Category Archives: Camping

Day???s Like This, No 24: Beinn Alligin ??? Horns and All

Posted on August 25, 2016 by

BEINN Alligin lifts itself out of Upper Loch Torridon with the casual assurance of a big beast among a clan of big beasts. With walls of bare striated sandstone and ridges that slice the wind, Alligin is a monument to … Continue reading →

Posted in Camping, Climbing, Environment, Fish and chips, Footpaths, Geology, Hiking, Mountains, Walking, Weather | Tagged , , , , | 22 Comments

Days Like This, No 23: Slioch ??? The Unseen Mountain

Posted on August 15, 2016 by

A LONG drive through the night to a lay-by on the shores of Loch Maree. A snatch of sleep broken by an airless dawn. Noodles and tea for breakfast while midges sting eyelids and ears. Then to gaze into an … Continue reading →

Posted in Camping, Climbing, Footpaths, Hiking, Mountains, Walking, Weather | Tagged , , , | 21 Comments

Close Encounter with Wild Boar

Posted on July 7, 2016 by

THE sun hasn???t yet risen above the eastern Alpujarras. The air is cool and fresh on the slopes of Sierra de Lujar. I lock the van and clump off up a track that leads, eventually and hopefully, to a high … Continue reading →

Posted in Camping, Climbing, Environment, Footpaths, Hiking, Mountains, Walking, Wild boar, Wildlife | Tagged , , , , | 35 Comments

Days Like This, No 21: Eternity in Borrowdale

Posted on May 27, 2015 by

THE closest thing to eternity is a cold night in a tent. Hope dies while hours limp slowly past. Supernovae fade and constellations shift as time distorts and clocks refuse to tick. Body heat is sucked into the ungrateful ground. … Continue reading →

Posted in Camping, Climbing, Footpaths, Hiking, History, Industrial archaeology, Mountains, Quarrying, Ruins, Slate quarries, Walking, Weather | Tagged , , , , | 43 Comments

Days Like This, No 20: Glimpses on Gable

Posted on May 15, 2015 by

EARLY morning on the South Traverse. The southern crags of Great Gable soak up sunlight. Rocks are warm to the touch beneath their volcanic tuff roughness and crumbly lichen. In the air, the bleat of a distant ewe and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Camping, Climbing, Footpaths, Geology, Hiking, Life, Mountains, Napes Needle, Tarns, Walking, Weather | Tagged , , , | 27 Comments

Days Like This, No 19: Pillar and the Rock

Posted on April 28, 2015 by

HOT sun on the back of the legs. Dust inside socks. Warm breeze drifting from the Irish Sea and stirring dry grasses. The magnificence of Pillar rising from the green of Mosedale into a flawless sky. Days like this were … Continue reading →

Posted in Camping, Climbing, Footpaths, Hiking, Mountains, Music, Poetry, Tarns, Walking, Weather, William Wordsworth | Tagged , , , , | 35 Comments

Days Like This, No 17: Sleeping Giants of Assynt

Posted on March 30, 2015 by

CONIVAL and Ben More Assynt are mountains with majesty. I read an article a long time ago about these northern giants glimpsed in the rays of the setting sun, and the quartzite stones on their summits glowing golden in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Beer, Camping, Climbing, Environment, Fish and chips, Food, Hiking, Mountains, Walking, Weather | Tagged , , , , | 47 Comments