outdoors Archives - Page 9 of 12

5 Knee jobs give useful boost to Consultant’s Christmas shopping!

2 Comments / health, running, Uncategorized, walking / 27/12/2012

Consultant Sean O’Leary gave 5 anxious customers an early Christmas present by adding a Saturday morning to his busy operating schedule. Getting a knee-jobs done just before Christmas week meant his lucky patients were excused Christmas shopping. At £640 each for the 20 minute procedure O’Leary boosted his Christmas funds and, despite oversleeping, he himself […]

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TGO Photo Reflections #1

Leave a Comment / backpacking, outdoors, photography / 02/08/2012

I gave up carry a big camera on walking trips some years ago when I discovered that this was a major source of back trouble. Now compact digital is the order of the day. Digital cameras don’t enjoy wet conditions however. My older Pentax Optio was often out of action for a few days after rain until it

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TGOC Morar to St Drostan’s – The Pictures

3 Comments / backpacking, outdoors, Scotland, TGO Challenge / 31/05/2012

Morar & The Way East! Here’s some of the pictures. Click on any picture below …. you will probably a a zoomed image showing more detail. The location map feature is not available here. TGO blogs for following years include OS maps of the route which no longer work on the original Google’s Blogspot posts.

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2012 TGOC day 13 the east coast!

1 Comment / backpacking, outdoors, Scotland, TGO Challenge / 25/05/2012

After Edzel it becomes a typical UK farming landscape with fields of green wheat and barley and the bright yellow of blooming rape. My final destination was St Cyrus and the route was along country lanes. One fellow clipping his hedge said ‘you’ll be the first today!’ – as if he and other locals follow

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2012 TGOC day 12 the green fields from Tarfside

1 Comment / backpacking, outdoors, Scotland, TGO Challenge / 25/05/2012

Tarfside, just a few miles away, is famous for a TGO welcome with bacon rolls and cups of tea.I scimped on my camp breakfast and started walking soon after 7. A little down the valley with sun streaming down I caught a vision of a girl standing up in the heather next to her brightly

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2012 TGOC day 11 mountains’ end

1 Comment / backpacking, outdoors, TGO Challenge / 25/05/2012

The cacophony from birds was rather special in this area. Through the night a cuckoo called continuously. Occassionally an owl. And at dawn as the cuckoo stopped a hundred other birds took over. I started off early and soon caught up Charles and Brian, senior TGOers who stayed in the right place – a bothey

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2012 TGOC day 10 Braemar

1 Comment / backpacking, outdoors, Scotland, TGO Challenge / 24/05/2012

The weather had set fair so the night spent at the top of the Geldie burn was cold but not threatening. My plan for last night was Mar lodge down in the valley. I got there about 11 this morning after the last TGOers that stayed over had left. Its nice to see signs specifically

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2012 TGOC challenge day 9 to the top of Feshie Burn

1 Comment / backpacking, outdoors, Scotland, TGO Challenge / 24/05/2012

We have to call ‘Control’ regularly so that our progress is monitored and to pickup messages about weather and conditions. We were told ‘too much snow on top of Cairngorms please use foul weather alternatives’. This suited me and my poor feet. A gentle stroll on the track up the Feshie valley and down the

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2012 TGOC day 8 to Kingussie

1 Comment / backpacking, outdoors, Scotland, TGO Challenge / 24/05/2012

The route out of this area involved some pathless navigation up one valley to the plateau and then down another valley eventually to join a track about 10km away. In theory this sort of navigation should be relatively easy driven by the direction of the valleys. In practice, on the ground, it is not so

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2012 TGOC day 7

Leave a Comment / backpacking, outdoors, Scotland, TGO Challenge / 22/05/2012

I woke to whiteness outside. The rain had turned to snow. There’s a big water project at this end of the Monaliadth. A project that has gone slightly wrong. So the reservoir on my map was empty of water. Instead through the cloud and snow flurries I could see earth moving equipment with flashing lights

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