Satisfaction

You know, I don't think there's anything quite as satisfying as going at an over-grown garden with a pair of shears. There is something about the mindless destruction that I really enjoy. The raking up of the carnage at the end is another matter.

We had our first trip to Ikea yesterday, somehow we have managed to get through multiple rental properties without ever succumbing to that blue and yellow lure. The visit wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, and actually I think if I ever return, I could do that visit in 30 minutes. Research online, forget the showroom, go straight to the self-service area and you are going home a winner.

Glencoe and Surrounds

The mountains around Kinlochleven

I have only visited Glencoe once before, which was just on a tour bus, so no walking involved. But I knew at the time I would have to be back, and it's finally happened. After 3 days in the Cairngorms we drove over to Glencoe area. This region is also fantastic, definitely some visits back here are required as well! This is a lot more dramatic than the Cairngorms, with really sharp peaks and long ridge lines. We were staying in Kinlochleven, which is really a great place to be based for walking. It's actually on the West Highland Way, I think it's the last night of the walk, the following day you would make your way into Fort William and the end of the route. So the whole town seems really suited to walkers, there are 3 pubs in town, all of which cater purely to walkers. And there are multiple routes (not just the West Highland Way) that start right from town. The weird thing is it used to be an aluminium smelter and yet it's surrounded by these beautiful mountains. It must have been a very different town 30 odd years ago.

Hints of the mountain tops

The weather wasn't great the whole time we were there. We had one rest day where we sat inside and just played cards all day, never done that before, just straight through, the whole day, card game after card game. It was a good day to spend inside though, the wind was howling, and when it wasn't hailing it was raining. So pretty glad not to be up a mountain on that day.

My one shot of the West Highland Way

We did part of the West Highland way, just because we thought we should. I had actually been kind of keen to do this at some point, but I am a little off it now having done part of it. The thing with these long distance paths is that they have to be doable even in really bad weather. People have hotels booked along the way, so they can't really spend an extra evening holed up somewhere waiting for the weather to clear. This means that the paths generally have to go through the less interesting part of the countryside, meaning the valleys. And the paths are always super-wide, almost fire trails. In fact some of the walk we did was on logging roads, so you also had big trucks full of tree trunks driving passed. Not the most conducive to appreciating nature. There are also a lot of people doing the walk, you are always passing people, or seeing people up ahead. It was good to experience this, since now I don't have to use a whole holiday to realise it's not what I want to do.

Stunning scenery - those mountains!

Bluebells near Kinlochleven

The weather that day was also the worst of the whole trip, which probably added to the less than positive reaction to this walk. We did a little side-trip up to an iron age fort, this was the one point at which we got out of the valleys for a bit, and man was it windy up there! Smart move walk constructors, keeping people protected. I'm sure I saw some people doing the walk in jeans, so really you can't make the route too arduous.

We had two other great walks whilst we were staying in Kinlochleven. The first was a super long walk, it must have been 20 odd kilometres, with maybe a third of that completely pathless, and with some elevation gain. You start off in the town and follow the river out and up. Through this great mossy forest. There was so much water around. It's such a a pleasure not having to carry much water on your back, because you know there will always be another creek to fill up from. It did mean a few river crossings, some were better than others. At one, there was a log placed across the stream that you could kind of balance on. It wasn't deep, or wide, but it was fast flowing and did flow straight off the cliff. What was really off-putting was the deer skeleton that had caught in the log and who's spine was flapping in the current. Another bridge was completely rusted through so had to be skirted. That wasn't so bad though, given the lack of decomposing animals.

Is this New Zealand or Scotland?

The washed away bridge

As we got higher the views got more and more stunning. It reminded me of walking in the Swiss alps, there were these rings of snow-capped peaks all around you. And the best thing was not another person in sight. We lunched at this beautiful mountain hut by a lake. It must have taken some serious work to construct this thing, solid walls, fireplace, multi-levels. I guess the stones would have been helicoptered in, but just putting it together would have been an undertaking and a half. It was ever so slightly spoiled by the two rotting sheep carcasses right outside the door. They were the only sheep we saw all day, and it was unfortunate they had to be stinking up the lunch spot.

After lunch we left the paths behind and struck out up the nearest hill. Our goal was to go up and over two ridge lines before dropping down to a saddle and another lake and then following a different river back into town.

The second ridge line was a bit of an undertaking. It was almost like climbing a wall, and there was still snow at the top, quite amazing for late May. But the views were incredible. You could not see a single sign of human habitation from the top, no villages, no roads, no people. That is actually kind of rare in the UK (you are probably not surprised to discover), so to be able to get to a spot like that, on a day walk, is what Scotland is all about for me.

Can't get enough of these views

It was a bit of a forced march after cresting the final hill. The day was getting on and we knew the kitchens didn't stay open that late. No way was I missing my dinner that day!

And now this post has gone on for longer than expected, so I will have to display the last great Kinlochleven walk we did in a different post.

The view from the final mountain. I wish I was back there

Dave and the Mamores, have to be back to tackle these

Almost home, the final descent to Kinlochleven

A Week in Scotland

Smoked salmon and cream cheese for lunch

I don't think Scotland should ever be allowed to leave the UK, I enjoy visiting it too much! If you ever feel that there are too many people in London and you need to get away from it, just visit Scotland. The mountains, the wild camping, the wilderness, the no people. It is really such a great place to visit. True the weather kind of sucks, and it's cold and wet a lot of the time, and when it isn't, there are thousands of midges. But the times when the clouds lift just enough to see the tops of the peaks is really something special. And being able to stand on the top of a mountain and not see any signs of humans; no roads, no villages, no paths, that is so good after Bank underground station. I'm not sure where else in the UK something like that is possible.

Heading for the base of those mountains - I love these glacial valleys

We spent 2 days camping in the Cairngorms, I love the Cairngorms, the wide, glacial valleys, the complete isolation, the mountains. It's really great having this so close to us. Flights leave Aberdeen from City airport and then it's about 90 minutes drive to the entry point to the park. I definitely have to get back there more. There are way too many places to visit in just this country, let alone Europe! Our first day was a pretty long one, along a path for most of the way. Then right at the end we headed up this valley, with an elevation gain of a couple hundred metres. Which was a bit tough coming at the end of an 18km walk. We camped by the shores of a mountain tarn. A beautiful spot, it was just a bit of a shame it was so incredibly windy that night. I've never had it so windy, at some points I was a little worried the tent was going to be torn apart. But everything held together nicely. 

Slowly approaching, we turn left at the base of the peak

It was our first trip in our new tent, and I have to say, after this one, bring on the camping. We spent way too much on it, it's Swedish, and it's just so well designed. After many trips in slightly crappy tents, I don't think I'm going to need another one. It's big, it has this massive vestibule, so even if it's pouring with rain, you can make dinner and not get wet. And then there's heaps of space for your bags and boots and everything. So the actual tent just has you and your clothes. It's so luxurious, but still light. I think there are going to be some fun times had with this. 

Our beautiful campsite on the second night

After a rather sleepless night we decided we had to get lower for the next evening, preferably with some trees, always a bit of an ask in the Cairngorms. We had to ford the river Dee, which was actually quite wide. I got a bit worried about wet boots, but really, it wasn't that cold. Then we had the best campsite I have ever walked to, it was amazing. In amongst a little pine forest, flat, grassy patch of ground, with no stones. Right next to a flowing river and views out over snow capped mountains. So good. That really was a perfect campsite. I hope I visit that one again.

I wasn't expecting so much snow on the peaks, it was the last weekend in May, which I thought would have been late enough in spring that everything would have melted. But as the ranger told me, the Cairngorms are the only sub-arctic region in the UK, and they were really arcticing it up. I'm not so experienced in snow, especially when it's on really steep slopes, and since the avalanche forecasts only stopped being issued a fortnight before we visited. With one of the last forecast being for a high likelihood of avalanche, that freaked me out a bit. Aaah poor Scotland, such a short window to visit, it's either covered in snow, or when it's warm enough that it melts, it's covered in midge. Perhaps autumn is the time to pay another visit. 

Walking the Grand Canyon - Part 2

On the way out of Monument creek, view of the Colorado, it's the brown river

After the really long first day, I think it was something like 17kms with the heaviest packs of the day, it was a nice short day for the second. Just a stroll really, down to the Colorado River, though we did get to slide through some canyons. That was pretty fun, especially since we were already hot at 9am.

I think camping on the shores of the river was the best night. The river was not what I expected at all. For some reason I thought the Colorado river would actually be quite shallow and narrow. I think because we had been spotting glimpses of it for so long. But these were from so far away that it looked pretty calm and not that big. And then you got down there, and it was pretty scary. It sounded like a jet engine, it was roaring, and bubbling, a real chocolate milkshake - but a scary one. It was also freezing cold, I can't think of a less inviting place to swim, and given it was so hot otherwise, with not a cloud in the sky, it really felt a little unfair. We had to camp a little away from the water, just because there was no way you could sleep through the noise, and I have never thought that of flowing water before, normally it is quite peaceful. Wowsers.

The chocolate milkshake of the Colorado

These gullies were serious, you wouldn't want to go wrong.

That was a bit of a lazy day, with a paddle in some pools, away from the river, and a relax in the sun. Really quite pleasant, with yet more delicious food cooked by our awesome guide.

The next day we were off to hermit camp, this was again on the banks of a creek, and yet another great camp spot. The national park has really done a great job at choosing these camp spots. I wish the national parks in England and Wales had these as well, campsites that you had to walk to. Scotland has the wild camping, which is great, but England and Wales don't have anything like that. It's a real shame, since it also has great open spaces, but you are not meant to sleep out there. Perhaps people do anyway, so long as they are away from paths and not really visible, perhaps they don't care. Because Wales has some great beaches, and I'm really dreaming of finding an overnight walk to some beach that you can only access on foot. How great would that be?

Last view of the monument

The lovely sunset colours in the canyon

Apparently there used to be a hermit, Louis Boucher, who lived in the area for 20 years or so, though I'm not sure how much of a hermit he really was. This region of the park has all these trails and campsites named after this guy. This part of the park also used to be in private hands, and the trail down was built to service a luxury campsite. In fact there used to be a tramway from the rim, as well as a car for transportation and a chef. It must have been some campsite. This was all back in 1910 or so. And there is not much remaining at all. The trail has seen some serious rock falls, nothing major, but you couldn't even get a horse along there now. At the time they really wanted to capitalise on the canyon, luckily tourism has moved away from that style of enjoying the wilderness.

You have to visit this place, it's amazing

Not a cloud in the sky at sunset. The top cliff is 1000m above.

This was our last night in the canyon, and the next morning we were getting up at 4:30am to try and beat the heat when we slog our way back up the 1000 metres to the rim. Again this is when the guide is so good. You didn't need to worry about having the will power to get up that early, since it was up to him to rouse us all. I am such a fan of guided walks, at least where I don't know the flora, fauna or terrain.

We had to pick our guide's brain too, since this had been so amazing. Everywhere you looked there were fantastic views, just the scale and the colours, everything about it. So we ask him which is his favourite national park, and he doesn't even say the grand canyon! He likes Glacier and Olympic national parks more, so guess where we are off to this summer. If they are better than the grand canyon, then I have high hopes!

Sunrise at the canyon

The cathedral steps go through the pass - fantastic sunrise.

It was quite fun leaving before dawn, we had our head torches on and it was so still and quiet. And then the sun started to come up. I really should have got up earlier during the trip, the colours at sunrise were amazing. We had breakfast at the top of the Cathedral steps. I don't really remember going down these on the way in, but they were super steep, a lot of switchbacks. It did mean though that most of the ascent was done before breakfast, which is a nice way to climb out of the canyon

One last shot on the way out

Then it was just the slog back up to the truck, and since we were going up the way we were going down, you knew how far everything was away. It was still nice to finally reach the top. You start to pass other people the closer you get to the carpark. I always find that slightly strange after a few days away from people, where I am all smelly, in the same clothes I was wearing 4 days ago, and they are all nice and clean, and in jeans and stuff. Thankfully it wasn't that hot, and our packs were light, and we were enthused for more back country adventures in the US. Before we left the canyon for good we stopped at one of the lookouts for some photos. We could see the whole route we had taken, even the paths that we were walking on, that was pretty cool. And actually having been down there, amongst it, that's not something you forget.

View from the lookout, you can vaguely see the trail if you look closely

Walking the Grand Canyon - Part 1

A very small part of the canyon

Driving up to the Grand Canyon was an interesting experience in itself. You are quite high ~2000m, and the land rises a little up to the Canyon. Basically though you are driving for about 2 hours through very flat desert with no trees or anything. Then just before the Canyon the land rises very gently and you drive through a scrubby forest. This means that you can't see the Canyon at all until you are right on top of it. You could be a kilometre away and have absolutely no idea that there is this wonderful natural phenomenon so close by. It must have been annoying for people trying to expand south (or north) as it's about 450kms wide and 1000m deep. And it's not like a gentle slope down to the Colorado River, it's cliffs and then the Colorado River is this raging torrent. I can't imagine you getting an expansionary force across this without some serious effort.

Great views around every corner

The canyon must be amazing for geologists to visit, I feel like I was missing a dimension because the timescales we were talking about as you descend into the canyon are crazy.  The 1.5km from rim to river extends back something like 2 billion years. Everything about this place is indescribable. The other great thing is that each layer seems so distinctive from the next, you can really feel that you are walking back through time as you descend.

The features were so deep and so massive

Our guide was so good, they really do make these trips, he was a real bushman this guy. I don't think he officially rented a house any place, he spent all his time in the back country, as they call it, so on the few nights where he wasn't out on a tour, he would sleep in the company's warehouse, or with friends. He also worked with this other company that would do month long hikes with teenagers. That must be something else, they would be out there so long they would need food drops. So anyway, guiding with 4 adults must be a total holiday for this guy. He was just so totally relaxed too, I think you would have to be, to deal with people all the time. And he was a really good cook too, no dehydrated meals for us! Real luxury camping.

I can never get sick of that view

Our first day was long, and hot, we started a bit late, after having to drive out there, and we really did drive to the end of the road. Then it was straight down from there. There was only one spot to get more water along the way, and that was really close to the start. And it was hoooooot. I can't imagine what this place is like in summer, since we were there in October, and even then the temperatures were high. It was nice not having to worry about where we would need to get water and how much to get, the guide knew exactly what to do, ah such a pleasure.

It's so hard to capture the scale

Our first campsite was Monument creek campsite, all the camp spots were great, they even had toilets too. I was thinking it was going to be more like Scotland, with the true wild experience. And they were all really quiet too, for one of them we were all by ourselves, right on the banks of the Colorado river.

The first night we were camping on the shores of Monument creek, which wasn't much of a creek. There was just a little trickle, really not even enough to submerge ourselves. And yet these creeks can be dangerous when it rains. Just a week prior to us visiting there had been heaps of rain, and lots of flash flooding. One of the guides from the same company had refused to take a group up one of the creeks, even though they were really pushing for it. A couple of hours later and the whole place was totally inundated, with massive boulders coming down. They would have been in real trouble if they had made the guide go up.

And yet another one

It is an odd relationship, that of guide and guidee, because you are relying on them to get you the places you want, safely. But then you have paid them money to take you there. You can start to understand how the whole Everest thing can be so fraught, since those people are paying a loooooot of money to get up there. I'm pretty cool with the guide telling me what is safe and not, that's why I get a guide, to outsource that worry about things. So why wouldn't you listen to them, if that's what you are paying for. If you are so sure you know what is safe, in a place you've never been before, then why bother getting a guide.

The monument off to the bottom right

Anyway, there were no problems like that on our trip. I think we were all pretty happy to go with what the guide was telling us to do, and nobody had to be a hero, though I doubt you could have out-heroed our guide. Seriously you feel like this guy could have gotten you out of any scrape. About the only thing of danger out there were scorpions, and the thing is they are really small. Not the big scorpions you see in movies. But some of them are pretty poisonous, they would require a helicopter lift if you did get stung. Another guide one trip got stung on the neck, I'm guessing not by the super dangerous one, because the next day, she hiked out by herself! Holy cow, now that is some hard-core human. So yeah, don't mess with guides.

The monument of monument creek.

We get to Monument creek pretty late, the sun is already setting just as we arrive. And we were all really buggered. We didn't really spend the time we should have admiring why it was called Monument creek. The next morning was a bit better. There are all these freaky columns around the place. And by now we are past the really red zone, and are into more of a sandstone layer. Quite a different colour.

The scale was unimaginable

New House

I've been a bit quiet (ok a lot quiet) on here over the past few months. My excuse is that we've just bought a house so I think that was taking up a lot of mental energy. I gotta say the way house purchases are carried out here in the UK leaves a lot to be desired. Not that I've ever bought a house anywhere else, but man I just can't imagine it can be this bad everywhere. The weird thing is with almost every other purchase you make, a pair of jeans, a washing machine, or any service that is provided to you, there seem to be all these consumer laws designed to protect you, the purchaser. If the jeans are the wrong size you can take them back no worries, if the washing machine breaks, it'll be fixed, if you go to a restaurant you are probably not going to get sick. And yet a house, which costs hundreds of times more, there are no protections whatsoever. It feels like everyone just wants a piece of you (or rather a piece of your money), but if anything goes wrong you are the only one who is liable. And if there turns out to be something wrong with the house, too bad! It's so weird that the biggest purchase of your life has zero protection around it. And don't even get me started on stamp duty.

The last week before completion was pretty stressful because at that point you have signed the contracts and are legally bound to complete the sale on the date given. The thing is at that point it's also completely out of your hands as to whether the money is actually transferred. You have to rely on the solicitor, the bank and the mortgage broker all being able to do their job properly. Which turns out to be harder than you think. I am not used to having such big decisions being completely out of my control so it was really hard to deal with.

Also because I rang the bank on the Monday (we are completing on the Friday) and the bank tells me they have no knowledge of my account. The solicitor and the mortgage broker seem completely unconcerned. So you try not to stress about it, thinking there must be something else going on, but it sure was hard to sleep properly after hearing that. Then Thursday comes round (when the money from the bank is meant to be transferred to the solicitor for the Friday completion) and it turns out that the bank really did have no knowledge of our account. It took 45 phone calls between us, the solicitor and the mortgage broker to get it sorted out. And I'm thinking if I ever did that in my job I'd probably be fired. And yet these retail banks can behave criminally and get away with it. Because you know if the money hadn't gone through it would have been us paying the penalty for breaking the completion contract, not the bank. So like I said, some sleepless nights.

But now we are all set up in our house, and it's just something I like to think about when I need to fuel my rage fire. English houses are funny, they have to have stairs in them to count as a house, otherwise it's a bungalow, which I find hilarious. I think I would much rather a bungalow, I'm going to build massive calf muscles with the 3 flights of stairs I now have.  The house is 100 years old though, so that has been a bit weird for me, all the floors are at an angle, so your sitting in a chair and you can feel that one side of your body is bearing most of the weight. And you put bottles on the ground and they'll roll to one side. We may look at fixing that, at least all our bookshelves stand up properly and don't appear as if they'll crush us, so perhaps it's not that bad.

It's hard to get into the homeowner mindset, I do wonder if my interests will change now that I have this massive debt millstone. I am certainly invested in society staying the way it is, no anarchy or revolution for me please, unless retail bank debts are the first thing destroyed, then I'm all for it. But I wonder if I'll really get into gardening or something. I always liked the idea of a veggie patch say, or flower beds, but having only been in rental houses, it was hard to put much effort in, since you were only ever going to be there for 2 years at most. And for the last 8 years I have only lived in apartments, so not even the possibility of a garden. Now I have a place with a garden shed, it's definitely going to take some getting used to.

Grand Canyon - Or How I Learnt to Love Back-Country US

Our trusty vehicle - it actually had two rows of seats in the back. Everything's
bigger in the US!

We were back in San Francisco late summer last year. Well it was really Sonoma Valley, but since we'd done a bit of Yosemite last time, and there are direct flights to Phoenix, we thought - Grand Canyon, why not. How can you turn down the Grand Canyon, it's like a wonder of the world. I always like hiking too, and camping. Waking up early in the morning, and there is always the possibility of a bit of fauna when you are camping. And the Grand Canyon promised all of that.

We found this awesome company - Wildland Trekking. We were actually going to the US for a wedding, so we thought it was easier to use a company. That way we didn't have to take a whole bunch of hiking gear with us - as well as wedding stuff. And that was such a good decision. It helped that the guide was just so good, and the other people in the party were also Australians which just made the whole experience so much better. I can see that if you were stuck with a bad group of guests it could get messy pretty quickly. But we had chosen the hardest route we could, so thought that should winnow out most of the chaff. And in the end there was quite a gap between our capabilities and the other two people with us, so it meant that we really were doing the walking on our own. But had the navigation, route planning, food buying and meal preparation all taken care of. It was like luxury camping. I would definitely use this company again, in fact we are planning a trip to Yellowstone for that very reason.

Fossilised animal prints

But before the Grand Canyon there was Phoenix, hmm what to say about Phoenix? Not sure I'll be back, I guess it's just a US city? I think I've figured out my strategy for the US, avoid the cities, and spend all my time out bush. Because their national parks are amazing. I thought Yosemite was something special, but then the Grand Canyon blows it out of the water. And if you camp or do anything involving a bit of physical exertion, there is nobody else around. Fantastic!

One weird thing is the incredibly poor transport links to the Canyon, you'd kind of think it would be super easy. Maybe everyone goes via Vegas, but I think that goes to the north rim, and the south rim is where it's at. I guess it is the land of the car. We managed to find this really weird shuttle bus, and when I say it's a shuttle bus it's actually a big SUV that's been converted to have 3 rows of seats. It's not even a van. And that is the only way to get from Phoenix to Flagstaff (which is the closest town to the Canyon). And even that is still a 2 hour drive away from the Canyon. It's incredible just how big the US is, it's much bigger than Australia.

Weird flora in the canyon - but check out those
rock colours!

With my southern American prejudices I was kind of expecting Arizona to be a real gun-toting state, I mean they do border Mexico and don't they have really weird paper checking powers there? But anyway I wanted to see how safe I would be walking around the streets, like is everyone going to be carrying a gun? Whilst they basically have no gun ownership restrictions, I'm talking assault weapons, concealed carry, open carry, it's all good in Arizona. They actually have only a median percentage of gun ownership. About 31% of people own a gun, that's 38th in gun ownership rates by state. So relatively low given how easy it seems to get a gun. I feel like I should have visited a Walmart whilst I was there now. I was a bit disappointed with my Walmart experience in California. Not a rifle to be seen, just military-grade crossbows.

Flagstaff was a much prettier town, much, much colder too. Phoenix was hot and this was at the very end of summer too, more autumn weather. I was expecting temperatures closer to London range, and it was high 20s. There were so many cacti too, I was not expecting that, it was really the west there, just driving along the highway and there are massive cacti, like ones you would see in old western movies. So cool.

Anyway Flagstaff was much cooler, but then it's at 2100m, which was another shocker. I really had done no research into this trip. Dave had done all the planning. I think I managed to find the shuttle bus and that was the extent of my contribution. Anyway 2100m is pretty high, that's almost higher than Kosciusko (which I think will always be my level for something being high). And you really felt the elevation, a little harder to breathe and crisp, clear, cool air. Really very pleasant. And the town was quite pretty too, with a nice main street. Not that we spent a lot of time there. Because the evening we arrived was the pre-trip meeting and then we were off again very early the next morning. This was exciting, a 2 hour drive and we would be at the canyon. And I really didn't know what to expect. I feel a bit bad now, I hadn't even checked out pictures on the internet. I guess I knew it would be big, that's about it. I was in for a shock I can tell you that!

So one teaser photo before the next instalment