Glen Affric - Dog Falls and Coire Loch

This morning I left Duncan and Ruby in the cottage and I headed off in the fog to Glen Affric.

Even though it was a sunny day, the fog was awful in places and visibility whilst driving was very poor.  It made for a very long journey but should have only taken twenty minutes.

I finally arrived and set off running through the narrow windy forest tracks which were full of rocks and tree roots so I really had to watch my footing.  The tracks were also alive with spider webs!  They were everywhere shimmering away and I had to keep running through them.  By the end of the run I was covered in bits of spider web.


Note the massive spiderweb in this pic, along with all the white bits of web everywhere...

The first place I ran to was Dog Falls which was absolutely beautiful.

After arriving back at the car park, I then continued on another loop, which took me up to a view point from which I should have been able to see Tom a' Choinich and Toll Creagach, which are both Munros, however all I saw was a blanket of fog with some peaks sticking out of it, which was absolutely beautiful!

As you can see from the photo, despite the fog, it was yet again a beautiful blue-skied sunny morning and the rest of the day was OK too but a bit overcast.  No rain and still quite warm though.

Looking at my Strava/Garmin trace is quite odd.  There are three lines at the north of the route, all running pretty parallel with each other and one being much higher than the other two.  The reason this is odd is because on all three of those parts of my run, I was on exactly the same narrow trail through the forest but on the trace there is quite a distance between each one.  GPS and forests clearly don't mix.

Tomorrow we are going across to Fort William and Fort Augustus so I'm off to search for somewhere to run en route (no, I won't be climbing Ben Nevis on my own - I definitely need a friend to run that with).

Positive Comments - Arrived back at the car three miles in absolutely knackered and could have stopped there, but carried on for another loop.

Total distance - 5.9 miles (however, I think it was more than this and that my Garmin lost signal in the forest)

http://www.strava.com/activities/195807107

Easy run with Ruby Through Contin Forest

The weather today started off a bit grim again however by late morning it was back to the beautiful sunshine and I was regretting not having taken my shorts with me to change into after my run.  I had only taken my combats which weren't even the zip off variety, which I had brought two pairs of on holiday with me, typical!

Duncan went for a ride this morning round Strathpeffer so I took Ruby on a short run around Contin Forest. It would have been a bit longer but parts of the forest were closed as they're improving the routes so I should only have been able to do around 3 miles but I managed to make it up to 4.5 with a bit of improvisation.

The run started by climbing up to the top of the forest where there were beautiful views but, unfortunately, my camera was out of battery and Duncan had my phone with him so I had no means of taking a photo.

Once we had finished our run, I drove back to Strafpeffer to wait for Duncan to return from his bike ride.  I had only been back ten minutes when he arrived covered in muck and the odd bit of blood.  He had had an interesting ride which took him through a swamp at one point!

We then went for a drive up to Dornoch, via Tain, where we sat on a beautiful beach and played ball with Ruby for a while whilst, at the same time, trying to read our books, which was a bit tricky.

Later on, as we were driving along a very remote road in the middle of nowhere, two deer popped up and started running alongside the car. Duncan managed to get a few pictures, although none were great...

Positive comments - Felt great on climb right at the start*

Total distance - 4.5 miles

http://www.strava.com/activities/195408974

*Something has occurred to me whilst I have been away - I think a lot of my trouble with climbing back home is in my head (surprise surprise I hear you say).  I think that, because when I first ran up the hills near me I couldn't do it without walking, I still have that in my head and so still now think that I can't do it.  Not sure if that makes sense in writing but I know what I mean.  I'm finding the hills round here much easier, even though a lot of them are much longer and steeper than the ones I struggle with back home.

The Black Isle (Monadh Mor)

A trip to the Black Isle was the order of the day today so I had my morning run along a forest trail at Monadh Mor.

The trail was quite boring really and reasonably flat so I took the opportunity of getting a bit of speed in my legs and left Ruby behind with Duncan.  It was hard work as I was feeling quite tired this morning but still I managed an OK pace after a mile's warm up.

Monadh Mor is described as follows:

Around 14,000 years ago, as the glaciers retreated, they left ridges and hollows here which gradually filled up with pools of water.  On ridges between these boggy areas, pine and birch trees took root, growing slowly because of the poor quality of the soil.  Monadh Mor is the largest remaining bog woodland in Scotland.  In the 1960s this area was planted with commercial forestry, which made the bog dry out.  Recent conservation is restoring the bog woodland by removing planted trees and allowing the bog to fill up with water again.  Today Monadh Mor is a beautiful woodland, home to a range of wildlife: darting dragonflies and damselflies, crossbills and even ospreys. 

Later on we had a wander around Cromarty where we had a cake and coffee in a pub, which also sold a thing called a 'potato dog' which apparently is a hot dog sausage coated in a hash brown type affair, in a hot dog bun (these were only on sale after 12.00noon on the lunch menu though so we didn't sample one as we were there in the morning).  We then visited the Black Isle Brewery and then Culloden Battlefield, before getting caught in rush hour traffic in Inverness on our way back to the cottage.

The weather hasn't been great today, it's been grey all day with a bit of rain.  Ah well, we can't complain seeing as we have had 10 days of excellent weather.  Lets hope tomorrow gives us more sunshine.

Positive comments: good steady run.  

Total Distance - 6.2 miles 

http://www.strava.com/activities/194915597

Round in Circles in Abriachan Forest

Yesterday we travelled to Balbeg near Drumnadrochit for the second week of our holiday.  Our cottage is amazing!  It's right on top of a hill with beautiful views far and wide, you can see all the way over to the mountains on the west coast  (here's a link to it in case you're interested http://www.ownersdirect.co.uk/accommodation/p8082263).  I could sit in the conservatory for hours just admiring the scenery.  As I'm typing, there's a beautiful red sky overhead, which I've just sent Duncan out to get a photo of...

This morning, we drove out to Abriachan Forest, which is only down the road from the cottage, on the way to Inverness.

Duncan walked Ruby whilst I went for a run up Carn na Leitire at 434 metres (1424 ft) which had some lovely views from the top.

I did end up going round in circles a little, as you can see from my Strava trace, as I followed a sign which sent me down a 'peat path' towards the Great Glen Way, but then when I got to the Great Glen Way, I followed a sign which pointed me to Carn na Leitire, not realising that this is where I had already come from so, when I did realise where I was, I turned round and retraced my steps as otherwise I would have gone back down way too early and not got much mileage in.

The route down was awesome, I really loved it and got a good bit of speed on.

Positive comments - managed to not get 'temporarily misplaced' and had a brilliant descent.  Also felt strong on the ascent which was quite steep in places. 

Total distance - 5.2 miles 

http://www.strava.com/activities/194566427

Cairnbaan Forest Trails

This morning – yet another absolutely beautiful morning I might add -  I dropped Duncan off in Ardrishaig at the end of the Crinan Canal so that he could ride the length of it, ending up at Crinan Harbour.

After dropping him off, I drove along to Cairnbaan which is on the way to Crinan so that I could run the forest walks there with Ruby.  There are a few different walks at Cairnbaan but the longest is only three miles so I decided to do this one, plus two others, one around a mile and a half and one around two miles. 

They were pretty hard work!  The first one involved a good climb to the trig point on top of                                         .

Ruby, as usual was pretty tired so I did have thoughts of calling it a day after the three mile loop but then she seemed to perk up so we did the other two loops, which were much nicer anyway because a lot of the longer loop was on forest road and I prefer the narrow trails which the other two shorter trails had a lot of. 

You might be reading my holiday blogs thinking I’m a right wimp for doing a lot of these forest trails instead of just heading off into the mountains and, to be honest, you’d be right.  I just think it would be highly irresponsible of me to go off into the mountains on my own, with pitiful navigation skills and a compass which points in the wrong direction.  There’s also the fact that there is no mobile signal so a simple fall resulting in a sprained ankle could be disastrous, given that other walkers/runners are very few and far between out here.  Ruby is no Lassie and I’m pretty sure wouldn’t go running off to find help.   I really enjoy the forest trails and, believe it or not, some of them are pretty challenging so that’s good enough for me, I am on holiday after all!  I have no fear of getting lost so can just relax and have a good run. 

It was our last day in Argyll today as we’re off to Drumnadrochit tomorrow morning for the second week of our holiday.  Hopefully I’ll find lots more good run routes up there and the weather will stay good for us.  Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be in shorts for this amount of my holiday!

Positive comments – felt great on the climbs and there were quite a lot of them on this one.

Total distance – 6 miles

http://www.strava.com/activities/194578393

Cnoc nan Gabhar and Carradale Forest

Today we decided on a long drive down to Campbeltown, going via Carradale so Duncan could have a ride whilst I had a run. 

We set off together and headed straight up to the summit of Cnoc nan Gabhar.  Unfortunately, despite being a very warm day again, it was very foggy and so the views were not very far reaching, which is a shame because apparently you can see over to Ben Cruachan (Argyll’s highest point) and the Isle of Arran from there but we didn’t see any of that. 

I had left Duncan on the way up as it’s quite difficult to ride up but he overtook me a couple of miles later on on the forest road and I didn’t see him for a while after that.

I had to stop quite frequently because Ruby was really tired but eventually I found Duncan again, who had been waiting for me further along the trail. 

We then all went off together to head back to the car park.

The rest of the day was spent driving around the Kintyre peninsula, which is very picturesque.  As I said earlier, it was another really hot day for this time off year in Scotland and it was lovely to again be in shorts and t-shirt.  We also saw a fox in a field full of cows and there was a frantic rush to find a camera to get a picture.  Duncan eventually managed a pic of it running off into the distance.

And a piccie of our own little hound...

We drove to a café at the Gigha Ferry point where we had a coffee cake and a caramel cake which were well deserved and to die for!  It was 5pm by now and there were lots of school children at the ferry point who were getting on the ferry to the island of Gigha after their school day on the mainland and I thought how bizarre it must be for your daily trip to school being on a ferry as opposed to a bus, although to these guys it’s just the norm. 

Later on, in the pub a few miles from our cottage in Kilmichael Glen, there were a couple of blokes trying to get a taxi into Lochgilphead as they were up in Kilmichael Glen working and had been there for two weeks and were bored to death of just going to the local pub so wanted to try somewhere else.  We had been in there over half an hour and they had spent all that time ringing various numbers trying to get a taxi to no avail and you could see the anguish on their faces.  Eventually, Duncan offered them a lift, even though it was in the opposite direction to our cottage and we had just come from there on the way back from Kintyre.  They were so grateful and bought me a glass of wine because I would be staying at the pub as there was no room for me in the car due to Duncan’s mountain bike being in it so I just sat in the pub with my wine, Ruby and a Kindle and enjoyed a quiet read.  Bliss!

Positive comments: felt really fresh, would have been a lot faster had Ruby not been with me being a slow coach.

Total Distance – 6.95 miles

http://www.strava.com/activities/194577679

Dalavich and the Tick

This morning we drove out to Dalavich Forest, which is just down the road from where we’re staying.  Duncan planned to walk Ruby, whilst I went for a run. 

When we got there we found that a lot of the trail/forest was currently closed so I was quite limited on where I could run. 

I found a two mile route and a 1 and ¾ mile route so I did the two mile route twice and the other route once. 

The two mile route was pretty hard to if I’m honest.  It was really undulating but the climbs didn’t go on long so I was giving them my all and after the first two mile loop was already pretty tired.  I set off onto the shorter route and stopped to take a selfie by a waterfall.

A short while later, I passed Duncan and Ruby taking photos by another waterfall and offloaded my bum bag onto them as I didn’t feel I needed it for such a short distance.  I then carried on with the shorter route, before a second lap of the two mile route.  By the time I arrived back at the car I was exhausted, having only done 5.15 miles in total. 

The weather was amazing today, the car thermometer reading 28 degrees outside.  Erm, this is Scotland isn’t it?  We’ve been really lucky with the weather so far this holiday, it’s been lovely and sunny but this has been the warmest day so far and after my run I got into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, something I haven’t done for a good while now. 

We had a drive out and we stopped at a posh hotel for a coffee, which is where I noticed an unwelcome little creature on the back of my leg, just near the knee joint.  It was a tick!  My first ever tick!  The lady at the hotel told me she had a tool for getting rid of them so she got this out and tried to get it off me.  The little fella wasn’t for shifting though and it took a lot of attempts to get it off.  In fact, we just ended up killing it, but it was still suck in and there was getting less and less of it to get a grip on.  After a while the lady went and got a pair of tweezers and Duncan had to get a grip of it, twist it anti-clockwise and pull it out.  He took half my skin with it I think but eventually got it out, it was in really deep!  I didn’t realise they went that deep. 

After a bit of driving round and stopping at various places, we ended up in the pub at Ardfern.

All in all, the best day so far of the holiday… save for the tick!

Positive comments: Kept going on steep climbs and didn’t walk, even though I was exhausted.

Total distance – 5.15 miles

http://www.strava.com/activities/194577015