Home again home again Jiggety jig... 16 6 18 (14) 25 1 23

...after an absence of 6 weeks!

And after another annual holiday when I came down sick: the third year in a row, only the sickness appears to be arriving sooner in the holiday and with less provocation with each successive year. It begs the question why?

Well my holidays are not for the faint-hearted for one thing: with a round of visits during the first week of relatives in England: this year picking up the hire-car at London's Gatwick Airport, thence a drive to New Market to visit our Grand-daughter S just on the point of graduating her college in Norwich and our last chance to visit her University Campus, etc. After a 2-night stay with her driving cross country to Witney in Oxfordshire to visit my brother J and his wife M, again for a couple of nights. Then finally before heading north for our walking holiday proper in Scotland a further 2 nights in Bury, Lancashire visiting my sister M and her husband B plus 3 of their grown-up children together with some of their children.

Quite exhausting with all the partying night after night with people one hasn't seen in 12 months’ time so that upon arriving in Scotland we have these past 3 years made a bee-line for New Lanark and its World Heritage site to begin our walks with a gentle 3-4 hours along the upper reaches of the River Clyde and its nature trails.

                             

Next we journeyed to Newtonmore in the Central Highlands to begin the more serious undertaking of climbing some of Scotland’s Munro hills: those rising more than 3000 feet, that’s 914,4 metres, above sea level, though hereabouts one doesn’t climb more than perhaps 5 or 600 metres, about 2000 ft, because the height of the surrounding countryside gives one a good few hundred metres start, around 1000 ft.

This year with a mixed bag of weather for the 3 weeks I was accompanied by my wife E we managed to walk 2 or 3 days out of 8 in the rain so that on the day I delivered her to Edinburgh Airport a ticklish cough became a full-on chest infection by nightfall when my hopes of climbing some of Scotland’s bigger and more isolated hills, whilst carrying one rucksack on my back and pulling my bigger rucksack and camping equipment on the wheels of a shopping trolley, I was forced to factor in some days off-sickness when I did little else than rest up… 

So we live and learn even someone of my advanced years: Three years ago my sickness came in the last days when together with a nephew we climbed the Grey Corries series of hills perhaps 6 all told including 3 main Munro summits in 12 hours, during a holiday I had continued to take cold showers every morning in the belief it would keep my immune system in peak condition following on from my daily swims in the sea back home in Scandinavia. Then last year I had caught cold when with another climbing friend I had risen from my bed 2 hours earlier each morning to accommodate his earlier habits and exceptionally walked 2 days and 16 hours together when normally I never climb or walk two days together!

But whatever the event I saw many beautiful places despite feeling less than 100% on top form and I met many new and very interesting people collecting 6 new friends on F-b all told, a new annual record of sorts, and next year I have agreed with my wife that the round of socialising with our UK family will have to be postponed until after the walking and hill-climbing part of our holiday, and once again be happy I too am not too old to learn new tricks..?    

Have a good day everyone as I hope you too are not too old to learn new tricks..? hahaha

Today's pics: Double decker bus in Norwich with colours matching the nearby spring blossom; River Clyde, a section where the bulk of its flow is syphoned off for hydroelectric; recovering in my tent with accompanying large rucksack on wheels and shopping bags containing food for 5 days; and after several days spent walking in Glen Affric I am almost returned to my tent.