Invergarry Lodge

Archive for May, 2010

Sgurr a’ Mhaoraich, a Loch Quoich munro

Took a quick run up Sgurr a’ Mhaoraich, a lone loch quoich Munro last night. Same story as usual, wait until the baby has had his bath and is tucked up in bed and then head out the door. I got parked up at 8.15pm and headed up the standard route – a straight forward ascent up a good stalkers path to Bac nan Canaichean then traverse across to the summit, this time I returned the same way.

I enjoyed great views on the way up (probably because I wasn’t really running as much as I should have been) and couldn’t help stopping for photos.

I eventually reached the summit in about an hour and 20, few more snaps taken from the summit in the fading light and then a nice run down, back at the van for 10.35pm, 2 hours 20 mins. A stunning evening to be out in a great quiet location but if my running is going to get better I’m going to have to stop taking my camera and make an effort to run up hill!

Running legend Mr Fallon reccommends doing this hill, Gleouraich and Spidean Mialach and then Gairich all at once, something to think about for the future maybe?

–Matt

River Garry Release Dates

We get a fair few paddlers asking about the River Garry release dates, well, here you go for 2010:

May (whats left of it) – Thurs 27th
June – Wed 2nd, Thurs 10th, Sun 13th, Thurs 17th, Fri 25th
July – Thurs 1st, Thurs 8th, Sat 10th, Wed 14th, Thurs 22nd, Sat 24th, Thurs 29th
August – Sun 1st, Fri 6th, Thur 12th, Thurs 19th, Thurs 26th
September – Thurs 2nd, Thurs 9th, Sun 12th, Fri 17th, Sat 18th, Thurs 23rd, Thurs 30th
October – Wed 6th, Thurs 14th, Thurs 21st, Fri 29th
Enjoy!

Matt

It’s a whole new blog…

Welcome to the all new and improved Invergarry Lodge blog. As well as being a little bit fancier and having a pretty background it has also been moved so update your bookmarks to www.invergarrylodge.co.uk/blog/. Bear with us over the next few days as we’re still making a few adjustments here and there.

A big thanks to Ben who helped us with some technical website server wizardry.

Hope you all enjoy the new blog, let us know what you think!

Matt & Jen

The Inaugural Lochaber Off-Road Half-Marathon

I’d done a few decent runs in the last few weeks in a mission to lose my baby bulge, so when Matt found this local race and mentioned it, it seemed like a good idea. I floated the idea with Helen, my local running partner and cake-topper extraordinaire (www.caketops.co.uk), and after a bit of persuading she was up for it too.

The Lochaber Off-Road Half-Marathon is a new race, run at the same time as a 5km fun run, and as we pulled into the car park at the Nevis Range this morning we could see a few runners limbering up preparing themselves. As we gathered at the start I was slightly concerned by the very small field – there were only 90 entrants and fewer than that were lined up waiting to set off. The front runners set a pretty fast pace as we set off from the car park, but Helen and I set off at a cautious pace (so as not to exhaust ourselves too early, obviously). Soon the field was totally spread out, including Helen and me, and it wasn’t long before I could see nobody in front or behind me.

The route was really well chosen – there were some lovely stretches through the forest but also plenty of open stretches, including some great rocky downhill sections and enough hills to keep things interesting without busting the lungs too much. As I clocked up two hours on the stopwatch my body was starting to seriously complain, but a few minutes later I rounded a corner to find a marshall telling me I had only half a mile to go – hurrah! I crossed the finish line after 2 hours 15 minutes, with two very sore feet and a bit of a sweat on. Helen joined me a few minutes later, very pleased with her first half-marathon result, and we were soon congratulating ourselves over some excellent cake at the Lochaber Farm Shop.

Thanks to No Fuss Events for a great race, hopefully I’ll be back next year ready to shave a few minutes off my time!

Jenx

Ben Nevis + 7 others

Ages ago my brother Mark suggested we try a Tranter round – a 24 hour circuit of the 17 Munros around Glen Nevis -we made a date in our dairies. A month before we were due to do it we decided we didn’t stand a chance, we had done no training at all so we (Mark) decided we’d do half of it – Ben Nevis, down the CMD arete, over to the Aonachs and then on to the Grey Corries.

We set off nice and early with the charity trekkers up the tourist track, zig follows zag follows zig….but we made good time and reached the summit in 1hr 45mins. Unfortunately we had white out conditions and spent 20 minutes trying to find the way down to the CMD arete.

Eventually we found the absail post in blizzard condtions and headed across the arete.

All was going well until we had to descend from the CMD down to the bealach, down a knife edge snow ridge and then completely missed the path and struggled down steep grass and slabs. The ascent up to the Aonachs was much easier than it looked from the CMD, easily up to Aonach Mor then back down again to a complete white out on Aonach Beag.

After a long hard slog up to the first of the Grey Corries (who put that other hill in the middle?) the sun had decided to come out between bursts of horizontal hail. The down and flats between the summits on the ridge where flying by but any up and we slowed rapidly to a crawl.

20 miles, 10,000 foot of ascent and two packets of jelly babies – not bad for 9 hours work.

–Matt

River Oich Kayaking

My big brother Mark is up for a day on the hills tomorrow, we had a few options for today but eventually decided to kayak down the River Oich.

According to the Scottish Canoe Association, “only paddlers equipped with helmets and significant moving water experience should be tempted to take this ‘short cut’”- well, we had helmets but not much (i.e. no) moving water experience but you have to start somewhere. I knew where the hardest rapids where and I also knew you could hop over to the caledonian canal a few hundred metres before if we didn’t fancy them so we decided to give it a go.

The river could have done with slightly more water running down it, for future reference the weir should have a good flow coming down the main chute, even better if there is water coming over the main face as well. The river is gently flowing and very picturesque, there are a few fallen trees to look out for and today a few shallow spots to ground yourself on. There is only one slightly serious set of rapids, and yeah you guessed it, it got me almost before I’d even started down it. I’d negotiated the first set of rocks but somehow hit the second, the boat turned sideways to the current and it was all over. I emerged from the water like Daniel Craig in that Bond film only to see Mark at the bottom of the rapids looking very happy with himself and very dry. Oh well, I’ll have it next time.

–Matt

Saturday Night Fever (3 Cluanie Munros)

I took the opportunity for another run last night, the three Munros just north of Loch Cluanie – Ghluasaid, Conbhairean and Sail Chaorainn – actually, I returned back over the middle one so it probably counts as 4? yeah, definitely 4.

Jenny Potter and the Goblet of Clay

Having racked up enough brownie points to earn myself a day out, I decided to finally have a go at something I’ve fancied trying for years – throwing a pot. Despite a few attempts I’d found nowhere offering pottery lessons or classes anywhere nearby, but Matt came up trumps and found a small pottery near Aviemore where I could have an afternoon lesson. Realising it would be a bit lonesome having a lesson by myself, I invited Helen Caketopper (www.caketops.co.uk) along as she was also very keen on having a go. Helen’s friend Shell also happened to be in Aviemore that week, and so it was that all three of us arrived at the pottery on Thursday afternoon, keen and eager to get potting.

Our first lesson was in wedging the clay, which basically involved kneading the clay to make sure no lumps or air bubbles remained. This warmed us up nicely as we pushed and squashed the clay. Then it was time for throwing. First of all we had to centre our clay, which meant getting the lump of clay to sit right in the middle of the wheel. Without achieving this it is impossible to get a nice round pot, so after some top tips from Penny the Potter we dived straight in:


After centering the clay we were then taught how to hollow out our lumps of clay, give them height, mould them into bowls and give them rims. Before long we had created our very own bowls! Well mine ended up as more of a goblet, as I somehow managed to give it a bit of a ‘foot’, but I was very pleased with my efforts nonetheless.

With our goblets finished, we then progressed onto jugs, which came with the added challenges of spouts and handles. Despite managing to put a hole in the bottom of mine, this little faux pas was soon fixed by Penny and soon I had a jug I was pretty pleased with, if I do say so myself.

What a great day out, Penny looked after us and was a great teacher, and after our lesson (and before we got too ahead of ourselves) we saw how it was really done by having a browse around her gallery, which contained some really beautiful pieces (www.penspots.co.uk). I can heartily recommend pottery throwing to anyone who doesn’t mind getting very messy, and although I don’t have too much time for extra hobbies right now, when I do I think that pottery may just become my new pasttime of choice.

Jen x

The Loch Lochys

My darling wife and our beautiful baby boy were heading up to the bright lights of Inverness for some important retail therapy, I took the opportunity to squeeze in a quick(ish) run.

The Loch Lochy Munros (Sron a Choire Ghairbh and Meall na Teanga) are our local Munros and soar steeply over Loch Lochy, an imposing sight from the A82…. and easily reachable by bike.

It was pretty grim up on the tops but this probably served to speed me up a bit, no reason to hang around and enjoy the views.

As per usual for me, the up was hard going but the down was very enjoyable (apart from my fall), from the usual parking spot at the forest gate it took 2 hours 45 minutes to bag both summits, much better than the 6 it took last time I walked it. I broke up the 6km ride back to the 4 star luxury comfort of Invergarry Lodge (Reviews) by stopping to watch a little of the Scottish Six Day Trials before getting home to a well earned shower and a dozen or so beds that needed changing.

–Matt