The First of Many

The night in the tent was very chilly and I had to put on a shirt halfway through. Must have been as cold as 3 degrees. So at least I know now my sleeping bags limits, hehe.

The nearby A-road didn't really help with an undisturbed sleep (who's driving around the Cotswolds at 3am???) and morning just came too soon. Had a quick breakfast at 6:30am and packed my cold and wet tent. My fingers and feet were numb from the cold by the time I set off after using my ice scraper for the first time this year. Brrrr.

Arrived at the Cirencester College around 7:15, got my racing number with timing chip, changed and set off in the freezing cold at like 8:15 with the second group. The atmosphere with a couple of 100 cyclists was very friendly and cheery despite the cold and I really liked it. Everyone was just looking forward to a very nice ride, as at least the sun was shining.

Unfortunately, my phone was very low on battery and there was no time to charge it, so I couldn't take pictures :(. I didn't really have time to marvel at the beautiful frost covered fields all around anyway as I was simply busy with cycling and I didn't want to spend all day but rather go at a reasonable pace without so many stops.

It took almost an hour to get my body working enough to send warmth all the way into my finger tips. My feet just stayed numb though. After a short bit along an A road and through Cirencester we soon turned onto quiet country lanes rolling a bit up and down until the first really steep climb had quite a few cyclists struggling and pushing their bikes up on foot. I cycled all the way, but stopped once to catch my breath.

After 30 miles I arrived at the feed station which was well equipped but had nothing for me really, as it was all bread, flapjacks, bananas, sweets etc. Instead I pulled half a dozen meat balls I had prepared the day before out of my back pocket and munched them happily.

I sat down, massaged life back into my feet and set off for the second 30 miles. My back was quite stiff already which along with my hurting bum made the rest of the ride more uncomfortable. The scenery - as much as I could pay attention - was stunning, with lovely small villages, rolling fields and frosty sunshine.

Just between the 45-55 mile mark a few mean climbs prevented an easy roll back into Cirencester and being long and steep at the same time made me really feel my thighs for the first time all day.

Crossed the finish line back at Cirencester College after 63 miles with 3700ft elevation gain just after 5 hours of riding, yeah! Back in Germany I had ridden about the same distance a year ago but without any decent climbs so this is quite an achievement for me.

If it wasn't for my back I think I could've even done the long route of 100 miles. But I'll keep that for sometime next year.

The friendly atmosphere, perfect way marking and generally good fun of my first sportive will definitely make me do many more. It kind of feels like a race without the competitiveness. Everyone was just really friendly and helpful and it is kinda cool to cycle in a group of 5-15 people, even if it's just for a limited time.

I paid a reasonable £25 for the event which is not too much for the perfect organization and sportives are generally in that price range. So I looked a few more of them up and filled my calendar already, hoping to do one per month which will very likely boost my fitness considerably, yay! 

Into the Heart of the Cotswolds

As my first training camp (for Kilimanjaro) in Scotland was a full success I decided to concentrate on cycling for the remainder of the year. My fairly new road bike - which I fondly named "Black Mamba" - certainly plays a part in this, hehe. I just enjoy rolling mile after mile a lot more than ploughing over rocky and muddy ground on my mtb.

I have done a few day trips so far around Bristol and slowly get a few ideas where I can ride without much interference of cars. There are countless nice cycle paths around which lead through the beautiful countryside around Bristol throwing in a couple of hills as well. That is the big difference compared to riding around Berlin and I love a hill or two, but certainly need more training.

So I enlisted for my first sportive on Sunday! I never heard of those events before Rich mentioned it to me. Basically it's like a road race without the race. So you ride with a couple of 100 people on marked routes, but there's no winner and there are cars as the roads are not blocked, but organizers choose quite roads mainly. You pay a small fee, get some goodies, a timing chip, a map and off you go.

My first sportive will take part tomorrow in Cirencester and since I want to be on one of the first groups to head out I chose to go there today - a day before - since the event HQ opens at 7 am.

Arrived mid afternoon after an hour and a half on busy roads at the very nice Mayfield campsite, pitched my tent and cycled back into town. The dark morning with a good share of rain had given way to beautiful sunshine and a lovely blue sky.

Cirencester is really beautiful and full of those typical Cotswold sandstone houses. Walked around a bit, had a coffee and a massive piece of homemade chocolate cake and a cider later.
It was getting rather chilly and despite the sun, the feel of autumn cannot be denied. The air was nice and fresh and I guess it's going to be really cold tomorrow morning when I get up.

It's only a 15 min drive to the event's HQ from the campsite. And I can't wait to cycle the beautiful countryside around Cirencester. Forecast looks ok. Not much sun but no rain either.
My route is as long as 64mi/100km. Been a while since I cycled such a long one, but I'm quite confident to have an enjoyable ride without any trouble of finishing before the broom wagon.

A Worthy Goodbye

The forecast for today was not too good with rain and low hanging clouds, but improving from the west so we drove as far west as Bridge of Orchy to walk in that area hoping for said improvement weather-wise.
Headed into Glen Kinglass from a car park near Inveroran Hotel.
It was dry so far and the broad gravel road easy to walk with nice views of the some hills in the distance despite a few persistent clouds. We took a right turn at a small hut to start our ascent of Stob a'Choire Odhair. The path was a bit boggy first, followed by a steep bit over rocks and grass with a quite rocky but not too steep last bit. Very nice and easy walk indeed.

Nice view despite the clouds

The clouds vanished more and more while we had our picnic up on the top looking down over the flat plane of Rannoch Moor. Absolutely stunning. Too bad we couldn't linger long. But as we walked back down the sun finally won over the clouds and more and more clouds gave way to blue sky.

Rannoch Moor. View from Stob a'Choire Odhair

We had a short break at a river enjoying the warm rays on our skin before we walked back on the gravel road turning around time and again to look back to cloud-free hills framed in blue sky. Just absolutely beautiful. Made a mental note to come back to this area as it is just as I picture Scotland in my mind.

Glen Kinglass on our way back

Had our last dinner and I devoured a massive portion of lovely Scottish salmon. Had been looking forward to it all week since it's always fish on Fridays. Yeah!

Will visit a friend tomorrow morning in Perth, pick up the bass cabinet I bought on eBay in Sterling and then head down to Bristol. Will take me about 7 hours from there. After two weeks up here Bristol and my everyday life seems so distant. But still I'm looking forward to being back, getting out of my hiking clothes and drinking proper cider.


So this is it. My first two-week long Scotland holidays are over. I had a fantastic time in the home of my heart and unbelievably good weather. Met some lovely people while I was here and did 24 munros, 22 new ones. Never expected to do all of Skye's peaks and so many around the Ben Lawers area. I came here with a count of 7 and leave with 29 on my list now, reaching the 10% mark. Yeah. Sounds little, but it's a big step for me.

I will be back. Again. Maybe next year. I have to. I'm just drawn to Scotland. No plans yet, but something will come up, I'm sure.

Four Munros Done!!!

Bam! Did four munros today, three new ones. Nice.

The plan for the group was to do Ben Lawers and then An Stuc, descent to the little lochan below and walk back to the road. As we started the clouds hung very low and  Ben Lawers' top was hidden in thick mist. Still the wind was okay up there so we had our picnic and walked over to An Stuc. Felt good today after my rest day and the moderate pace got me breathing but not out of breath.
Loved the mist as it always creates such a mystical atmosphere and early afternoon we arrived at the top of An Stuc - my first new munro today since I had been on Ben Lawers before.
There was the option of carrying on to finish the Lawers group but only when the weather was not too bad. Luckily it cleared up just enough to see some features of the surrounding slopes so Simone, Martin and me decided to go for it and bag another two munros while the others went back to the saddle between An Stuc and Ben Lawers, descent to the Lochan and then got back to the main road.

We circumvented the steep and difficult North-East face of An Stuc by going down a grassy slope and walking around it on some sheep trails before we climbed up to the saddle and started our ascent of Meall Garbh. Realized I had forgotten to put the memory card back into my camera at that point, so there are no photos today, boo.

There were still some clear moments and before we knew it we had reached the top of munro number three today. Went on once more with misty clouds around us to a wide, very boggy plane between Meall Garbh and Meall Greigh. The three of us had a very similar pace and it was so much fun to walk at a more demanding pace, not at all like the Sunday stroll it had been all the way to an Stuc.

With munro number four done we headed down and lost the path on the way when we realized that the one we were following wasn't the one our GPS devices were displaying and which would lead us to the road eventually. So we walked "freestyle" from now on over grassy ground with fine views of the Lawers massif and Loch Tay opening up as soon as we were back under the cloudy blanket.

We could the the river we were supposed to follow rather soon and navigated along a path that was only seen on our GPSes. Maybe the Scots had just decided to let the grass grow over the the path, haha.

There was another path joining ours from the opposite side of the river and soon we could spot the rest of our group on it. What a coincidence! We pretty much met exactly at the junction and walked together back to the road and on to the Hotel in the small village of Lawers for a pint before our guide drove us back to the house.

The day was fantastic despite the absence of a view most of the time. We did four munros and my count went up to 28 now. Cool. Had a great time doing three and four with Simone and Martin and hope we'll do another one or even two tomorrow. Already I've done more than I ever expected to get done within two weeks. Awesome!!!

Three More Munros

Had another fine mountain day yesterday meaning no rain at all. That came with no view as well, but then again, no rain :)

Our guide steered the bus to Crianlarich where a nice round trip to An Caisteal and Beinn a'Chroin started from a lay by. Felt my knees again that morning but a Voltarol had shut them up for the time being.
An easy path gave way to a steep bit over grassy ground and we plunged into the low hanging grey clouds for the last ascent to the top.

Had our picnic up there as there was little to no wind and headed down to a saddle before we tackled the complex ascent up Beinn a'Chroin. With boulders, rock and grass I had a great time walking, scrambling and climbing and found a kindred soul in another girl in the group. We were both grinning excitedly like children in a sweetshop enjoying every bit.

Another munro top conquered

 So it happened that we came to a bit of a tricky scramble for inexperienced walkers and before any doubts in said walkers in our group could arise I suggested just giving it a try. Together with our guide the two of us helped the rest over the obstacle. Took quite a while but everyone was willing to at least have a go at it and trusted in us helping. Fantastic team spirit!

We didn't linger long at the top as the grey blanket of clouds was still hanging low. Down into the coire we went and back to our bus on another very long very wet and boggy track.

Group making their way down

Our way back. Perfectly formed coire, unfortunately very boggy

My friends had come over from Crieff in the afternoon so we had a nice chat and it was really nice seeing them again. Stayed out rather long until midnight after dinner just talking and sipping whisky.


Today was planned as an off-day for the group just doing an easy walk in Aberfeldy and then everyone would be free to wander around the village. I had done both a few years back and wasn't really in the mood for literally doing nothing since the pace on our walks had been moderate at most so far and I still had a lot of energy.

If it wasn't for my complaining knees I would've chosen a 2-3 munro loop somewhere. Instead I decided to have my kind of off-day and walk up Schiehallion thus ticking another one off my munro list.
One of the guys in the group had a similar idea, so I gave him a lift to Killin and then headed over to the Schiehallion car park which was an hour's drive.
Arrived at 11am and started immediately. The weather was a bit better than yesterday with a few sunny patches in all that grey up in the sky.
The first two thirds of the walk are almost too easy with a broad well prepared path. Still the purple heather, green, yellow and brown ferns covering most of the underground were beautiful to behold, the latter ones being the first messengers of approaching autumn.

The very rocky last third made up for the undemanding path before. Enjoyed jumping from boulder to boulder and had to think of my traverse of the Glyders earlier this year. Good fun!
The view from the top was indeed nice since this fine hill is a free standing one, but the haze blurred everything further away.

View from Schiehallion

So I just took a few pictures, had a wee dram form my hip flask as this was the first munro I climbed on my own and then went back down again.

Autumn is coming

Devoured my lunch package at the car park and then drove over to Kinloch Rannoch. Had intended to cycle around it but it was way too late now and I really wasn't in the mood to just cycle a few minutes and then go back the same way. So instead I walked around for a bit, had a cappuccino and drove back to our house.

Loch Rannoch

Loch Tay Day 2 - Two On Day Two

Slept like a dead man last night, seems I was tired after all. But the dinner and chat with the people last night was just so very pleasant. This is a fantastic group... in fact I think this is one of the best groups I had so far. Fun people and relaxed as relaxed can be.

Drove the short bit to the car park at the foot of the Ben Lawers massif again to do three more munros there. First we went up Beinn Ghlas which I had climbed before. The forecast hadn't been bad for today. Sunny patches and generally good. But halfway up we fought with an icy wind from the west, everyone donning all their clothes. I cursed not having brought my gloves.
I felt the remarkably higher weight of my backpack having packed my stove, extra 1.5 litres of water and two gas cartouches to provide some hot water for tea or instant cappuccino for the group later.

After Beinn Ghlas we went down a bit, had our lunch at a nice place without much of the wind and my hot drinks were very well received. Especially when everyone was freezing a bit. I just know that I crave a coffee sometime after noon and I was glad to share the pleasure of having one and thus offering a bit of luxury in the midst of the Scottish wilderness.

Headed over to Meall Corranaich with a rather easy ascent and Meall a'Choire Leith afterwards which was even easier. The views were hampered by the haze but the grey clouds hung way over the tops and we had not a single drop of rain. So it was a bit freezing in the wind but otherwise a very nice mountain day with two more - though admittedly  unspectacular - munros off the list. And I like the way of doing them in clusters and kind of "clearing" one region.

The way back was a bit boggy but nothing too bad. More like a normal Scottish path. Enjoyed it and instead of jumping onto the bike again I had a shower and... well writing my blog entry before dinner. I was just too lazy to change into bike clothes.

Loch Tay Day 1 - A Relaxed Start

Had a very pleasant start to my Loch Tay week. First day is always a bit easier. Weather was pretty good with sunny patches but the wind was rather chilly at times. Our guide took us to the Ben Lawers car park which was pretty much full but we still found a place to park the mini coach.

Most people obviously went up Ben Lawers and Bheinn Glas, we went up to Meall nan Tarmachan instead which is a very pleasant walk with the only steeper ground being the last bit. The pace was very relaxed so I could enjoy the fantastic views over Loch Tay behind us.

On the top the view opened up as far as Ben Nevis in the West with a sea of hill tops all around. You're probably only able to name them when you've been on them. I just loved it and didn't care much about the names. Glen Lyon in the north was hidden by the flanks of the Lawers massif but we could see Glen Lochy ahead as we walked all over the ridge which takes a wide angle towards Killin from Meall nan Tarmachan.

View from Meall nan Tarmachan

Glen Lochy

Were back at the car park at 6pm which was later than expected. I still felt really fit so I quickly cycled into Killin once we were back at the house to get a big package of eggs and a bottle of milk for me. After the relaxed walking all day I loved making a race of it and getting my heart pumping properly.

Had fantastic dinner last night and the last us got to bed as late as 11pm talking for a long time, drinking whisky and wine.