and gut a fish, and the fish was then cooked on an open fire for us all to try, accompanied by a zingy wild sorrel sauce. We then moved on to sample the rabbit stew which had been cooking all morning, and which was truly delicious. Among the other things on offer were wild nettle soup (also delicious), some pig nuts, wild sorrel, fresh hazelnuts, a plethora of jams and jellies served with bannock (a simple traditional scottish bread), and a vast array of cordials and syrups made from various foraged berries.
The day ended with a short overview of some of the good foraging books available to buy, and a quick feedback session. I couldn't believe how much had been crammed into this day - so much delicious food and such an interesting and inspiring day out. There was a lot of information to take in, but luckily the rangers were well-prepared with recipe booklets and information leaflets for us to take away with us.
We couldn't recommend this day out enough - our thanks to the Great Glen Way rangers for a wonderful informative day and lots of inspiring ideas.
Jen x
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