View from Oban Bothy

View from Oban Bothy
Showing posts with label Wildlife. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wildlife. Show all posts

Monday 4 June 2018

TGOC2018, Day 8, Sexy clothing on the TGOC

In which Mike finds a phone. He was after a new one anyway.

It had been a cold and very clear night although I had been quite cosy in my cold-weather sleeping bag.

Awake at 3.30am for no good reason so made a cuppa and spent the next half-hour or so picking heathery bits out of my socks. Then I read for a bit and listened to the BBC World Service-type wireless. I think I need to get a life.

A lovely windfarm appeared in the East as dawn approached.

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I drifted off to sleep and then woke again, this time with a thumping headache. Up and about at 7.15am and eventually set off on the leisurely walk to Abergavenny Aberfeldy, initially on a good LRT.

Mike spotted a big fat otter, it was quite a sight. We’d obviously startled it. It skitted around a pool and the scuttled off, up a bit of a waterfall and vanished under a river bank. I took photos but they weren’t much good – I can pick out it’s tail. Just.

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Spot the otter

It was a long descent to the road and then we were on a very minor road, and a few short miles later we arrived in Aberfeldy in time for lunch.

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Another Man in a Kilt

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Fishing hut on the banks of the Tay

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Yet another bridge over the Silvery Tay

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Two fish & chip filled Challengers. Note my sexy garter.

We’d been warned not to expect much in the way of shops in Aberfeldy, yet all the essentials were there if you had time to look for them.

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As it happened we managed to get (slightly greasy) fish & chips, cups of tea, pies, bacon and a few other odds and ends. And beer…or maybe it was vinegar. Although the landlord changed it for something fizzy without fuss I’d have preferred something proper.

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Leaving town, initially by road, we were soon on paths – a mix of riverside paths and disused railway line. All very nice really.

Met up with a couple walking the Rob Roy Way and enjoying every minute of it. So they said.

Mike had earlier spotted a (locked) mobile phone hanging on a fence – nobody around, maybe it belonged to a Challenger? A bit of detective work later and we discovered that it belonged to one of a group of anglers from Ireland, up to their wotsits in the silvery Tay and trying to catch something. A cold probably.

Their gillie (Douglas – a nice bloke who makes walking sticks for beer money) helped us locate the phone-less fisherman and once again all was well in my little world.

Feeling thoroughly decent, having done The Right Thing, we trundled our way eastwards once more along the banks of the Silvery Tay and more disused railway.

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Tempting, but we didn’t.

Our overnight stop was in Grandtully (pr ‘Grantly’. Obv.) at the Canoe Club campsite. The site was at the old railway station, now converted into a nice little place to stop….although the gents were a bit whiffy. Our footpath delivered us nicely straight into the site.

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I’m not sure how this lot fitted into my Exos58

Grantly has a chocolate shop (that we didn’t visit) and a pub….that we did visit. Douglas, the gillie from earlier in the day, called in for a pint and ended up buying us beer too – I think he was grateful for us finding his client’s phone.

I was hungry (nowt unusual there then) and ordered a nice bar meal whilst Mike kept on his carefully calorie controlled diet and stuck to drinking beer.

We’d had quite a nice day. Apart from the tarmac and the smelly bogs, but there you go.

Cuckoo count: 3 (not very good really)

Other wildlife: 1 otter, a load of rabbits (on the campsite) and some random birds – not a clue what they were. No Wild Challengers…not even any tame ones.



Sunday 3 June 2018

TGOC2018, Day 7. Timeshift

In which we may have encountered a wormhole

A wormhole is a theoretical passage through space-time that could create shortcuts for long journeys across the universe. Wormholes are predicted by the theory of general relativity. But be wary: wormholes bring with them the dangers of sudden collapse, high radiation and dangerous contact with exotic matter.

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Sunrise over Loch Rannoch

Awake at stupid o’clock (again) and so a bit more early morning photography whilst slurping on my first caffeine shot of the day.

Drift back off to sleep and eventually got up properly at 7.30am, away at 9.30am. T’other JJ had set off earlier, he hadn’t being firing on all four so he wanted to get a head start.

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Looking west over Loch Rannoch

First stop of the day was Kinloch Rannoch, 10km east, where there was a shop. Arrived to find t’other JJ getting ready to leave. He’d decided to change his route and to follow roads to the coast to try to shorten his journey. He headed off towards the fleshpots of Tummel Bridge.

The shop had a coffee machine, sold all manner of unhealthy things to eat and had a bench seat outside. so we drank tea (or coffee) and sat on the bench in the sunshine whilst eating all manner of unhealthy things.

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All was well until there was a wobble in the the space-time continuum…or maybe it was just a normal day in KR.

A terribly smart, freshly laundered and camera-shy John Arlington from Washington in USA rolled up. He’d started in Acharacle and was headed towards Lunan Bay.

We also met another Kilchoan starter in the shop: Paul Southward. He was heading to St Cyrus. He looked to be doing a similar route to us although we didn’t see him again.

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Our route for the rest of the day was one I’d done before, not on the Challenge, but when I walked out to meet members of East Lancs LDWA as they took part in the Scottish 100 mile (in 48 hours) challenge walk. This always takes place over the second May Bank Holiday. I’d walked over to Kinloch Rannoch, where the breakfast stop was, and then walked back for 20 or so miles. I remember it as being a nice bit of their route.

The day’s kilt admiration came from two Dutch ladies. They were on a walking holiday and were finishing in KRimage.

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Glenmore Bothy

We wandered over by Schiehallion and down by Pheiginn Bothy which had been one of the LDWA100 checkpoints. I’d have liked to camp there but there was no water for quite a distance.

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Pheiginn Bothy’s Mrs Mopp

We eventually spotted a lovely flat(ish) bit of ground at NN750507 with a stream running through it. It was getting on for 8pm and we’d walked quite far enough thank you very much. 15 minutes later our tents were up and tea was on the go.

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A curious deer came to visit during the evening but it soon bounded off. We were probably camped by it’s usual watering hole.

My diary says that we’d had very good weather that day and that the kilt had performed well. Sounds about right.

Lights-out at 10.30pm – rather late, but there you go.

Cuckoo count: 4

Other wildlife: two deer + plus a couple of Challengers who weren’t very wild at all.

Tuesday 7 April 2015

Tuesday 7th April, Canal Towpath Wildlife

Cycling down the towpath of the Bridgewater Canal (The Duke’s Cut) this morning I spotted what I thought was a leaf blowing in the wind ahead of me. Except there was no wind:

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Not the best photograph, it was taken with the camera on my Samsung Mini S3 Batphone.

Monday 15 July 2013

Tits

15th July

By this time of the year the tits usually have left my garden, not returning until the later part of the year.

I don’t know why, I’m no ornithologist, but this year one or two have stayed. Perhaps I’m feeding them too well.

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