Scenic Applecross

Again our gear had more or less dried over night so we headed off to our final tour on the last day.
Today's schedule said we first climb a mountain and then take a coastal walk. In fact the weather God was with us for most of the day. With sunshine and warmth we drove up to a viewpoint on the pass of Bealach Na Ba on a quite spectacular single track road with towering mountains on both sides and the road meandering up.
At the view point we could see the sea and even the Isle of Sky. Actually we could see more of it than on the actual day we were ON the island, haha.
Climbed up the better part of the mountain when our guide advised us to drag out the rain gear. Not 5 mins later heavy drops were falling and the wind was blowing water into our faces. From sun and warmth to rain, wind and clouds in 5 minutes. Wow. Welcome to Scotland.
So the summit of Sgurr  A Chaorachain was out of the question... too dangerous. Instead we went back to the car and drove to the coast of Applecross and a sandy bay... needless to say that it was warm and sunny again and easily the best weather we had all week!
After a picnic at the beach we walked for almost two hours along the coast with just an amazing view. Small waves of the Atlantic sparkling in the sun, turquoise water and the mountains of Sky on the horizon.
It was a walk worthy of the last one this week. We had a pint at the local pub and then went back for the last dinner at our house.
Tomorrow I'm going to fly from Inverness to London Luton. Then spend a couple of hours in London at music and shoe stores before I catch the second flight to Berlin. Gonna be a veeeeery long day.
After all the Scotland tour was just amazing. Great people, great walks, great food, lots of fun, okay weather. See you next year beloved Scotland!

Sgurr  A Chaorachain throws everything at us

bay at the Applecross coast

coastal path with Skye on the horizon

More rain anyone?

Actually we wanted to go up a smaller mountain just at our house. But as it was raining just in the on and off manner that we had yesterday we decided otherwise.
Instead we went for a nice walk on a rocky path around a hill near Loch Torridon.
Quite enjoyed it despite the weather including a longer cross-country walk through the wet moss avoiding bog holes luckily.
Shoes are as wet as they can be now. Will put them near the fireplace tonight hoping they'll dry soon enough.

Loch Torridon

Skye

Not much to write today. We went for a coastal walk to the Isle of Skye. It kept raining all day, but it was only a dribble and stopped from time to time. Real Scottish weather.
Still the walk was very scenic and we enjoyed it all the while.

sheep on an old cemetery

Red-Rock-Mountain

Since the weather was sunny and warm we decided to climb up Sgorr Ruadh which counts as a munro (3000+ ft). It was an awesome walk through a wood and then in between  a corbett on the left side and another munro on the right side. The further up we got, the better the view. I could've just sat there for half an hour to marvel at the scenery. But the climb would take several hours, so no time to take longer breaks.
We left the path for the remaining 90 minutes of climbing and just went for the peak. Pretty strenuous but worth it!!! The view from the top was just amazing. We could see countless peaks as well as the Lochs Carran and Torridon.

Loch Torridon in the back

me on Sgorr Ruadh

 The walk back was equally exhausting and rain set in halfway down, but didn't really bother us. Still we skipped the usual pub-stop and went strait back to the house.
It's dinner time now and then more chilling at the fireplace with a whiskey and the guitar. Happy.

Warm up

Today was kinda like a warm up for tomorrow when we want to climb a munro, yay.
Again we went to the south of the Torridon area. This time we chose a much more rocky path just in between two of the many munros. The path later opened up to a vast plateau with munros growing out of it. Very stunning view to say the least.
Still we kept climbing ever up along that strenuous but very enjoyable path up to a loch. Since the clouds hang low today it felt quite magical to see the loch with its shore just barely visible.
As we took our meal up there it started to clear up so that we even had some sunshine on our way back to the car. The weather is said to be even better tomorrow so we seize the opportunity and go for the munro in hope we'll have a stunning view from the top.
After dinner just hang out in the living room of our house with a whiskey and playing guitar and talking. How can life be any better?

a loch at the end of the world

crossing "wild" rivers

So after seeing a surprisingly good cover band (instead of the typical 50+ band with AC/DC etc. they played Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, Seether, Foo Fighters!!!) I left for Inverness on Friday.
Since my train arrived half an hour late at Edinburgh I stayed at Waverley and hopped onto the Inverness train. Arrived at Inverness with another hour to spend before our hiking group would be picked up so I left my luggage at the station and went for a stroll. Not 10 minutes later it started raining cats and dogs and I had all my rain gear in my big trolley at the station. Good call, Katja!
So I fled to a bar and spent the remaining time with a cappucino. Then went back to the station to meet up with the rest of the group and soon after we were driven to our house on the Applecross peninsula were we had our dinner and got to know each other.

view from the living room

Today we went to the south of Torridon with its towering munros and walked along Loch Claire before we went to the coastal village of Shieldaig and took a walk along the coast.

York or no York

That was today's question. After it was raining yesterday in Manchester I skipped the Curry Mile and went to Dawsons music shop instead. Got out with three new books on blues guitar and country blues. Great stuff. Can't wait to get back home and work with them.
Arrived in the afternoon in Sheffield to meet my folks. After a great home made curry we went off to The Green Room where I was going to play my first solo gig as support to my friend's band Hungarian Lanterns.
The gig went quite well. Had a couple of blackouts lyrics-wise but had a lot of fun. I'm not used to sing with a microphone and even more to hear myself out of the boxes behind me. But I think I sang okay and the people seemed to have a good time. Most of them were friends or family of my hosts anyway, haha. So a good way to have your first gig when you don't have to work hard to get people interested.
Hungarian Lanterns were really good as well and we spent a couple of more hours drinking and talking.
Today we actually planned to go up to York, but since it had been raining all night and was still pouring down in the morning we skipped that. Went into town instead for breakfast and then toured several music shops with me and Anthony getting stuck on a Martin DR1 for quite a long time just at the first one, hehe.

me playing a rezo... loved it

Found a pub with live music later on. Razorbach is going to play some cover music and we wonder what that will be like with a band with such a name, haha.

So better get ready for some rockin' now.

Manchester day one

So, I hit the road again. Got up at 4 in the morning and took the airplane to Manchester. After seeing Liverpool last year it was time to pay a visit to another of the bigger cities of the UK.
Had a pleasant flight and slept through most of it. Since my whole digestive system was still a little unpredictable I felt a little hard pressed to use every restroom on the way, haha.
Got myself a package of imodium at the first Boots on the way to my hotel where I dropped off my luggage since I can only check in after 3pm.
Had a stroll through the city then, saw the cathedral (not as impressive as the one in Liverpool by far), the town hall and the shopping mile which is basically the same as in any other bigger city.
Apart from Affleck's! Imagine a 3 story house and each floor is crammed with punk/ethno/independent/gothic shops which are next to each other in the very meaning of the word. You basically stumble from one shop into another by just taking a turn. Awsome!
Also pretty nice is the district called Deansgate with the Castlefield area. Actually the very area where the Romans founded Manchester it is now a well kept remnant of the industrial revolution.

After all I decided I like this place. Very relaxed, nothing fancy although I do miss the designated pub area... or I haven't fount it yet :)
Anyway, heading off to the hotel now. Probably just stay in since I'm deadly tired. I have a couple of hours tomorrow to head over to the Curry Mile before I leave for Sheffield!

Manchester town hall

Castlefield

Follow the Blue Dot Road

So we headed off for Melchow early Saturday morning each with a 12kilo backpack. There was a mild but consistant rain when I woke up earlier, but it was gone when we started which kept our spirits up for the mammoth task ahead: 34km from Melchow to Tiefensee.

The track was marked with a blue dot on a white square and we followed for like 30 mins until the road split and the track that I had printed out on google maps went one way, the blue dot the other. We figured we stick to my map which unfortunately had us walking on an asphalt road for quite a while. To make things worse the rain set it again.
Still we just kept walking along fields of gold and red and blue, tall trees and small villages with equally small churches until we met the blue dot track again and turned back into the woods along small lakes.The rain stopped and with the birds singing, little frogs jumping out of our way and the rustling leaves of the trees it was so breathtakingly beautiful that we almost forgot our complaining feet.

Having had small breaks with just snacks along the track we were nearing exhaustion when we finally came to Leuenberg after like 30km. To make things worse we lost the blue dot road and had to ask locals and look at my google-maps printout to find the way to today's destination Tiefensee including a short walk on a train track since my map made no distinction between this one and normal foot paths. Yeah, adventure!

We were on our last legs when we finally arrived at the campingsite at Tiefensee with the receptionist staring at us wide eyed when we told him how far we had gone today.
We put up the tarp, had some small dinner and the best coke ever from the small campsite shop. The first sip tasted to fantastic! Like the first sip of coke I ever had in my life back in 1990.
So we went to bed hoping that our feet would recover over night.

Sunday started with perfect sunshine and mild temperatures. Perfect for hiking. The blister on my left heel had turned into a bulging dome at the size of a walnut so I decided to cut it open and tape it afterwards. Only the hard survive! So we headed off sore and limping like two old ladies.
Soon we got into a steady walking pace again and entered our blue dot track again. The whole day we were in the woods with occasional lakes until we finally arrived at Spitzmühle after 17km with terribly hurting feet and dragged ourselves into the only restaurant there.
After a great ice cream bowl we decided to take a cab for the remaining 3km to Strausberg since our feet just couldn't go anymore.

After all it's been a tremendous efford and 34km were really too much on day one. Still we enjoyed every bit of the trail. Being surrounded by nature watching frogs and snakes and listening to the birds was worth every bit of it!

Two people, two days

With Scotland looming ahead I decided to take a two day hike over the weekend with my good friend Annelie. As it will most certainly rain on Saturday she's not going to get the impression on her debut in the hiking business that it is like taking a walk in the sun only with a bigger backpack, haha.
Speaking of which... it's a good opportunity to test my new 50+10l backpack out in the field as well as my tarp. I only need some cooking equipment to be really ready for the long distance trails, that I want to do next year!
Looked up a nice track on google maps and just hope we don't get lost, but since it's just north of Berlin we should reach some settlement sooner or later.
Tomorrow we'll do the bigger part of the journey with 34km. Sunday it's just 20km. Really really looking forward to it!!!