Over the last two weekends, over five days, I have been out with a family to help them prepare for a trek up Kilimanjaro in October. Visiting the Angus hills the first weekend and and then the Strathfarrar, Affric and Mullardoch hills the second we steadily built up the distances and time on the hill …
Continue reading Training for Killimanjaro on Scottish Hills
Here's a review on my lightweight cookit. It weighs 460 grams and includes: Two pots (Alpkit Mytipot 900 and Alpkit MytiMug 650) with home made bails; Stormin Stove Systems alcohol stove; reflective baseplate and windshield cone Minibulldesigns pot stand; and, Plastic mug. Three days meths fuel in a small Nalgene bottle weighs 260g. So all …
So here's what I'd take for a day hill walk in Scotland. In Autumn you can expect wetter weather, stronger winds and less daylight. So all that means some extra kit and prep is needed to be comfortable in the hills. For info I have noted the brand names of my kit in brackets. 1. …
Continue reading What to take? Hillwalking in Autumn in Scotland
With summer nearly over, here's my top ten views from hiking about Scotland, England and France. 1. Ben More from Stob Binnein. I like the way Ben More is in silhouette behind the rain cloud. I was out hillwalking with Isaac Wilkie. Read about our trip here. 2. Puig Castell Isard and Puig Carlit, French …
This weekend I was in the Lake District, exploring Skiddaw and Blencathra, a fantastic area of mountains to north of Keswick with heather clad hills and quiet dales. Together with Uldale and Caldbeck Fells these hills cover an area of about 144 square km, with no roads apart from Estate tracks and only one inhabited …
Flax Phormium tenax is a plant from New Zealand that is pretty common in gardens and public spaces in Scotland. I learnt about the plant from Simon and Carol West, on a recent About Argyll Walking Holidays tour to Orkney in July 2017. The Maori name for flax is harakeke and is used for making …
I visited the Shetland museum last week and was keen to find how local plants have been used to make rope, cordage and baskets (the Shetland word for rope is simmens). As well as reeds and straw I was interested to see that marram grass was used to make rope (see photo below). Yesterday I …
