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Matt & Jen

The Inaugural Lochaber Off-Road Half-Marathon

I'd done a few decent runs in the last few weeks in a mission to lose my baby bulge, so when Matt found this local race and mentioned it, it seemed like a good idea. I floated the idea with Helen, my local running partner and cake-topper extraordinaire (www.caketops.co.uk), and after a bit of persuading she was up for it too.

All smiles before we set off:

The Lochaber Off-Road Half-Marathon is a new race, run at the same time as a 5km fun run, and as we pulled into the car park at the Nevis Range this morning we could see a few runners limbering up preparing themselves. As we gathered at the start I was slightly concerned by the very small field - there were only 90 entrants and fewer than that were lined up waiting to set off. The front runners set a pretty fast pace as we set off from the car park, but Helen and I set off at a cautious pace (so as not to exhaust ourselves too early, obviously). Soon the field was totally spread out, including Helen and me, and it wasn't long before I could see nobody in front or behind me.

The route was really well chosen - there were some lovely stretches through the forest but also plenty of open stretches, including some great rocky downhill sections and enough hills to keep things interesting without busting the lungs too much. As I clocked up two hours on the stopwatch my body was starting to seriously complain, but a few minutes later I rounded a corner to find a marshall telling me I had only half a mile to go - hurrah! I crossed the finish line after 2 hours 15 minutes, with two very sore feet and a bit of a sweat on. Helen joined me a few minutes later, very pleased with her first half-marathon result, and we were soon congratulating ourselves over some excellent cake at the Lochaber Farm Shop.

Approaching the finish line:

Thanks to No Fuss Events for a great race, hopefully I'll be back next year ready to shave a few minutes off my time!

Celebrating afterwards:

Jenx

Ben Nevis + 7 others

Ages ago my brother Mark suggested we try a Tranter round - a 24 hour circuit of the 17 Munros around Glen Nevis -we made a date in our dairies. A month before we were due to do it we decided we didn't stand a chance, we had done no training at all so we (Mark) decided we'd do half of it - Ben Nevis, down the CMD arete, over to the Aonachs and then on to the Grey Corries.

We set off nice and early with the charity trekkers up the tourist track, zig follows zag follows zig....but we made good time and reached the summit in 1hr 45mins. Unfortunately we had white out conditions and spent 20 minutes trying to find the way down to the CMD arete.

Eventually we found the absail post in blizzard condtions and headed across the arete.



All was going well until we had to descend from the CMD down to the bealach, down a knife edge snow ridge and then completely missed the path and struggled down steep grass and slabs. The ascent up to the Aonachs was much easier than it looked from the CMD, easily up to Aonach Mor then back down again to a complete white out on Aonach Beag.


After a long hard slog up to the first of the Grey Corries (who put that other hill in the middle?) the sun had decided to come out between bursts of horizontal hail. The down and flats between the summits on the ridge where flying by but any up and we slowed rapidly to a crawl.


20 miles, 10,000 foot of ascent and two packets of jelly babies - not bad for 9 hours work.


--Matt

River Oich Kayaking

My big brother Mark is up for a day on the hills tomorrow, we had a few options for today but eventually decided to kayak down the River Oich.

According to the Scottish Canoe Association, "only paddlers equipped with helmets and significant moving water experience should be tempted to take this ‘short cut’"- well, we had helmets but not much (i.e. no) moving water experience but you have to start somewhere. I knew where the hardest rapids where and I also knew you could hop over to the caledonian canal a few hundred metres before if we didn't fancy them so we decided to give it a go.

Mark getting to grips with his kayak at the top of the river.

The river could have done with slightly more water running down it, for future reference the weir should have a good flow coming down the main chute, even better if there is water coming over the main face as well. The river is gently flowing and very picturesque, there are a few fallen trees to look out for and today a few shallow spots to ground yourself on. There is only one slightly serious set of rapids, and yeah you guessed it, it got me almost before I'd even started down it. I'd negotiated the first set of rocks but somehow hit the second, the boat turned sideways to the current and it was all over. I emerged from the water like Daniel Craig in that Bond film only to see Mark at the bottom of the rapids looking very happy with himself and very dry. Oh well, I'll have it next time.

--Matt

Saturday Night Fever (3 Cluanie Munros)

I took the opportunity for another run last night, the three Munros just north of Loch Cluanie - Ghluasaid, Conbhairean and Sail Chaorainn - actually, I returned back over the middle one so it probably counts as 4? yeah, definitely 4.

Whilst doing them I discovered a new branch of fell running where you don't actually run up anything steeper than about 5 degrees, I just couldn't get going, still, the down and flats are always nice.

Last of the light hitting the South Shiel Ridge

I didn't set off until after baby bath time so ended up doing the last section of descent by head torch which added to the excitement but also meant I got to enjoy the setting sun over A'Chralaig and Mullach Fraoch-choire to the west.

View from Conbhairean

The sun disappeared as I hit the last Munro, Sail Chaorainn

I set off from the van at 7.30pm and was back at our Highland hostel at 11.10pm and covered about 16km, not bad but could have been faster in the daylight (and if I actually ran some of the ups!).

--Matt

Jenny Potter and the Goblet of Clay

Having racked up enough brownie points to earn myself a day out, I decided to finally have a go at something I've fancied trying for years - throwing a pot. Despite a few attempts I'd found nowhere offering pottery lessons or classes anywhere nearby, but Matt came up trumps and found a small pottery near Aviemore where I could have an afternoon lesson. Realising it would be a bit lonesome having a lesson by myself, I invited Helen Caketopper (www.caketops.co.uk) along as she was also very keen on having a go. Helen's friend Shell also happened to be in Aviemore that week, and so it was that all three of us arrived at the pottery on Thursday afternoon, keen and eager to get potting.

Our first lesson was in wedging the clay, which basically involved kneading the clay to make sure no lumps or air bubbles remained. This warmed us up nicely as we pushed and squashed the clay. Then it was time for throwing. First of all we had to centre our clay, which meant getting the lump of clay to sit right in the middle of the wheel. Without achieving this it is impossible to get a nice round pot, so after some top tips from Penny the Potter we dived straight in:


After centering the clay we were then taught how to hollow out our lumps of clay, give them height, mould them into bowls and give them rims. Before long we had created our very own bowls! Well mine ended up as more of a goblet, as I somehow managed to give it a bit of a 'foot', but I was very pleased with my efforts nonetheless.


With our goblets finished, we then progressed onto jugs, which came with the added challenges of spouts and handles. Despite managing to put a hole in the bottom of mine, this little faux pas was soon fixed by Penny and soon I had a jug I was pretty pleased with, if I do say so myself.

What a great day out, Penny looked after us and was a great teacher, and after our lesson (and before we got too ahead of ourselves) we saw how it was really done by having a browse around her gallery, which contained some really beautiful pieces (www.penspots.co.uk). I can heartily recommend pottery throwing to anyone who doesn't mind getting very messy, and although I don't have too much time for extra hobbies right now, when I do I think that pottery may just become my new pasttime of choice.

Jen x

The Loch Lochys

My darling wife and our beautiful baby boy were heading up to the bright lights of Inverness for some important retail therapy, I took the opportunity to squeeze in a quick(ish) run.

The Loch Lochy Munros (Sron a Choire Ghairbh and Meall na Teanga) are our local Munros and soar steeply over Loch Lochy, an imposing sight from the A82.... and easily reachable by bike.

Unfortunately, today it didn't look like the picture above...it looked more like

....and this....

It was pretty grim up on the tops but this probably served to speed me up a bit, no reason to hang around and enjoy the views.

As per usual for me, the up was hard going but the down was very enjoyable (apart from my fall), from the usual parking spot at the forest gate it took 2 hours 45 minutes to bag both summits, much better than the 6 it took last time I walked it. I broke up the 6km ride back to the 4 star luxury comfort of Invergarry Lodge (Reviews) by stopping to watch a little of the Scottish Six Day Trials before getting home to a well earned shower and a dozen or so beds that needed changing.

--Matt

Sisters of Kintail - double quick!

The 5 Sisters of Kintail is one of the classic ridge routes in Scotland, it takes in 5 peaks, 3 of them Munros and offers magnificent views (apparently).

The weather was looking promising as Rick and I shuffled our cars around to save a long walk back along the road but the heavens opened just as we were about to set off - it didn't last too long - by the time we'd messed around and put our jackets on it had pretty much stopped.

(excuse the camera strap in that shot)

It was quite tough getting up to the ridge but was over fairly quickly so we could start enjoying the ridge. All 5 summits where shrouded in cloud but we got a few glimpses of views as we headed along - to be honest, we were going so fast we hardly had chance to look around!


A lot of the ridge isn't conducive to fast (or slow) running - quite rocky and windy, few bits of fairly deep snow to sink in but there a couple of nice long sections and the final section down from Beinn Buidhe and along the Allt a Chruinn was great.

I thought we'd done well, 3 Munros and 16 km in 3 hours 15 minutes that is until I checked Stephen Pyke's Blog for an update on his continuous Munro attempt - he'll be doing these three in a couple of weeks....along with another 9 Munros further along the Glen at the same time, still.... everybody's got to start somewhere.

--Matt

Riding the trails at Abriachan

Today was my turn for an outing 'sans bebe' and Rick was off work so we decided to hit the bike trails at Abriachan.

It was a gloomy misty day as we left Invergarry but by the time we approached the bike trails we were treated to blue skies and sunshine - perfect!

The forest is really well maintained and has some great bike trails, including some excellent play parks. We chose a loop linking up a green and a blue run to make a 10k-ish trail containing some tricky turns, a few lung-stretching uphill bursts, some scary but fun downhills and some whoop-inducing humps.


I did manage a fairly spectacular nose-dive, landing completely clear of my bike and almost hitting the cairn at the high point of the ride, as I struggled to get to grips with my SPD pedals, but it didn't cramp my confidence too much and I even had a play about on some see-saws at the end.


A grand trip out, I can heartily recommend Abriachan (they also have a brilliant adventure playground for littlies) and hopefully it won't be long before I can get back for another go.

Jen x

A Highland Hostel Holiday ***Guest Blog***

What a wonderful week spent in the highlands at the lovely Invergarry Lodge. Matt and Jen took great care of us as we sampled the highland way of life.

We paddled our way around Loch Oich in their newly acquired kayaks and an attempt was made to coax the native trout to join us for tea, unfortunately without success. The sun shone as we helped Jen with the “landscaping” and helped plant the official Invergarry Lodge mini orchard, we even mounted the tandem bike for a ride through the forest. Unexpectedly we received a lesson from baby Alby in basic giggling techniques and also a comprehensive demonstration on “How to chew the arms/ears/legs off children’s toys” from Dylan the dog.

We can’t wait until our next visit in July and will be practising our balancing skills so we can make it all the way across the slack line without looking like utter fools!


Thanks for having us,
Al and Sarah

Employee of the Month!

After a secret ballot (and a couple of recounts) it was decided that Alby was going to be Invergarry Lodge's very first Employee of the Month!



He can be seen here putting the finishing touches to the new gallery page on our website - look how happy he is to be receiving this award! Now, if only we could get him to clean up the office once in a while.....


--Matt

Invergarry Lodge is 95% brilliant...

....we're still working on the other 5% but I'm sure we'll get there soon. Customers who book through hostelworld can review us after they have stayed with us by logging into www.hostelworld.com, the average rating is then calculated from all our reviews.

You can also review us on www.hihostels.com if you book through the SYHA/Hostelling International - we have no rating on there yet as we haven't been on for very long so feel free to be the first to rate us!

As if that isn't enough we are also now on Twitter - you can follow our tweets here.

Bye for now!

--Matt

Great Glen Kayaking

Stunning weather up here at the moment so it was back out on Loch Oich again, this time with our own brand new - well, new to us anyway - kayaks.


We've got our friends Sarah and Al up and we all enjoyed cruising around the lovely still water in the spring sunshine. The kayaks seemed to work slightly better than the ones we used last time - these ones almost go straight! All was going well until I crashed into Jen and very nearly capsized her, I think she's just about forgiven me.

--Matt

10 Long Kilometres Under The Ben

I must have done something to deserve another great day out this week - this time it was biking down at the Nevis Range. It's been a while since I've done anything other than pootle around Glengarry forest on my mountain bike, but when Rick and Anna said they were off to do the red 10 Under The Ben trail, Matt offered to look after Alby so I jumped at the chance to join in. I'm normally in my comfort zone on a blue ride, but have ridden a bit of red before and Matt confidently informed me it was a nice 10k route which wasn't as intense as the Witch's Trail Red we rode last time we were here. With this in mind, we happily set off along the first section, which ambled through forest on bumpy singletrack. After about 45 minutes we'd covered a good distance, some long uphill forest roads, quite a lot of single track, some scary boardwalk and a few decent downhills. Then we met the top of the forest road leading back to the car park, and I was surprised to see the signs pointing us away from this. I figured it must take a trickier route back, but we continued along forest roads for a while in what seemed like the wrong direction. To cut a long story short, another hour and quite a few expletives later we still hadn't finished. The going was not too hard, although I do admit to a few squeals on some of the boardwalked sections, but it seemed to go on and on and on... I couldn't believe it was only 10 kilometres.

When we did finally ride back into the car park to meet Matt and Alby I was absolutely shattered. A trip to the cafe next to the Farm Shop to recuperate was definitely on the agenda, but on the way we stopped in at the bike shop so that Matt could treat me to a pair of biking gloves. A chat with the lovely Maggie at Nevis Cycles revealed that the 10 Under The Ben was not, in fact, 10k but 11.7 miles, or 18.8 kilometres - almost twice as far as I'd signed up for. But there was a happy ending, as Maggie gave us some excellent discounts on our new gear, plenty of useful information for our next rides, and best of all some tickets for complementary tea and cake in the cafe next door - just what the doctor ordered. In the end I realised it was a good job I'd burned all those calories as I tucked into a toasted cheese sandwich, a slice of amazing lemon cake and a well earned cup of tea. I can highly recommend the cafe, the service and food were just the ticket after a tiring day's riding, and can definitely recommend a trip to Nevis Cycles for anyone after a bargain or just some good advice on the local riding.

All in all it was a great day out, and a trail I can definitely recommend, just make sure you don't expect it to be half as long as it is :o)

Click on the video below if you fancy whetting your appetite...

Jen x

Happy Easter Hollandaise

Jenny's Invergarry Country Kitchen presents...

...An Easter Eggstravaganza...

...Recipe #11 A Scotch Goose Egg

Some eggsellent friends of ours gave us a goose egg recently, we couldn't resist making an extra large scotch egg...this egg was bound to be good, and we didn't have to shell out anything for it.

After staging a quick photo (have a gander at that here) Jen took control and got things moving along - she's an eggspert in the kitchen

We also did a normal egg for comparison, no propergander here...

....much bigger...


...and very delicious.

Happy Easter

--Matt

Loch Oich kayaking

According to the Great Glen Canoe Trail Loch Oich is "arguably the most scenic of the four lochs in the Great Glen". Our friends Rick and Anna managed to bag themselves a couple of free kayaks recently and as Rich had a day off work today we decided to accompany him for a paddle out on Loch Oich to experience the spectacular scenery for ourselves.


None of us has much experience on the water but it was a beautiful still sunny day, so perfect weather for an introductory outing. Matt and Rick were first out while I lagged behind at home with Alby making the obligatory picnic. When I did eventually arrive at the lochside with picnic, baby and dog in tow, I was met by a bemused Matt who assured me both kayaks were broken and he'd been going round in circles all morning. I wasn't sure I fancied that much but decided to have a go, so got myself into a buoyancy aid and off I went. I could see what he meant straight away, the boat had a definite tendency to spin, but by leaving a few seconds between paddles I could work out whether to swap sides or keep paddling the same side and this seemed to help me stay in a straight line.


Rick and I glided around for a while before the picnic beckoned and we tucked into our falafel wraps. We then had another go, had a race around the buoy (which I lost), went round in a few circles, and decided to call it a day so Matt could have another go before we retreated to the four-star luxury of Invergarry Lodge.

Jen x

Queues on Tower Ridge

We finally had our day out with the legend that is Alan Kimber on Ben Nevis, what he doesn't know about Ben Nevis isn't worth knowing. It looked like a great day for heading up Tower Ridge - blue skies, no wind and great snow, unfortunately, everyone else had the same idea too!

We managed to skip in front of a couple of parties at the beginning but there where still plenty of other teams on the ridge - queues seen forming here on the little tower, we took a line a little to the right of the main line to try and keep things moving.


The climbing didn't really present any problems for either of us (or Alan!) although I can't say I particularly enjoyed belaying in a crowded tower gap - gulp! - something to hold on to would have been nice. Rich finishing up the little tower (I think)....

Rich taking 5 waiting for the queues to die down for the Eastern traverse. Working on his tan, well, his face tan...


Anyway - great route, great conditions, a legend to take us up it - a great day. Could only have been better if we'd got home 1/2 hour earlier for Alby's bath time!

--Matt

Edit: Picture of the dream team from Alan's blog

Meall Fuar-Mohnaidh - Run for the hills

There was an excellent article in Scotland Outdoors magazine about fell running this month written by fell running aficionado Steven Fallon recommending Meall Fuar-Mhonaidh (over looks Loch Ness near Drumnadrochit) as a decent hill to get started on, well, it's only up the road - so why not.

Rich and I have talked about this hill a few times but just never actually got round to doing it - if it's written in a magazine saying what a good run it would be then it must be true - we had no excuse.

After a couple of what could loosely be called training runs in the last few weeks - twice round the garden trying to catch a chicken and once along the river trying to get the dog back on his lead - I felt I was ready.

As it turned out it is a great little hill, a little boggy but not too bad (only fell over once), nice and soft on your feet on the way down. Saying that, I'm not sure why they call it fell running, we must have (fast) walked 7/8's of the way up, down was good fun though.

Now, the magazine says allow 1 hour 30 minutes, we did it in 1 hour 27, 1 hour 22 if you don't count the five minutes rest at the top - we must be naturals!

--Matt

A Short Cairngorm Ski Tour

The plan was to head up to Cairngorm from the ski centre and then head over to Ben Macdui, or, if the weather was poor, traverse round the Northern Corries and down Lurchers Gully, a classic ski mountaineering introduction for Rick's brand new top-of-the-range touring skis.


Unfortunately the weather was appalling so after a bit of white-out navigation to get us to the first summit we bailed and headed down to the warm comforting embrace of an all-day breakfast. That's the last two mountain days with Rich that have finished early with an all day breakfast, there is definitely a pattern emerging, he tells me we'll soon stop pretending to do stuff and start meeting at cafes. Fine by me.

--Matt

River Garry Salmon Fishing

We had a hostel full of exceptionally skilled fishermen at the weekend - all vying for the glory of the first spring salmon of the year on the Garry....unfortunately not much was biting!

Young Phil and his glamorous assistant can be seen here winning the "can you cast to the other bank and get it stuck in the rocks and lose your lure" competition.

Still, they all had good fun despite the lack of salmon. There were a number of excuses knocking about - mainly the exceptionally cold weather we've had this year and the slow currents/lack of water coming down from the frozen hills. Better luck next time chaps!

You get to a certain age though and the excitement just proves too much...



--Matt

Great Snow at Nevis Range (Helen's First Jump)

Headed up to the Nevis Range for some snowboarding but they had ran out of hire equipment so ended up on my skis again - at least I didn't end up spending most of the afternoon on my bum like I would have with a snowboard. We had a great afternoon on the slopes - as you can see from the photo crafty Helen is getting to grips with her board and was having a go at some jumps - after I'd showed her how not to do it of course.



Ben also took a few minutes to show us some advanced crash management techniques. Anyway, they still have great conditions up there so can thoroughly recommend a trip up there.

--Matt

Edit 08/03/10

Helen wanted me to show the real unphotoshopped picture of her first jump....

Curved Ridge Conundrum

Headed up towards Curved Ridge today but decided to cut our losses and turn back after ploughing through waist deep snow. We were hoping that someone would have been up before us and broke trail but no such luck so left it for another day.

Still, a nice day to be out for some photos.....




Matt

Great Scottish Skiing

As you all probably know the snow is back, and plenty of it. We've seen lots of people out touring in the hills, and the Nevis range is reporting its best snow for years. We had friends skiing over at Cairngorm for the day so we headed over to join them. With a bribe of cake we managed to get Alby's granny to come across and keep him company so we both managed to get on the slopes.

We even bumped into (not literally) Crafty Helen who was looking like a true snowboarding aficionado.


The snow was as good as we've ever seen it in Scotland and the weather looks great for the next few days so hope you get chance to make the most of it - we have a few vacancies if you fancy it!

--Matt

Pap of Glencoe (Alby's first hill)

Well it's been a long time coming but I have finally made it up my first proper hill since falling pregnant last year! Matt has been working very hard and earning himself lots of day-passes to get out into the hills but I haven't had a chance (or the energy!) until now, so when Matt finished his hostel DIY and said there was a good forecast, we decided (along with Auntie Helen) to grab the chance for a day out.


We didn't want to do anything too serious with Alby but thought the Pap of Glencoe would be a nice day out and not be too strenuous for any of us. The weather was bright and sunny as we drove down to Glencoe village, although when we set off we realised it was still pretty chilly - luckily Alby was all layered up and kitted out in his very smart bear-suit so was snug as a bug in a rug.


There was a bit off snow and ice on the way up to the summit but nothing seemed to phase Alby who slept almost all of the way. We found a lovely sun-trap at the summit and as we were on the top of the Pap it seemed fitting for Alby to have some milk while we were there.


I think that may have been the only time he opened his eyes, but we like to think he enjoyed his first hill and hopefully it will be the first of many happy days out together in the hills.


Jen x

East Ridge of Beinn a Chaorainn

We (Rich and I) where supposed to be having a day out with Ben Nevis el supremo Mr Kimber but had to postpone it so we headed up to the East Ridge of Beinn a Chaorainn.



A lovely long ridge, great weather, a bit of powder, a few interesting bits but no need to use any gear, what more can I say....lovely stuff.