Invergarry Lodge

The blog has moved..

2010-05-23T21:56:00.004+01:00

The Invergarry Lodge blog has moved, please update your bookmarks to www.invergarrylodge.co.uk/blog/ where you will find new posts along with your old favourites.

Don't forget to visit our hostel page!

Matt & Jen

The Inaugural Lochaber Off-Road Half-Marathon

2010-05-16T19:38:00.004+01:00

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

2010-05-15T19:47:00.002+01:00

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

2010-05-14T18:57:00.003+01:00

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)

2010-05-09T12:50:00.008+01:00

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

2010-05-07T19:52:00.006+01:00

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

2010-05-04T20:32:00.008+01:00

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!

2010-04-30T16:47:00.004+01:00

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

2010-04-28T20:25:00.005+01:00

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

2010-04-25T21:34:00.009+01:00

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!

2010-04-23T21:02:00.006+01:00

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...

2010-04-18T18:48:00.009+01:00

....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

2010-04-10T13:05:00.004+01:00

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

2010-04-04T11:47:00.005+01:00

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

2010-04-03T17:56:00.007+01:00

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

2010-04-02T14:52:00.005+01:00

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

2010-03-29T20:47:00.007+01:00

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

2010-03-27T16:02:00.003Z

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

2010-03-13T19:11:00.004Z

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

2010-03-08T20:29:00.004Z

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)

2010-03-07T18:05:00.003Z

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

2010-03-02T17:47:00.005Z

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

2010-03-01T19:40:00.003Z

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)

2010-02-12T17:05:00.003Z

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

2010-02-02T18:43:00.004Z

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.

Dog sleds are GO!

2010-01-23T19:56:00.003Z

What with Jenny and I being dog sledding experts (we went for a few hours in Norway last year) we thought we'd head over to Aviemore with our friends Rick and Anna for the annual dog sled rally to see if we could offer any assistance.

Unfortunately we got waylaid in the award winning Mountain Cafe (all day breakfast highly recommended) but we eventually made it to the track near Loch Morlich sometime after lunch.

We were all pretty impressed with the dogs hurtling round the track until we saw some of the dogs that weren't running and they made Dylan look well behaved, we never thought we'd see a dog that made Dylan look good!

Now, I think I still have my skateboard somewhere, all we need is a little seat for Alby......

--Matt

PS. Speaking of days out, check out some of our recommended day trips from Invergarry Lodge.

Official Affiliation (SYHA)

2010-01-12T18:24:00.006Z

We are now an official affiliate of the Scottish Youth Hostel Association (SYHA).

You can book us online through the SYHA here or through Hostelworld.com here (did you notice the 90% rating?) or just visit the official Invergarry Lodge site which is often updated - most recently with our favourite local walks and day trip recommendations.

Culachy Falls, Fort Augustus

2010-01-11T12:47:00.003Z

The big freeze continues up in the Highlands, Rich (Invergarry Lodge's official ice climber extraordinaire) and I headed to Glen Tarff, just east of Fort Augustus to have a play on Culachy Falls.

As far as we know the falls have only had one previous ascent and was in exceptional condition. Great stuff for only 35 minutes walk from the car - even Young Alby joined us for the trip but he didn't seem to keen when it came to his turn to lead the route, like father like son.

--Matt

New Invergarry Ice Route

2010-01-04T16:23:00.006Z

The prolonged cold spell round here has led to lots of local frozen waterfalls. Rich and I decided to tackle the big one in Glengarry forest that I don't know that name for, easy enough to find, park at Glengarry forest and follow the yellow way marked trail, about 20 mins or so.

The climbing wasn't that steep or difficult but has a nice short steep section and the route divides nicely in to a couple of pitches. We don't have much (any) experience in grading these things but we reckon about grade II. The name of this new route? We decided on Viagra Falls, it could have been harder.

--Matt

Edit - Dave the Bowls president informs me the waterfall does have a name - Allt Na Calliche (or something similar) thanks Dave.

Great Glen Skiing

2009-12-31T16:03:00.004Z

Invergarry is fast becoming one of the best winter snow sport destinations in Scotland, if it's not sledging, having a snow ball fight or making snowmen, it's skiing the Great Glen Way. I made it up to the local viewpoint but couldn't see much because of the snow.

Ever seen a dog on a ski slope? No, you know why? Because they (or at least Dylan) are a massive pain in the neck when it comes to skiing. He just about got used to me skinning up the hill but when I took the skins off and set off down the hill he just couldn't comprehend what was happening and kept trying to jump on top of them and eat them, still he wasn't good the first time we took him running either.

I'm sure he'll get the hang of it next time. All was good apart from as I was walking the 500 metres to the bottom of the hill, along a not very snowy, ploughed and gritted road with my skis on my shoulder, first my neighbour Jimmy came past and looked at me like I was from another planet, I then bumped in to Colin from the bowls team who also couldn't believe that I was going skiing.

I was on my own so couldn't get a photo of myself but so you know - I looked the business, orange skis, orange boots, grey trousers, orange jacket, grey hat (thanks mum), I even had orange logos on my gloves... I looked like one of those super coordinated aging french super skiers that whip past you in the alps whilst blowing smoke in your face that look like they are wearing the same gear they bought in the 80's. Cool.

Happy New Year (again)

--Matt

A Seasonal Ski Tour Adventure

2009-12-30T18:03:00.004Z

My brother Mark and his family have come up for Hogmanay and we managed to get permission from the wives for a morning out as long as we were back by lunch time to look after the kids. My brother thinks he's some sort of ski touring demon so after an alpine start (7.30 am) we headed down to Fersit to tackle the two Munros to the south east which Mark reckoned wouldn't take too long.

I think he only does all this ski touring and ice climbing business so he can look cool in car parks, I got a example of this this morning as we met half a dozen walkers which he impressed before they set off up the neighbouring hills.

After some basic hints and tips from big brother and him trying to tell me you have to shout "lock and load" (he doesn't get out much) we were off.

We made steady progress up to about 750 metres by which time gale force winds and thick fog and dangerous hoar frost conditions and the impending wrath of two wives and three kids we decided to head back down to civilisation and a lovingly prepared lunch - is anyone else still eating turkey?

Mark deciding he has absolutely no idea where we are.

Good fun, shame the weather wasn't better and the "pass out" for a few more hours, maybe I'll start taking the dog for ski tours instead of walks.

Happy new year.

--Matt

New marketing campaign launched!!

2009-12-13T16:07:00.002Z

Advertising space available to rent, please send enquiries to mail@invergarrylodge.co.uk marked for the attention of Alby.

--Matt

Crafts ahoy!

2009-12-06T18:32:00.004Z

We've not been up to much since the wee man was born 23 days ago, but we did manage to host a stall at the local craft fair along with our friends Crafty Helen and Winky Lisa and with craft contributions from Alby's Granny and Great Granny - East Yorkshires' finest knitters and Ranger Dave.

As you can see from the photo below we had an excellent looking stall but think it's fair to say we can't afford to give up our day jobs and make a living solely from craft fairs - we spent most of our profits on refreshments at the cafe.

Can you tell where Alby is? (it's like those old spot the ball competitions)...

Alby was without doubt the biggest hit of the day, we really should have been charging for cuddles!

--Matt

New member for Team Invergarry Lodge

2009-11-16T17:24:00.005Z

As Helen mentioned in her guest blog, we were away having a baby last week, which explains why the Blog has been getting quieter and quieter over the last few months as Jen got more and more pregnant and my DIY list got longer and longer. Anyway, the son and heir to the Invergarry Lodge estate was born last Wednesday, Alby George, weighing a healthy 7 lbs 11.

He's been pretty well behaved so far, as has Dylan, Helen must have had some strong words with him before we came home. Unfortunately, Alby seems to take after both his mum and his dad and isn't very photogenic, he's a little bit cuter in real life - honest. We'll try not to turn the blog into a baby blog, don't want both our readers to get bored but I'm sure you'll see a bit more of him as time goes on.

How old do you think he needs to be before we can get him changing beds?

--Matt, potential father of the year 2010 .

Hostel Sitter Extraordinaire! Guest Blog

2009-11-13T17:56:00.002Z

I don’t know, matt and jenny are off having a baby, and I’m left here in charge of the wildest dog in the west… Yes I’m the hostel sitter, dog, cat and chicken sitter for however long it may be. As I write this I’m just shy of 24 hours in charge. It’s all going well tho, my hostel guests are all lovely and looking after themselves. The hostel is nice and roomy and I’ve seen all the rooms bar one, explored all the nooks and crannies myself, and as an occasional hosteller I think it must rank as one of the best in Scotland. Its got lots of space to relax and a lovely friendly atmosphere. My guests at the moment are all here for some hills, I’m looking forward to asking them where they’ve been today!

Dylan the monster dog is who I’m really here to look after, and he has been very well behaved all things considered. My list of things he’s chewed so far is much smaller than I expected it would be…. He’s been tormenting me by going for the hall rug whenever he’s bored. Unfortunately he seems to devour doggie chews in a matter of seconds, so I am saving the last one for an emergency…. Worst offence so far is that somehow he chewed through his lead. I’m not sure how I’m going to explain their dog on a string to matt and jenny when they get back….but really he’s been very good, and at the moment would you believe is sound asleep… I daren’t move….

This morning all the hostellers have been asking about the baby- not yet I’ve said… When walking the dog a fellow Invergarry bowler saw me and asked too. Nope, not yet…. Hopefully, we all -and more importantly Matt and jenny!-, won’t have too much longer to wait!

Helen
(The best caketopper in the land)

Witches trail '09

2009-10-23T09:51:00.005+01:00

Rich's first visit to the Witches trail at the Nevis Range at Fort William...apologies if video is slow to load...

--Matt

Salmon Fishing on the Garry Guest Blog

2009-10-18T17:05:00.015+01:00

Back in May, I had my first experience salmon fishing. I'd been fly fishing for trout plenty of times down in Yorkshire, however I'd never had a chance to try for a salmon, so my friends Matt and Jenny at Invergarry Lodge invited me up to fish for a day on the River Garry, as a present for my thirti... twenty-fifth birthday. Sadly, I didn't manage to hook anything at all, except for clothing, nets and various plants, trees and weeds. Thankfully though, others present were more successful, and I saw proof at least that there were some big salmon in that river.

In August I tried again, this time on the Esk in North Yorkshire. That day was even less fruitful, with three of us working the river for over 12 hours with not even a nibble. So after two unsuccessful salmon fishing trips, I decided it was time to call in the big guns - I invited my Dad, Phil Parrish, up to Invergarry to see if we could catch one of those fish I'd spied back in May.

We arrived with a car boot full of various rods, reels and lures. We had everything ranging from antique Sharpe's reels and Hardy cane rods, to cheap modern rods and spinning reels. Surely with our vast arsenal, we'd be hauling in the fish?

Well it was a slow morning - we started early at the end of the Garry near Loch Oich, and worked our way up river. By early afternoon we were starting to tire and so stopped for a bite to eat, and to curse Poseidon for our bad luck so far. Thankfully, things started to pick up after that, and we each hooked a pike which provided us with some fun for a while. Thinking that the weather was about to take a turn for the worse, and noticing Matt appear with a six-pack of lager, I retreated to the fishing hut for a break with Matt whilst Dad continued in his search for a salmon.

Suddenly, we were alerted by shouting, and a string of expletives that would make a sailor blush. Running down the bank with the landing net, it appeared Dad was struggling with a fish the likes of which had not been seen since the première of Jaws in 1975. After a bit of a struggle to direct it into the net, we soon had it on the bank - not a shark, but a decent size salmon, and one very happy Dad.

Glenfinnan/Corryhully Horseshoe

2009-10-13T10:44:00.003+01:00

I managed to escape the hostel duties for a few hours today for a quick trip round the Glenfinnan Horseshoe, a steep and rugged circuit taking in two fine Munros, Sgurr Thuilm and Sgurr nan Coireachan.
The approach is on a private tarmac road so a bike comes in very handy for much of it. Then it's a steep (and quite boggy) slog up to the 600m mark where it eases towards the summit (963m) and gives great views across to Ben Nevis.

Then across the ridge, over four minor summits to Sgurr nan Coireachan which although slightly lower at 956 m provides great views across to the Outer Hebrides, Skye and Knoydart. It took some effort to pull myself away from the views and head back down to the bike and Glenfinnan.

--Matt

A Snowy North Shiel Ridge

2009-10-05T18:24:00.002+01:00

I'd been given a half day pass out for good behaviour (I've decorated one of the bathrooms in the hostel) and what with the recent dusting of snow I'd spied on the tops on Sunday there was nothing else for it but an early start.

I pulled up in glen shiel a little before 6am and things were looking promising. The sky was clear and lit up by a full moon, I set off up the Allt Coire Tholl without even needing my headtorch. By the time I was approaching the south east ridge of Sgurr An Fhuarail, however, the sky had clouded over and light rain was following me up the hillside. I kept skirting further and further eastwards in an attempt to catch the sunrise at the other end of the glen, but unfortunately luck was not with me today - cloud was!

Despite this the ridge did offer some atmospheric views across to Ciste Dhubh, A'chralaig and Mullach Fraoch-Choire as the cloud danced around their summits.

I followed the narrowing ridge over Sgurr An Fhuarail and then made my way onto the snow-covered summit plateau of Aonach Meadhoin, which despite its cloud covering had a real wintry feel to it. I hung around for a while hoping the cloud would clear but I soon got rather chilly so decided to head off towards Sgurr A'Bhealaich Dheirg, the next Munro on the ridge. Again the ridge started to narrow and I enjoyed a few short scrambly sections before starting on the long slog up to the summit, accompanied all the way by a soundtrack of rutting stags. The summit cairn actually lies beyond an easy but exposed ridge, made more interesting by a good smattering of snow. As I sat eating my sandwiches (cheese, sausage and redcurrant jelly if you're interested!) I was treated to a few glimpses of the summits I'd covered earlier on as they poked through the thick cloud.

Back on the main ridge I continued westwards, dropping sharply out of the cloud before tackling another short scramble leading to the bealach. Onwards and upwards I went, up the grassy slopes of Saileag for a well-earned rest at the rather pathetic summit cairn and another sandwich. The early start was starting to catch up with me, so I took a breather here for a while before backtracking down over Sgurr a' Bhealaich Dheirg and forking south down the broad ridge to Meall a' Charra. I was soon back at the van and made it back home in time for lunch!

--Matt

Scottish Wildlife

2009-09-26T11:07:00.008+01:00

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.

Ben's First Munro (A Scottish weather special!)

2009-09-22T11:07:00.003+01:00

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

Burn, Burn, Burn, The Ring of Steall

2009-09-14T21:53:00.010+01:00

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

Nessie News - The Monster Lives!

2009-09-13T15:35:00.003+01:00

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?

The Forcan Ridge (plus a bit of bagging)

2009-09-08T18:27:00.007+01:00

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

Foraging in Glengarry Forest

2009-09-08T10:07:00.005+01:00

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

Eileen Donan Castle

2009-08-16T08:39:00.004+01:00

We had to postpone our planned fishing trip due to adverse weather conditions and decided to take a trip down the road to Eileen Donan Castle instead.

What did Team Invergarry Lodge think of Eileen Donan?

Jen: "Fun filled, action packed, wild and wonderful"

Ben: "Majestic and windswept"

Matt: "Nice cake"

All in all, we'd recommend a visit, even if it's just for the tea shop.

--Team Invergarry

North Ridge of Aonach Air Chrith (and 5 wet Munros)

2009-08-14T20:12:00.005+01:00

MWIS, the god of weather and his trusty sidekick Metcheck, told us (Rich and I) that the weather should be OK today until about 2ish so we tried to grab a quick scramble.

We set off bright and early from the bottom of Glen Shiel heading toward A' Chioch and following the north ridge to the summit of Aonach Air Chrith. We'd been going all of 5 minutes before the drizzle (or Mizzle as Crafty Helen would say) started, before we got to the bealach between the two tops we had to don full waterproofs.

The scrambling was really nice (apart from cold hands) with only one tricky bit where the narrow arete was wet and slippy, will definitely be back again to try it in the dry.

We reached the summit and walked along to the next Munro, Maol Chinn-Dearg, from here a descent path heads back down to the A87, we figured we couldn't get much wetter so decided we'd continue along the rest of the ridge and bag the other three Munros. It was basically just grey cloud all the way, it cleared a few times for the odd moment, at least the rain was coming from behind us. I think I managed to keep Rich's spirits up by singing "it's getting wetter, get-ting wet-ter every day" (from a recent TV advert I think) for at least half the walk.

Anyway, beats hostel chores.

--Matt

Glen Quoich/ Kinlochhourn fishing.

2009-07-31T16:42:00.005+01:00

My fly fishing guru is due a visit to Invergarry soon but I couldn't wait any longer and headed out on my own.

The soothing gentle breeze, the crystal clear water lilting against the shore, the swoosh of the fly line as it flows back and forth through the air, the rhythmic clicking of the reel as more line is released, the periodic pops as eager fish break the surface, the barely perceptible ripples as the fly is presented to the fish with impeccable precision.... well, that was the dream!

It all seemed so simple when I practised in the garden. Apart from a few funny looks from people walking the Great Glen Way thinking I was fly fishing in our 4m2 pond it was fine. Out in the real world, at an actual proper real life loch though, different story. It was a bit windy and the hook was flying up all over the place, every time it flew past my head I was tensing up in case it caught me. Within 15 minutes I had hooked my jacket and then my hat.

I thought I'd better call it day before I had my eye out, luckily I'd planned for this eventuality and headed off a bit further down the road to try my luck with my other rod and the mackerel at Kinlochhourn.

Just my luck - some proper fishermen that seemed to know what they were doing! I hid around the corner so they wouldn't see how terrible I was, just close enough to hear them telling each other that it wasn't a high enough high tide for the mackeral. Great. I'd just about decided to give in and that I should have spent the day up a hill when the rod started twitching, and I came home with 2 (nearly 3!) fresh mackerel for tea. Result!

--Matt

Abriachan Bike Trails

2009-07-24T18:34:00.007+01:00

I've not had that much luck the last couple of times I've been out on my bike, my chain snapped 200 metres into the ride last time then someone tried to steal my bike from under my nose but Rich was keen to test out his new toy. We headed over to the new (newish? new to me anyway) trails over at Abriachan where we hoped to have a quick blast before the wives required us back.

We had good fun playing on the see-saw next to the carpark but unfortunately luck was not on my side, within 5 minutes my chain snapped again, we spent 2o minutes getting it back on whilst receiving our first midge bites of the season. Joy.

We headed up the green run which soon changes in to a nice blue run and after swooping around some burns it heads up to the top of the hill, and we managed to enjoy a wee red section before my chain finally gave up again. Rather than spend another 20 minutes getting eaten and being made even later for our rendezvous I opted to free wheel down the trails as Rich told me it was all downhill. Mostly downhill would have been a more accurate description! It's funny, Rich didn't seem keen on letting me give his bike a test run after mine was chainless.

Rich had a play on the mini obstacle course at the end of the trails before we headed off in our different directions. Not a bad place, the trails are stacked so you warm up on the easier stuff as you get towards the harder reds which, by the way, seem quite hard for reds especially when freewheeling! Will be back again.

--Matt

Le tour de hebrides

2009-07-17T09:09:00.004+01:00

We headed over to the Outer Hebrides for a spot of cycling this week, think we've (I've) been watching too much of the Tour De France. The sun came out and shined on us and we had a great time.

We really enjoyed cycling round Barra in perfect sunshine and lunch overlooking Kisimul Castle (we can recommend the burger at the Craigard hotel).

I think I won the yellow jersey - Jen is pregnant after all - she did however get the prize for most aggressive rider, do they do a prize for fastest lunch eater? They should, it was hotly contested.

We also spent a bit of time relaxing and taking in the sights, although we had to make an quick escape from the Isle of Berneray after skinny dipping on what we mistakenly thought was a deserted beach!

--Matt

Wild west coast camping

2009-07-16T10:18:00.004+01:00

Whilst the "hostel sitter extraordinaire" was looking after Invergarry Lodge, we headed off "oop north" for a spot of wild camping with our friends Rick and Anna, you may remember them from such blogs as Jen Conquers Ben Tee and Agag's Groove on the Buckle.

Holiday highlights include some award winning fish and chips in Ullapool, some award winning pies in Lochinver and what should have been an award winning curry in Beauly, the lows involve being refused a cup of tea in a unmentionable hotel because it had gone 5pm!

In between the eating and drinking we managed a bit of scrambling on Stac Pollaidh

and a spot of wild camping

The sun didn't shine on us for much of the holiday, but it was good kite flying weather so we made the most of it!

--Matt

Handsomest rescue dog in Invergarry!

2009-07-04T15:27:00.004+01:00

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

2009-07-03T14:59:00.003+01:00

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!

2009-06-28T13:06:00.002+01:00

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)

2009-06-27T08:56:00.003+01:00

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...

2009-06-23T21:05:00.005+01:00

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

2009-06-18T22:11:00.002+01:00

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....

2009-06-13T17:24:00.016+01:00

.....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

Ciste Dhubh (and Am Bathach)

2009-06-08T20:39:00.006+01:00

We (me and the dog) took advantage of the long hours of daylight and took the opportunity for a quick late afternoon stroll up one of the local corbetts, Am Bathach. Am Bathach is a great little hill, you can be at the top in a little over an hour and get great views of the surrounding Munros.

The ascent was the usual, me slogging up with Dyl way ahead looking back wondering what was taking so long.

After a short pause to rebuild the cairn that I sat on at the summit (too much of the wife's home baking!) we decided we'd make the most of being out and head across to the adjoining Munro, Ciste Dubh. The descent is steep but grassy - last time I bum slid down it in the snow. We struggled to find the path up the ridge to Ciste Dubh (the path is obvious in descent, and probably in ascent thinking about it). I asked Dylan to seek it out - my mate Mark's dog, Jack, is great at finding paths -my dog can find bogs, bones, poo and all sorts of smelly undesirables, but not paths.

We eventually met up with the path half way up the ridge and made our way up past An Cnapac to the summit where the sun pretended to come out.

We took in the views for 15 mins or so than headed back down to bealach and followed the An Caorainn Beag. I'm guessing this is where the weekends LAMM passed through because there was a million sets of fell shoe prints on the boggy bits of the path. An easy descent down the Glen and home, just in time for a rapidly cooling dinner. Lovely.

--Matt

Homemade wine? Fine and Dandy!

2009-06-04T20:56:00.003+01:00

We were passed a book a while ago on Country Drinks (thanks Dave!) and have been desperate to try it out for ages and we finally got round to it.

We put some serious thought into what our first drink was going to be, something seasonal, easy to find, free (obviously)...well, I hadn't cut the grass recently so the answer seemed obvious....Dandelions.

Washing hundreds and hundreds of dandelions soon became very arduous but the recipe was pretty simple.

Add a lemon, an orange and some boiling water and leave for ten days. Strain and add sugar and yeast, leave for another 3 days. Strain and put in demi-johns, leave until clear (ours took about 3 weeks) then bottle and label.

We've got 5 bottles of the stuff but I guess it'll all have to wait until Jen is drinking again...apart from the half bottle I've got chilling in the fridge - purely for testing purposes you understand.

--Matt

Our answer to the heatwave...

2009-06-01T17:13:00.002+01:00

We've been spicing up our afternoon dog walks the last couple of days with some swimming in the local rivers. Dylan thinks all his birthdays have come at once when we all get in the water together!

We can give you the inside knowledge on our top secret swimming destinations next time you're staying with us at Invergarry Lodge.

--Matt

Sunshine for the Skye 10k!

2009-05-31T13:22:00.005+01:00

Matt has been enjoying quite a few days out in the hills lately, so in an effort to redress the balance somewhat I decided to float the idea of a 10k race on Skye to my running buddy Helen. She's fairly new to running so wasn't hugely keen on the idea of a race when I first broached the subject, although I didn't help matters by only giving her about 5 days' warning. However she set herself the challenge of seeing if she could go the distance before the race, and after realising it was definitely do-able she began to come around to the idea (especially when I mentioned that there may be a medal in it for her!).

The forecast for the whole area was fantastic for race day so we packed plenty of sunscreen, stocked up on post-race goodies at the supermarket on the way, and enjoyed a fabulous drive out to Skye in glorious sunshine with clear blue skies. On arrival at the race, which set off from Dunvegan Castle, we were a little behind schedule and only had half an hour to spare in which we still had to register for the race and get changed. Still we were at the start line in front of the castle with plenty of time and soon we were setting off out of the castle grounds and past lots of spectators who did a great job of cheering us off on our way.

The first section of the race headed off-road through undulating woodland which, although offering plenty of much-needed shade from the scorching sunshine, was unfortunately also offering shelter to plenty of flying insects, and as the gradient increased so did the number of flies we swallowed as we gulped down the fresh air.

We continued uphill for the first couple of kilometres and enjoyed plenty of shade until we left the wood and headed out into open country. Luckily we had a fair breeze to keep us cool but could still feel the strength of the sun as we ran. More uphill followed but we were rewarded at the top with our first water station, a very welcome sight and we glugged back plenty of water to help wash down all those flies. We were happy to see a small downhill section next in front of us, and got our breath back before tackling the next looming hill which lead us up onto the road.

We'd approached Dunvegan along this way in the car and had seen the 5k marker by the road, so knew we were approaching the halfway point which cheered us up no-end, and we knew we'd done most of the uphill work by now and that it would be mostly flat or downhill from here. We were also quite high by now so were treated to a lovely cool breeze along this section, without which this part of the race would have been almost unbearable. We kept up a comfortable pace along the road, and just when pounding the tarmac started to get a bit boring we realised we were approaching Dunvegan and the slope was increasing downhill. We made the most of the gravity and got up some momentum down the hill into Dunvegan itself, and soon passed a sign telling us the castle was just three quarters of a mile away.

Unfortunately dropping down to this level meant the breeze had died away completely, and we found ourselves running along a sun-drenched road with no shade or breeze to speak of. Our progress for this section was painfully slow and we worked really hard to resist the urge to stop and walk as we could see many others doing in front of us. Unfortunately we realised we weren't catching anyone up so were clearly going no faster than the walkers, but the principle still mattered and when we finally jogged into the car park and up to the finish line a few minutes later we felt duly pleased with ourselves and our efforts on such a scorching hot day.

We were handed our medals which Helen received with absolute delight, having just finished her first ever race. She did really well considering she'd only been running for a few weeks and the weather had made the run so much more challenging. As for me I was just pleased to have been able to get round without walking or feeling that my growing bump was in the way too much. We were chuffed to find our time was 1hr 6mins, much faster than we'd anticipated and, we felt, rather good for a 4-month pregnant lady and a new beginner :o)

We travelled back tired and happy, admiring the breathtaking views all the way home, and I found myself thinking, not for the first time since moving up here, life doesn't get much better than this...

Jen x

Agag's Groove, Buachaille Etive Mor

2009-05-29T22:12:00.009+01:00

The VDiff dream team was reunited in fine style this week with an ascent of Agag's Groove on Buachaille Etive Mor.

You've all seen the Buachaille, that fantastically shaped, very photogenic mountain at the top of Glen Coe that cries out to be climbed.

It looks like we picked a perfect day for it too and we set off in high spirits as we marched up the path and scrambled up half of Curved Ridge until we got to the bottom of Rannoch Wall.

The route follows an obvious groove that can be seen from the A82 and looks brilliant as you scramble towards it from below.

We managed to turn a classic 4 pitch VDiff into 5 pitches, we wouldn't be the VDiff dream team if we didn't have some route finding difficulties.

Rich approaching 2nd belay

Rich approaching 4th belay (supposed to be the 3rd we think)

After the 5 pitches we continued the scramble up Crowberry Ridge (with an unintentional trip up Crowberry Tower) which comes out at the summit cairn of Stob Dearg, we had an amble along the ridge that joins it to a second Munro in perfect weather before we headed down and home.

A great route in a brilliant position with not another climber in sight. Lovely.

--Matt

1 hill, 17 wind turbines and 5 wee trout

2009-05-27T09:36:00.004+01:00

Jen had agreed to give me time off from all the DIY and dropped me off at Loyne Dam so I could walk back over the tops and maybe try to catch us some dinner.

I soon began to think I'm made a bit of a mistake, it seemed like a hell of a slog up the hill and we soon got caught in a shower. Dylan was having a great time, within 5 minutes of setting off he'd found a deer leg which he refused to give up. We eventually made it to the broad ridge that runs north from a small undistinguished top called Carn Ban up to the rocky top of Clach Criche and things were looking up - the route looked like it was getting a bit more interesting and it also looked like we'd done pretty good with the weather. The shower had passed, rain was blowing down from Cluanie and down Glen Loyne but it seemed to dissipate before it reached us.

We followed the chain of lochans along the ridge and then struck up the final slopes to the corbett. The wind had picked up and almost blew us up the last bit. Luckily, the top has a massive cairn that we could shelter behind and have a spot of lunch. Its maybe not the most interesting hill but has great long distance views towards Glen Shiel, Gleouraich and Spidean Mialach and across Loch Garry to Ben Tee.

It was at this time that I discovered Dylan had a liking for Jelly Babies, I think him and Jen must have spent some time curled up on the sofa sharing a few packets of them whilst I've been working. Still, it means I have a way of disposing of the horrible pink ones.

By the way, the white on his whiskers and side in the photo is where he has been "helping" us decorate.

We headed of to investigate the wind turbines that dominate the view to the east. I know a lot of people are against them but there is something about them that is a bit hypnotic, especially up close.

We continued south east down to a small loch, I'd received some insider knowledge about the quantity of fish in this loch and was keen to investigate. My first fishing trip a few weeks ago was fairly successful and I was keen to see if my beginners luck was still with me.

It was! I caught 5 trout despite Dylan's help, every time I cast he wanted to go and fetch it back unless I distracted him by throwing a stick in the other direction. As well as the fish, I also managed to hook my finger twice and my jacket once. Good fun though.

It soon started hailing so took that as my cue to leave and headed down to Invergarry, and the sun came out as we ambled* through Glen Garry forest back home.

--Matt

* I had sore feet by this point so it may have been more of a plod than an amble

A Skye Secondment

2009-05-11T17:44:00.012+01:00

I'd managed to get my list of jobs down to 2 pages (both sides, size 6 font) and was awarded a 24 hour day pass. I headed over to Skye for a quick North/South (and nearly North again because I couldn't find the way down) traverse of The Storr whilst I waited for my climbing partner to turn up, unfortunately his "pass" was revoked at the last minute - Permission denied.

I didn't want to waste my time off so I headed down to Loch Slapin so I could have a crack at Blaven (Bla Bheinn) in the morning and awoke to stunning views as the sun hit the mountain across a mirror still loch.

I was clicking away with my camera whilst drinking my cup of tea I realised it was only 5.45am, a bit earlier than I planned but I made the most of it and got ready to set off up the hill.

The sun rose above the hills behind me and gave me some great views as I climbed the path. Eventually the path starts to zig zag steeply up the east ridge and the walk gets more interesting, there is lots of scrambling to be found, all easily avoidable if you wish which takes you up to the north summit and exceptional views to the main Cuillin ridge, across to the hebrides and over to the rough bounds of Knoydart.

I arrived at the summit at about 8.15 am and spent at least 45 minutes relaxing and taking it all in (and taking more photos) from both the North and the South top (minor scrambly bit to cross the gap) and then descended down the southeast flank on loose rock and scree.

A popular day to be out and about - I must have passed a dozen people whilst I was coming down, all wanting to know about my early start.

The path down follows a gorgeous looking crystal clear stream that was too inviting to resist on a hot day, twice I gave in to temptation and did my best impression of a Timotei shampoo advert.

I was back at the hostel for lunch time, do you think get to save up my 4 hours of unused leave for another day?

--Matt

River Garry Fishing

2009-05-03T09:15:00.005+01:00

For a special birthday treat for Mr Parrish (known in fishing circles as J R Hartley) we spent the day fishing on the river Garry.

We started the day with Ben instructing me in the intricacies of fly fishing and showing me his special technique. Fortunately for us one of the locals turned up and pointed us in the right direction and gave us the inside knowledge.

For a while it was like watching Brad Pitt in "A river runs through it", until Ben managed to catch his landing net which was on the jetty 6 foot behind him.

Jen brought us down some lunch and then I stepped up to the plate to show Ben how it was done, hey presto, fish on. Unfortunately it would barely feed the cat, never mind the 3 of us so we popped it back in.

Thankfully we did manage a glimpse of greatness, young Jack caught a lovely salmon to show us that it could be done.

We had a great day, thanks to Kevin for the invaluable advice, if it wasn't for you we'd probably still be untangling our line. We owe you a pint.

--Matt

The Loch Lochy Munros

2009-04-29T17:35:00.004+01:00

Jen gave me a day off from hostel work...with the proviso that I took the dog with me! That ruled out biking and climbing etc so we headed out for a walk. I'm almost embarrassed to admit that we've been here over a year and I hadn't done one of the Munros on our doorstep so we headed out to rectify the situation.

We parked down at Kilfinnan, just as I pulled up there was someone else setting off, looking like they were heading up to the Munros....rats....that meant I'd have to have Dylan on a lead so he didn't slobber all over them and ruin their day. The two walkers disappeared however - they must have headed off down the Great Glen Way rather than up into the hills, Dylan could run free without the danger of annoying other people!

We were soon on the top of the first Munro and it was then I realised I'd been singing "Grace Kelly" by Mika since I'd left the van. I cursed radio 2 for playing it just before I set off. "I could be brown, I could be blue, I could be vi-o-let sky...". Truly awful but it would not get out of my head.

As we headed back down to the bealach I could see the path zig-zagging up to the next summit with some people half way up. Before Dyls spotted them I clipped him onto his leash and followed them up. I clipped his lead on to my rucksack waist belt so I could still use my poles.....genius! With his extra pulling power we romped up the path. We overtook one of the walkers and arrived at the summit cairn at the same time as the other two.

I didn't fancy returning back down the zig-zags and the slog along the forest track so headed off along the lovely ridge towards Sean Meall ..."Am I too dirty? Am I too flirty? Do I like what you like?".... and down to Kilfinnan Falls and home.

Guess what was on the radio when I got back in the van? I might have to change my radio station of choice.

--Matt

Use the flippin' door!

2009-04-26T11:34:00.004+01:00

All was quiet on the hostel front so we decided it was time to give Dylan his first taste of wild camping. We thought he might end up ripping the tent in to a million pieces so we didn't stray too far from the hostel - we knew we could pack up and be home in an hour or so if we needed to. We also took the precaution of taking an old (and heavy!) tent just in case he destroyed it.

We headed up to the moor underneath Ben Tee in glorious late afternoon sun with Dylan looking dapper in his new day-glow "you won't lose me in the dark" collar. He was a bit of a pain whilst setting up the tent and running off with various things, but we managed to get the tent up despite his help. The biggest problem was his refusal to use the tent door, he just forced his way under the sides. Cries of "Use the flippin' door!" rang across the great glen for at least an hour.

I was half considering and midnight ascent of Ben Tee but the cloud descended as dusk approached so we settled on playing cards and drinking tea instead whilst Dylan ran around looking for trouble.

In the tent itself he wasn't too bad, it took him ten minutes or so to settle down but he was fine eventually, I even woke up doing "spoons" with him, lovely and warm.

--Matt

Glen Buick Bothy

2009-04-21T10:53:00.002+01:00

Some friends of ours recently made a trip up to this bothy when they were staying with us for our recent wedding, and made some very glowing reports about the walk there, so Matt and I decided we would head up there when we had a quiet day at the hostel.

Yesterday such a day presented itself, we had only a few beds to change in the morning and nobody checked in for the evening; to top it all off though it was a fantastically sunny spring day with barely a breath of wind - perfect!

We left the van at the swing bridge at Aberchalder and walked along the canal towards Loch Oich, before heading onto the track leading through the Aberchalder estate. This took us past a beautiful estate cottage before turning right up the steep hillside. Dylan was enjoying every minute of this, his first proper walk since injuring his front left stopper paw a couple of weeks ago. Over the last couple of days he'd made sure he'd impressed on us that he was definitely fully recovered and ready for walks again by chewing everything in his sight - including plastic milk bottles freshly retrieved from the kitchen bin, my new pink fleece blanket and one of Matt's climbing karabiners. Once we'd cleared the debris from the floor for the 6th time in 2 days we decided it was definitely time to take him on a tiring walk.

And so up the hill we headed, Dylan running on ahead chasing bumble bees and eating sheep droppings, us just meandering upwards taking in the lovely sunshine and views across Loch Oich down to the Loch Lochy Munros and north up the Caledonian Canal towards Loch Ness. The path continued to snake its way up the hillside for an hour or so, and then we followed it over the top and into the very scenic Glen Buick. It was remarkable how fast the scenery changed and very soon we felt quite remote, despite having been at the road only an hour or so earlier. The path took us deep into the glen and we were treated to the sight of a few deer bounding away from the path as we approached them. Another hour later we could see the bothy ahead, and were soon opening the door for an exploratory peek. It seems a very well appointed bothy with two floors and a number of rooms with fireplaces, very well kept and would be very cosy on a cold night. We were content to sit outside in the sunshine and eat our lunch while Dylan raced about still revelling in his new-found freedom.

We could have sat there all day lounging in the sunshine but time was ticking on so we packed up, locked the bothy back up and went on our way. Dylan was soon tired - the tadpoles swimming in the puddles along the path were losing their entertainment value rapidly and he just soldiered on back to the van.

We barely had a peep from him all evening afterwards, which is just the way we like him, so will be planning the next outing as soon as possible. The books are right in one respect at least: a tired dog is indeed a well behaved dog!

Jen x

South Shiel Ridge (East section)

2009-04-18T09:45:00.006+01:00

The hostel was ship shape and Jen was going to man the fort (woman the fort?) so I headed over to the South Shiel Ridge to do the easternmost 4 Munros (Creag a' Mhaim, Drium Shionnach, Aonach air Chrith and Maol Chinn-dearg) and have a wild camp - our first night apart since married life!

I sat in the van for a good 20 minutes staring up at the ridge trying to muster the motivation to set off up the long approach path, the ridge was covered in cloud but I hoped it would clear by the time I got up there. The plan was to set off late and get the Munro's bagged just before the sunset and have a little camp on the ridge. I nearly just turned around and drove home but I eventually got going, almost.... I'd forgotten my socks, luckily I had spare pair, unfortunately, as I un-balled them I realised that Dylan had got to them before I had.

The approach path eventually zig zags up towards the first summit which was hard going as every alternate "Zig" was head long into a 45mph wind. The first two summits where just a cloudy grey haze but as I approached the third... the clouds cleared, the wind stopped, the sun came out... fantastic views made even better by the sudden revealing.

I eventually made camp on a little spur on the south side on the ridge overlooking the Loch Quoich Munros. This is when I realised I'd forgotten to pack my sleeping bag and worse of all, I brought the wrong gas for the stove so no cups of tea either! I thought my pack seemed light.

I got a few hours of sleep before the cold really kicked in, I lay there shivering for a few hours before I gave in. About 3 am I put my boots back on and went out into the clag to stamp around a bit and warm up. 10 minutes later the clouds drifted away to show a bright starry night and a cloud inversion all around. I spent the next few hours playing with my camera.

View to the north

The early morning moon.

I made the summit of the fourth and final Munro for 6.30 am to watch the sun come up before I headed back down to civilisation and to our Scottish Independent Hostel.

Beats friday night TV.

--Matt

Bolinn Loop (almost...)

2009-04-12T13:57:00.004+01:00

We had a lovely sunny Easter Sunday up here so I headed out round the local forest for a quick ride, which ended up turning into a long walk after a visit from the puncture fairy just as I was getting to the good bit...

--Matt

Vicky's Munro Adventure (Guest Blog)

2009-04-07T11:57:00.004+01:00

Another guest blogger, enjoying Jenny and Matt's wonderful hospitality and beautiful Invergarry Lodge!

We ummed and aahed over when to head to the hills, and fixed on yesterday as the weather did not look so promising for the rest of the week.

I've been exploring Barren Down (Isle of Purbeck, Dorset) recently, but walking the ridge between the two Munros, Spidean Mialach and Gleouraich, is in another league.

Once I had rescued my gloves from Dylan, the ascent began - short and very steep to the top of Spidean Mialach. But the views were fantastic, over South Shiel to the north and Loch Quoich to the south, and the few spots of rain completely disappeared, never to return. There is still some snow along the top, which has drifted quite deep in places, but invigorated by my surroundings and pushed on by the wind, I scrambled on to the second peak, Gleouraich.

The descent is spectacular - you can take giant steps down the path with the beautiful Loch Quoich spread out in front of you. Nature seemed to soften on the way down - the wind less howling, the cold less biting and the gradient less steep.

So, a fantastic walk and I didn't get lost! (which is something - once went up Cader Idris and came down in the wrong valley...). Home to Jenny's veggie meatballs and Helen's chocolate truffles - nice :o)

Vicky x

Beinn Teallach, the lowest Munro ever!

2009-04-02T15:29:00.004+01:00

The honeymoon is over and it's back to the hostel routine for us, well, it would have been if the weather forecast wasn't so good! The Inbox could wait a few hours.

Apparently I've let myself go since getting married. Dylan had also been getting fat and lazy whilst my mother was hostel sitting (she treats him too well!) so we both headed over to the Roughburn Munros to have a quick run up Beinn Teallach.

Beinn Teallach is only just a Munro at 915m and has a broad grassy southern slope that would be perfect for a quick run. We took a slight detour through some lovely waymarked forest tracks along a stream (perfect for future dog walks) to the bottom of the hill and then began the slog up to the summit. I was feeling a bit guilty at the top as I'd forgot to pack Dylan any food, but he made up for that by stealing half my cake and covering my water bladder with dog slobber whilst I was trying to set the camera on timer.

It's all downhill from here, literally. The descent didn't take us long, the gentle grassy slopes had a few patches of snow and was a bit boggy in places but was perfect for running down (minus my two falls and Dylan's one). We had a bit of a paddle in the stream to try and clean up before heading back home to the wife.

--Matt

The honeymoon period is over...

2009-04-01T17:48:00.005+01:00

Congratulations to the Happy Couple.

There has been a week of celebrations, nuptials and partying here at Invergarry Lodge recently, I am sure all the guests would join me in thanking Matt and Jenny for allowing us to share their special day and for their generous hospitality

The newly weds are honeymooning and have left me in charge…… again. I am taking this as a complement that I did a good job last time and they promised me it would be quiet.

As well as congratulating them on their wedding, I would like to offer congratulations for their first anniversary, as it is a year since they moved to Invergarry and took over Invergarry Lodge. They have achieved a great deal in the year and I know they have many more plans for the future.

It would appear that March is a good month for Mr and Mrs Jenneson and leads me to wonder if there may be another celebration next March !!

I know that everyone who shared their wedding celebrations and all who know Matt and Jenny wish them every happiness for their future together.

Sue (Matts Mum and now Jens Mother in Law) x

Pre-Marital Bliss

2009-03-18T17:15:00.002Z

Wedding of the year tomorrow, I think I'm supposed to be writing my speech or arranging flowers or something, but I managed to obtain permission to sneak off to Polldubh for a couple of sneaky routes.

Big bro mark eyeing up the HVS' on SW buttress

Mark doing Tear HS*** On SW buttress

Mark on the best bit of Pine Wall (HS)

Topping out on Pine Wall

Enjoying belaying in the early spring sun

--Matt

Orienteering Again!

2009-03-06T19:25:00.006Z

We were planning a day out on the hills today but at the last minute had too many jobs to do so opted instead for another short walk around the orienteering courses at Auchterawe. Our friend Helen (www.caketops.co.uk) decided to join us, and of course we couldn't manage the navigation without good old Dylan.

We decided to give Helen the challange of navigating the way round, after a few pointers she picked it all up quickly and we were soon zooming round the course. Halfway round we became a little confused as we couldn't find the checkpoint we'd navigated our way to, despite being about 99.9% sure we were in the right place. A few moments later we found the post lying on the ground semi-buried in undergrowth and snow - no wonder we had almost missed it! With the drama over we carried on to the end of the course, stopping for the inevitable stick-throwing exercises for Dylan as we walked along the river.

Now that Helen is fully experienced and qualified at navigating our plan is to tackle the next orienteering course - physically and technically challenging, and for experienced orienteers only, according to the course information leaflet! Matt has already set us the challenge of doing it 5 minutes faster than the information suggests so I guess we had better get training Helen....!

Jen x

Working like a dog...

2009-03-05T18:27:00.005Z

Its been a busy old time up here recently - isn't it always?

We've been ripping down walls, moving doorways and generally "doing it ourselves" and now we have a nice new bathroom to show for our (and our helpers) troubles....

--Matt

"X" marks the spot!

2009-02-20T17:37:00.005Z

"Red triangle marks the checkpoint!" doesn't quite have the same ring to it does it?

It's been a busy old time up here recently - between hostel renovations, gardening duties, Jenny running away with the van for the weekend (twice!) and wedding planning we've not had time for anything apart from walking the dog recently. Today we decided to spice up his normal walk and head over to one of the local forests where they have a permanent orienteering course set up.

As I have nothing better to do on a Friday evening - I made you a nice video...

--Matt

Two's company, Ski's a crowd

2009-02-10T13:43:00.002Z

Crowds were anything but a problem over at the Nevis Range yesterday morning. Jen got some skis for christmas and has been desperate to test them out ever since, I finally gave in...

Jen having a pose at the top

I considered trying to jump this fence but changed my mind at the last minute

Enjoying the solitude on an easy blue

--Matt

Right twin, Aonoch Mor east face

2009-02-05T16:40:00.004Z

Iain Gallagher is still with us so we headed out again, Jenny couldn't face another day on the hill after yesterday so it was just Iain and myself today.

The forecast was poor again, we headed up Aonoch Mor but thought we'd just end up having a look and calling the whole thing off. Somebody was smiling on us though, just as we reached the top station the clouds disappeared to reveal glorious blue skies.

We geared up, headed over to easy gully, abbed down and then began a hard walk along the bottom of the crag through some pretty deep (and steep) snow until we got round to the Twins area. Iain gave me a choice of routes so I picked an easy one with stars, didn't fancy anything too hard after yesterday.

The route was absolutely plastered in ice and had a couple of steep sections. I really enjoyed the climbing but wouldn't have fancied being on the sharp end, Iain reckoned it was definitely harder than grade 2 in those conditions which made me feel a bit better.

I was shattered by the time I reached the top, but the views made up for it, the walk down was much more leisurely than yesterdays, the skiing looked good, lots of people about as we picked our way down the pistes.

--Matt

West face of Aonach Mor

2009-02-04T19:31:00.002Z

Our mountaineering instructor is still with us so we headed back up Aonach Mor. The forecast was pretty poor so we tried to make the most of it and headed round to the west face hoping to find some shelter - the west face has longer routes than the east and feels a bit wilder.

After a longish walk in and a bit of route finding trouble we eventually started up Western rib, a 500 metre grade 2/3. After a couple of pitches we realised we'd be tight for time (and getting cold!) and might have problems making it back for the last gondela so dropped down in to an ajoining gully and raced to the top, topping out in whiteout/blizzard conditions. A swift bit of navigation by our instructor and a rapid march (no stopping for tea!) we got down to the gondela station with minutes to spare.

I didn't take any photos, it was too cold to take my gloves of and you wouldn't have been able to see anything in them anyway!

--Matt

Invergarry Lodge Brush Up on Winter Skills

2009-02-03T18:04:00.003Z

Last month we were lucky enough to find a trainee Mountain Instructor who was looking for people wanting some tuition in winter skills and ice climbing - he wanted practice before his assessment in March, and we definitely wanted some tuition!

We decided to cover some basic skills over the first day and then to progress on to some routes over the following two days. So today we've been out on Aonach Mor (yes we took the Gondola up so that was the easy part!) and have learnt ice-axe arrests in every conceivable position, lots of different techniques for walking on ice and snow, basic crampon use and several different snow and ice belays. It's been a really great day, there were a few weird experiences including being pushed down the hill whilst lying on my back head-first down the hillside but it was all good fun and we are definitely much wiser and more confident for the experience.

Tomorrow we can't wait to put our newly-learnt skills to the test on a route - watch this space for an update tomorrow!

Jen x

Walk the line

2009-02-01T20:34:00.002Z

We've spent the day learning how to slackline and have made you a nice video...

--Matt

Show me the Monet

2009-01-29T11:54:00.002Z

Some of you visiting the hostel will have seen the amazing paintings adourning the walls, you may have even bought one - 2 of them have gone as far as France!

Anyway, I've finally put together a website for them, www.invergarrygallery.co.uk it still needs a little work but the basics are up and running. Check it out - I'd be grateful for any feedback if you have any!

In other news, Dylan's been dragging us off up some of the smaller local hills, Jen's been spring cleaning the garden and sheds ready for a new gardening year and we nearly went skiing (too windy!).

--Matt

To Beinn, or not to Beinn (East ridge of Beinn a Chaorainn)

2009-01-24T13:30:00.007Z

Unfortunately it was not to be! I was going to have a day out before Jen gets back and starts cracking the whip again. The plan was to head up the east ridge of Beinn a Chaorainn, an easy winter ridge, but it didn't really work out. It took me about an hour and half to reach where I should have been in about 1/2 hour and then the weather came in so I headed home with my tail between my legs.

It wasn't a wasted day though, I learnt a few things:

1. If you think you are parked in the wrong layby, you probably are.
2. If you are battling through snowy, dense undergrowth and trees, you're probably not on a track, nevermind the right track.
3. If you don't think you are on the right track and 25 minutes later still don't think you are on the right track, you're probably not.
4. Borrowed boots cause blisters.
5. Never be afraid to turn back, especially if your feet hurt and the weather looks grim.

--Matt

Howling good fun at Laggan Wolftrax

2009-01-17T17:28:00.003Z

Jenny has left me in charge of the hostel for a week, so first things first, I did what any self respecting hostel manager would do and gave myself a day off. My friend Rick was up and was hoping to get out and play in the snow but the weather was supposed to come in pretty severely towards the end of the afternoon so we kept well away from the hills and headed over to Wolftrax for a spot of biking.

We didn't actually do the black run (maybe next time), a red run splits off from the black after about a km but I think Rick was pretty scared by the signs, I was and I knew we weren't even doing it. He said he felt sick, I think it was the fear!

The red is split in to two sections, upper and lower, we did both but both enjoyed the upper section more. It's got some great swooping zig zags down the side of a hill with lots of little jumps for interest where as the lower seems a bit more technical, and I managed to fall off on the slippy wooden boardwalk towards to end of the lower section.

Rick has asked me to point out that this rock slab is a lot steeper than it appears in this photo. I managed to fall off on this too - in my defence it was quite damp and slippy! Great fun though, I don't know why I don't go biking more often.

--Matt

A'Chralaig and Mullach Fraoch-choire

2009-01-15T08:17:00.006Z

I thought the forecast was against me as I pulled up along Loch Cluanie in a snow shower. Even as I trudged up the steep side of the hill every summit I could see was in cloud, everything looked ominously grey, it wasn't supposed to be like this, not today. I could just see under the cloud towards The Ben, it looked clear over there, perhaps I'd just chosen the wrong hill.

And then I pulled over to the ridge and it was a glorious day, still grey and miserable to the south and west but brilliant blue skies covered the route ahead.

I soon covered the broad ridge up to the first Munro, A'Chralaig, and on to the second where things got a bit more interesting. After a short rocky descent the ridge continues for 1 1/2 km where it narrows sweeps to the north.

I'd read that it was an interesting scramble in summer but could be a different story in winter. It must have looked a bit more interesting as I actually took the camera from round my neck and put it away. The ridge continued past some rocky pinnacles that could be by-passed, at least I thought they could until I ended up on top of one, and then the next. Apparently there is a path around them, but I couldn't make it out under the snow, both sides looked pretty steep to me.

I eventually managed to scramble over the pinnacles but did have to do abit of it à cheval because I dare not stand up on the top of the largest pinnacle. The final summit is not far passed the difficulties, a few deep breaths and I soon regained my composure.

I read two route descriptions before I set off, both said retrace your steps, not a chance, maybe in summer when you can see the path! I headed north east to the next minor top and then headed down to the west.

--Matt

Happy new year!

2009-01-11T18:35:00.004Z

What with guests, hangovers, DIY projects, perilous van hanging off bridge episodes, visits to the vets for limping dogs, freezing temperatures, friends giving birth (and the related dog sitting) and now gales and rain we've had precious little time for fun in the hills.

We did however manage to find time for a late night chicken hunt yesterday. Our lovely fellow villager Marigold donated a couple of bantam chickens to Team Invergarry Lodge, but unfortunately they decided they didn't fancy sleeping with the rest of the chickens in the "house that Matt built", preferring instead a night out under the stars. We didn't want to leave them out all night in the gales and torrential rain, we managed to catch one fairly easily, the other proved a little more elusive. We eventually tracked her down deep in the boggy undergrowth over the fence, Jenny finally closed in on her but her patented "laundry basket gaffer taped to a broom handle" wasn't quite up to the job and fell apart at the crucial moment, and her welly boot got stuck in the swamp. We retreated inside.

20 minutes later we headed back out armed with a new top-of-the-range-all-mod-cons-state-of-the-art-technology-poultry-apprehender (wire coat hanger, net curtain and the aforementioned broom handle all gaffer taped and stitched together).

The chicken had taken refuge even deeper in the undergrowth, as I was battling though the rhododendrons, crossing a stream and hoping that none of our neighbours would come down the lane, one of them did, just in time to see Jen slip down a flooded mud bank and get soaked to her neck.

We eventually drove the chicken back to the hostel grounds and caught her with the "poultry apprehender" and return her to the safety of the coop where her friends where waiting for her.

Anyway, Jen has just been to check on them, guess who's missing again!

--Matt

Dylans first Munro (Beinn a' Chaorainn)

2008-12-29T08:51:00.003Z

We've been so busy with Christmas we've not really had much of a chance to do anything other than walk the dog and watch Christmas films so it came as a bit of a relief to get the chance to get out.

We thought it would be a busy on the hills so we tried to choose a quiet one, but also a fairly short one so we could take Dylan, he really needed to burn off that Christmas excess! We settled on Beinn a' Chaorainn, an accessible Munro just east of Roy Bridge. It had another smaller Munro just beside it which we could add on if Dylan (and we!) were still feeling sprightly after the first. It was a wonderfully crisp and frosty morning down in the glens and the forecast said we had a 70% chance of a cloud-free summit so we were hopeful for some great views from the top. Unfortunately that wasn't the case, the summit was in cloud, freezing cloud. It cleared slightly to tease us with some views but Dylan was more bothered about his frozen eyebrows and playing near the cornices.

We didn't stick around at the summit to celebrate Dylans first Munro and carried along the ridge and descended down in to the glen and followed an icey path down the Allt a' Chaorainn back to the van and home for tea (we're still on leftovers - sprout lasagne tonight, delicious!).

--Matt

Creag Meagaidh - Raeburns Gully

2008-12-13T20:15:00.002Z

For our first foray into winter climbing Rick and I decided we'd start on something easy but quite long so we chose Raeburns Gully on Creag Meagaidh, a 360 metre 3 star grade 1. A long walk in eventually got us the the bottom of the gully and we made it 30 metres up before we decided we wanted our crampons on, a lesson learnt for next time.

After that it was straight forward enjoyable ascent on good snow, tiring but good fun and it felt quite serious with the dramatic cliffs on one side. Rick's wife Anna was slightly worried that we'd be appearing on the next episode of channel 5's "Highland Emergency" but we made it to the top in one piece.

Visibility was poor on the summit plateau and we (I) had a few navigational issues but Rick had it all sussed out, I think I'd probably still be wandering around up there if it was up to me. A great day was finished with a long walk back out again with sore feet (my boots are from ebay), and then topped off by the staff in the Spean Bridge Spar shop not selling us beer because we didn't have any ID! Proves I've still got my youthful good looks I guess.

--Matt

Am Bathach

2008-12-05T09:08:00.004Z

I needed to blow the cobwebs away after some 12 hour days working down in Yorkshire so I headed up Am Bathach in Glen Shiel, a lone corbett surrounded by Munros. The weather didn't look great as I set off but I had an expectant Dylan with me so I could hardly turn back without getting out the van.

I got about half way up the hill in good time, the weather looked good and Dylan was loving the deep snow although he looked a bit hurt when I laughed at him when he disappeared in a deep snow drift, until I did the same and his eyes lit up mischievously. I stopped to take a photo halfway up and Dylan took the opportunity to wrestle with both my gloves and fill them with snow. Fortunately I had a spare pair, unfortunately, my spares didn't match and were both left handed gloves so I spent the rest of the day with one cold hand.

We had a short steeper icy section just before we got to the start of the summit ridge where things got a bit easier for the 1.5km to the summit. Up on the ridge the snow was different, it was the type that you think will hold you until you transfer your weight on to your front leg, then, all of a sudden you drop another 6 inches. Hard work.

We sat down for lunch at the top, Dylan had eaten his lunch already so I had to split my sandwiches with him, thankfully he was off playing in the snow when I smuggled my KitKat out my bag. We headed down the northern side of the hill to the bealach, Dylan was sliding down as he chased the snow rolling down the hillside which looked like fun so I joined him. I covered about 200 metres height in a minute or so by sliding down on my bum with Dylan hot on my heels (and crashing into my back when I tried to curb my speed).

That was the walk done, or so I thought. I had a 30 minute slog through knee deep snow to reach a path, it wasn't all knee deep, I managed to find a few bits which where waist deep. Dylan took the sensible option and followed my footprints until we could make it back to the path along An Caorann Mor.

--Matt

Father Christmas comes to Invergarry Lodge

2008-12-04T09:32:00.007Z

Well it's been a busy week up at Invergarry Lodge. Matt has been down to Yorkshire on a work trip, and finally made it home on Tuesday despite numerous problems with snow and ice at Inverness airport. We have taken Dylan to his final puppy class of the year where he was awarded his rosette and certificate for passing the 'puppy foundation assessment', which came as a nice surprise to all of us! It was the Christmas bash so we all had lots of fun with 'pass-the-bonio-filled-parcel' and 'musical dogs', all washed down with our first mince pies of the year, which went down extremely well.

We've got lots of great snow on the hills up here, in fact the Nevis Range may even open for skiing this weekend if there is enough on Aonach Mor (see www.nevisrange.co.uk to find out the latest information). Yesterday we decided to head down past Roy Bridge to do a short walk at the bottom of Creag Meagaidh. The snow down there was amazingly dry, so that you could see every single crystal, and really powdery. Despite numerous attempts at making snowballs, it just wouldn't work so we gave up and concentrated instead on throwing it all over Dylan the dog, which he seemed to find quite amusing.

The festive season seems to have crept up on us this year, so I am now making up for lost time by throwing myself into Christmas crafts galore! Last night I went along to a workshop for making cake decorations, and came back proudly showing off my very own Father Christmas creation. I won't give up the day job but it wasn't too bad for a first attempt:

Luckily I also won a snowman version in the raffle afterwards, made by Helen who is a professional cake-topper creator (see her wedding cake topper creations at caketops.co.uk) which will take pride of place on the Christmas cake my mum is bringing up here for Christmas.

And to cement my festive spirit, I'm staying in today making Christmas tree decorations from sparkly felt... and I might even treat myself to a mince pie while I'm at it!

Jen x

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

2008-11-29T13:05:00.004Z

It's been snowing again in Invergarry!

It's beautiful enough here at any time of year, but the snow seems to have a magical effect on the scenery and it is just stunning right now. Instead of writing any more, I'll just show you some of the photos I've taken this morning, none of which really do justice to the actual experience but were the best I could do with very cold fingers and an impatient dog!

Needless to say we're all enjoying the snow, especially Dylan!

Jen x

Dillon the Lovesick Dog

2008-11-21T08:57:00.005Z

I'm just a Labrador puppy
My coat is shiny and black,
I'm only eight months old
And I'm rather a mischievious chap.

I live with Matt and Jenny,
In Scotland by the Loch,
Surrounded by woodland walks
I'm such a lucky dog.

I had some friends to stay,
They came from way down south,
Two glamorous blondes,
They made me drool at the mouth.

Tia is so much a lady
She just oozes elegance and grace,
But if I make any advances
She soon puts me in my place.

Lily is something else
I fancy her so much,
I follow her everywhere
But eventually have to give up.

They call her Lily the tart,
We romp and play all day,
I think she's stolen my heart
And soon she's going away.

She takes me into the woods
And shows me the ways of the wild,
I'd do all I could
For my Lily to stay a while.

She's such a competent swimmer,
I want to swim like that,
Retrieve sticks from the water
And take them to Jenny and Matt.

Today we went to Loch Lundie
Lily was magnificent,
I so much wanted to join her
But was too frightened to make the attempt..

I wanted to show her how brave I was
And launched myself off the side
I found myself swimming like Lily
But she took it all in her stride.

I think I'm in love with Lily,
She'll be going home quite soon,
I wish I had all my bits in tact
I'd show her a thing or two.

Jules

Sgurr a' Mhaoraich

2008-11-16T18:54:00.008Z

The Exiles (Jen's walking/mountaineering club) are visiting and the "Mountain of the Month" on Nick's calendar at home is just down the road so we took the first good weather day to seize the opportunity.

The early start turned into a late start, the late start soon turned into an even later start which included a cooked breakfast.

The glen was looking stunning and the walk looked like it might be called off altogether as we had numerous photo stops (Nick is a very keen photographer). It got even worse when the we came upon about 20 stags standing around in the middle of the road, and we spent at least 20 minutes listening to his* camera beeping and clicking as we crept along the road.

The walk sets off straight up the hill but I don't think anybody noticed as we were all admiring the surroundings - and Jen had Lilly the golden retriever to pull her up most the way - I think she is planning on training Dylan to do that as well! After a few small patches of snow and ice to negotiate we were soon at the first summit of Sgurr Coire nan Eirichean.

Most of us were happy to sit here sunbathing and have an extended lunch before heading back down. Although we kept saying we weren't bothered about getting to the very top, Jen and I decided we'd leave our bags and run across the ridge to "bag" the Munro and catch the others up on the way down. We soon made it across the ridge and after a few icey-scrambley bits and a fine view we were back to pick up our bags an hour later and raced off to catch everyone up.

We had an amazing day out although I wasn't sure about Dave at first, he kept going on about it been "gneiss" and "schist" - it took us a while to figure out he was commenting on the rock and not the walk!

--Matt

*in Nick's defence, it wasn't just his camera clicking away, we were all at it.

Loch Quoich Munros

2008-11-04T08:33:00.003Z

Our friends Steph and Richard are up for a visit this week, they have done loads of walking in the Lake District but none in Scotland so we headed out to bag us a couple of Munros. The short drive from the hostel was full of promise - blue skies, still Lochs reflecting the mountains and amazing autumn colours, unfortunately it wasn't the same story down by Loch Quoich where the cloud was already beginning to come in.

Richard set a good pace that soon got us up into the cloud and up to the first Munro, Spidean Mialach. Jen and I have done these two hills before so we told them how good the views are from here and what they could have seen if it was clear.

As we headed up towards to second summit the cloud began to clear and gave us some views. From here it's not far through some quite deep snow to the last Munro, Gleouraich, which was teasing us with some lovely views of the neighbouring peaks peeping through the clouds. It was Jen's turn now to set the pace as we headed back down towards the van/pub/hot meal.

Oh, and I'd like to take this opportunity to say hello to the blog's second biggest fan (after my grandparents) - Hello Steph's dad!

--Matt

A Spooky Witches Trail

2008-11-01T08:51:00.005Z

The motivation for cycling has returned this week with Jen saying she wanted to have a go at one of the red runs at Leanachan forest. I haven't done the "10 Under the Ben" route but Jen was adamant that there isn't a better time to do the Witches trail than on Halloween!

We got to the top after a lung busting ascent with Jen telling me that it all seemed a bit too easy. I managed to convince her that we should stop for a few minutes and enjoy the view of the North Face which is looking great covered in the early snow.

The trail is named after a local witch, now I didn't see any witches but there was definitely some loud cackling and shrieking coming from Jens direction as we took off down the route. I could tell from the massive grin on her face that she was enjoying herself. After stopping a couple of times to check she was OK (and let her catch up!) I got told off for stopping as it puts her off and I should get a move on. Charming.

Anyway, we both had a great time and now Jen knows that the reds aren't too hard we're ready to get out and tackle some of the others in the vicinity. Maybe next year we'll dress up as witches and celebrate halloween properly!

--Matt

Smashing Pumpkins!

2008-10-31T09:43:00.005Z

Last night we got into the Halloween spirit and went along to the Invergarry Hotel to join in all their spooky festivities, which included a pumpkin carving competition for the children. Of course we couldn't resist having a go ourselves, and they even created a special prize for the best adult entry for Matt - see his winning 'gangster pumpkin' below. Mine was a more traditional affair and looked pretty good in the dark, so both will be proudly displayed in the hostel until they begin to wither.

We also had a go at the pub quiz, we didn't do particularly well but we did manage to avoid the booby prize for coming last, probably due to the fact that we were allocated an extra team member at the last moment, so thanks for the help Albert!!

Jen x

Snow Fun on Aonach Mor!

2008-10-30T10:20:00.006Z

With business now slowing down for the winter, we just couldn't resist giving ourselves a day off to go out and play in the snow we've had up here this week.

After a brief detour into Fort William to pick ourselves up a couple of brand spanking new sledges, we met up with our friends Mark and Gail and headed up Aonach Mor on the Nevis Range gondola. Despite Matt being sceptical about the amount of snow at the bottom, as we emerged at the top of the gondola we were delighted to see masses of the stuff - perfect for our sledging plans!

Being heavily pregnant, Gail couldn't join us for the sledging so we left her in the warmth of the Snowgoose restaurant and trudged uphill to the top of the Quad Chairlift. My feelings of trepidation were increasing as we climbed higher and higher, especially when I realised I didn't actually have a clue how to sledge. Luckily I had Matt with me, helping me understand some crucial 'sledge science', such as "the deeper the snow, the steeper you need it to be", and "you're lighter than me so you'll probably take off". As I said, crucial.

Luckily all my fears were forgotten when we reached the top and found some pristine knee-deep snow on which to christen our new sledges, and it was all downhill from there!

We had great fun trying to dig ourselves out of the powder at the top whenever we fell off, and it got even more interested towards the bottom as we tried to avoid the large rocks poking out of the snow, and the various ditches which the sledges seemed to be magnetically attracted to.

After a while the fun ran out for Matt when he slid over a rock and broke his sledge. We had a few attempts at tandem sledging but it is somewhat harder than doing it by yourself! We were soon drawn back to the warmth of the Snowgoose, where we joined Gail for lunch and beer before heading home. Definitely a successful day out, measured by the fact that I was still pulling snow out of my pockets on the way home.

Jen x

Invergarry Lodge loves the Snow (It's Official!)

2008-10-28T10:42:00.007Z

We got everyone together at hostel to have a vote to decide whether we love the snow or not.

The results are in - the dog did, the chickens definitely did not, the cats where unsure, the cows weren't allowed to vote because technically they don't live at Invergarry Lodge, the guests this morning did, Jenny does and I do. 4 ayes, 1 nay and 1 abstention - it's official. Now we just need to find time for a day off so we can get up in the hills and enjoy it properly.

--Matt

Invergarry Lodge

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The Inaugural Lochaber Off-Road Half-Marathon

Ben Nevis + 7 others

River Oich Kayaking

Saturday Night Fever (3 Cluanie Munros)

Jenny Potter and the Goblet of Clay

The Loch Lochys

Sisters of Kintail - double quick!

Riding the trails at Abriachan

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

Employee of the Month!

Invergarry Lodge is 95% brilliant...

Great Glen Kayaking

10 Long Kilometres Under The Ben

Happy Easter Hollandaise

Loch Oich kayaking

Queues on Tower Ridge

Meall Fuar-Mohnaidh - Run for the hills

A Short Cairngorm Ski Tour

River Garry Salmon Fishing

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

Curved Ridge Conundrum

Great Scottish Skiing

Pap of Glencoe (Alby's first hill)

East Ridge of Beinn a Chaorainn

Dog sleds are GO!

Official Affiliation (SYHA)

Culachy Falls, Fort Augustus

New Invergarry Ice Route

Great Glen Skiing

A Seasonal Ski Tour Adventure

New marketing campaign launched!!

Crafts ahoy!

New member for Team Invergarry Lodge

Hostel Sitter Extraordinaire! **Guest Blog**

Witches trail '09

Salmon Fishing on the Garry **Guest Blog**

Glenfinnan/Corryhully Horseshoe

A Snowy North Shiel Ridge

Scottish Wildlife

Ben's First Munro (A Scottish weather special!)

Burn, Burn, Burn, The Ring of Steall

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The Forcan Ridge (plus a bit of bagging)

Foraging in Glengarry Forest

Eileen Donan Castle

North Ridge of Aonach Air Chrith (and 5 wet Munros)

Glen Quoich/ Kinlochhourn fishing.

Abriachan Bike Trails

Le tour de hebrides

Wild west coast camping

Handsomest rescue dog in Invergarry!

A working holiday

Glengarry Highland Games!

CMD Arete (with extra scrambley goodness)

More Wild Swimming...

Strathfarrar 4 - Dylan 9

Invergarry Bowls Champion....

Ciste Dhubh (and Am Bathach)

Homemade wine? Fine and Dandy!

Our answer to the heatwave...

Sunshine for the Skye 10k!

Agag's Groove, Buachaille Etive Mor

1 hill, 17 wind turbines and 5 wee trout

A Skye Secondment

River Garry Fishing

The Loch Lochy Munros

Use the flippin' door!

Glen Buick Bothy

South Shiel Ridge (East section)

Bolinn Loop (almost...)

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Beinn Teallach, the lowest Munro ever!

The honeymoon period is over...

Pre-Marital Bliss

Orienteering Again!

Working like a dog...

"X" marks the spot!

Two's company, Ski's a crowd

A Highland Hostel Holiday Guest Blog

Hostel Sitter Extraordinaire! Guest Blog

Salmon Fishing on the Garry Guest Blog

Vicky's Munro Adventure (Guest Blog)