Too bedraggled?

It all started off so promisingly...

Gail was keen to investigate a new footpath she'd only just found out about. It goes through Kinloch Woodlands, a 3600 acre area of hill ground to the south of Shieldaig (half an hours drive from the Torridon cottage). The land is managed by a local charitable trust and a project aiming to regenerate native forest is underway.

Here's a map. The plan was to follow the path to Loch Dughaill,  indicated by the red dashed line. 

Please note - the map is 'upside down' with south at the top

A round trip of not much more than two miles. Easy peasy, right?

Except that before long the nice dry and well made track gave way to an indistinct path across rough and boggy ground...

Did I mention it's been raining a lot round here lately?

No photos were taken of the second half of the route, as we stumbled through the mire, teetered on slimy rocks to cross a rain-swollen torrent and at one point Gail had to carry me after my courage failed when faced with a stretch of hummocky marsh where you had to jump between tussocks of grass to avoid slipping awkwardly into the fetid mud. (The photo below, taken from the internet, is a good illustration of these conditions.) 

Shortly after we reached solid ground again Gail put me down but soon we turned back, with  the final descent to the Loch looking far from straightforward and Gail by now unwilling to tackle any further obstacles. To be honest, I wasn't sorry.

But can you believe that when a spectacular rainbow appeared in the sky near the end of the hike, Gail rejected my offer of my customary  'foreground interest' services on the basis that I looked "too bedraggled" and thus would spoil her photo...

Too bedraggled. What do you think?

Bertie in problem solving mode on Morven

So Gail was up early on Sunday, all bright eyed and bushy tailed (er, or was that me?)

"Rise and shine Bertie, we're going for a hill walk today, time to get in training for Switzerland*".

An hour's drive, and I recognised where we were no soon as I'd bounced out the car. Yippee (I said to myself), we're going to climb Morven, my favourite Aberdeenshire hill.

I have to tell you that the first bit of this walk is steep, and Gail was quite red of face when we stopped for a rest on the way up. Of course I was not content with the gravy bone she offered me, and let it be known that I would appreciate a piece of her flapjack too.

To Gail's objection that said treat contained chocolate and thus was unsuitable for dogs, I countered that the chocolate was restricted to a single layer so she could easily nibble it off, problem solved, and also this would be good practice for all those bars of Lindt she will doubtless be consuming in Switzerland...

I'm pleased to report that Gail acted on my helpful suggestion, the chocolate flapjack was duly de-toxified and I found it most delicious.

Before continuing upwards, Gail noticed a dragonfly in a little pond nearby. Can you spot it too?


It was a bit boring watching her try to catch this  flighty insect on camera, and the green pond water looked so inviting.

So I jumped in, thinking perhaps I might reprise the 'First Class Traveller' look I had modelled so successfully once before in Edinburgh.

And then I got stuck!

A lesser dog might at this stage have panicked. But I knew what to do. I emitted a little yelp, just enough to attract Gail's attention, and sure enough, she came over and gently extracted me from the bog. Although not before - somewhat insensitively I thought - taking a photo of my predicament...


Well, we finally reached the summit without further incident...


....and while Gail admired the view over to Lochnagar...


...I ensured no crumbs were left behind from her picnic lunch...

And then I pointed out we'd better hurry on down before the rain arrived.

*Yes, I really am going to join Gail on a big trip to Switzerland in October. More on this in due course...

Whisky, bogs, mountains, lochs and a nice cup of tea

Yes I am going for some Scottish stereotypes today.....

Just had a wonderful weekend over at the cottage in Torridon. We drove a different way from usual, and stopped at Dufftown en route.

Apparently I'm not old enough for whisky, which is a shame, 'cos there are lots of famous distilleries nearby. Hamish would have loved it.

Meanwhile the west coast of Scotland was enjoying its usual summer weather.

Of course, that never deters us from going out. I do hope Uncle Eric reads this as I think he would be impressed by the state of my coat...

Only one hour after this walk on Saturday, we went to visit our German neighbours Renate and Michael for afternoon tea. Don't you think I scrub up nicely?

I snuggled up on Renate's super-comfy lap, happily daydreaming about bogs as she and Michael and Gail chattered on and on (I think the subject of the FIFA World Cup came up).

We went for another walk this morning, but it wasn't as good as yesterday's. No bogs.

I was well-behaved and obeyed the rules.

But it was quite a long hike, and I can tell you I was mightily miffed to be woken up on the drive home, ejected from my cosy spot in the rear of the car and made to pose for yet another picture.