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VIC Hiking & Mountaineering Club:
At the Corrour bothy in the Cairngorms in 1978. A bothy is a very basic shelter, rather like a Notlager. There are no huts in the Alpine or Scandinavian sense. Note my state-of-the-art outdoor clothing.
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The Lairig Ghru, a glacial valley bisecting the Cairngorms. Corrour is at the far end.
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50% of my basic equipment. Near Lothbeg, Sutherland.
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With full gear in Glen Etive. Until the late 1990s I usually camped out in the wilds.
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Another shot near Lothbeg with a more fragrant subject: gorse, which is called whin in Scotland. The yellow flowers smell of coconut. The bushes are as impenetrable as barbed wire.
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On Ben Macdui in the Cairngorms, still wearing shorts 30 years on. The Lairig Ghru is just behind me.
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Lochan Mor in Rothiemurchus Forest at the foot of the Cairngorms. Most natural woodland in Scotland has been ruined in the course of centuries; here you can find beautiful pine and birch forest.
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Glencoe is another popular mountain area. You will find hundreds of pictures on the Internet which suggest that you are in the middle of nowhere. In fact, the main road from Glasgow to Fort William runs through it. So I took an untypical picture.
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Walkers will prefer the old military road from Glencoe to Fort William, a ‘direttissima’. You can see it wriggling through the valley. The roads were constructed in the 18th century to keep the Highlanders under control. They often make fine trails.
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Loch Leven and Sgorr Dhearg at the other end of Glencoe.
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Rough weather over the Ben Avon hills (a UK term for mountains). No trees, no huts, no villages - no shelter. You have to be well equipped and know how to handle map and compass, as there are very few marked trails.
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On Carn Ban in the Ullapool area. An awful afternoon; fortunately, there was a bothy down the hill.
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Fog is another challenge. With my brother-in-law Alan in Affric.
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A typical spring landscape in Sutherland, with Morven (706 m.) on the horizon. Empty, devoid of trees; judging heights and distances is difficult.
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An hour after taking the previous picture I almost stumbled over this red deer calf. It remained completely still. When I turned a few minutes later I saw the mother emerge from a clump of trees.
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Red deer near Inchnadamph. They are one reason for the lack of tree cover, as they browse young trees (note the fence). But the powerful hunting lobby blocks attempts to reduce deer numbers to an ecologically sustainable level.
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No, this is not Central Asia, and the spring colours are fairly correct. The geology of the west coast is very complex. Suilven is a mass of very hard rock that emerged after the erosion of the surrounding rocks.
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Suilven from the other side, with the village of Lochinver. Nice restaurant by the sea loch.
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The interior of the Highlands was cleared of people by the large landowners two centuries ago. Which is why you mainly find settlements along the coast. Brora in Sutherland.
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Does Loch Lomond ring a bell? It can be seen in the distance. In the foreground: my friend Dave Hewitt, who once walked the Scottish watershed in 80 days, with 100,000 m. of ascent.
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On Ben Lomond, the mountain above the loch, we had fog.
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Evelyn and I did some routes together. The end of the Great Glen Way at the Neptune’s Staircase locks near Fort William, with Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the UK (1343 m.) in the background.
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Airor in Knoydart. Knoydart can only be reached on foot or by pedestrian ferry.
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Ben Lawers, Tayside, spring 2019. I have visibly aged, but it’s only about 40 k. to the 2222 k. mark, all of it a lot flatter. Photo: Dave Hewitt.
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Much of the remaining distance was walked on an abandoned railway track converted into a walking/cycling path, the Dava Way. Plaque commemorating the building of the viaduct over the river Divie.
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The valley of the Divie from the viaduct.
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The river Findhorn near Logie Castle. 11 map squares to go.
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The 2222nd kilometre was reached at the gate of Brodie Castle. It was visually uninspiring and I don't waste time on selfies, so I end with a picture of an earlier walk on nearby Culbin Sands.