Where’s Fleabite been this month? :D Walked kingshouse to FW, cycling on Arran and day trip to millport

When I retired from politics, one thing I wanted was to free up energy, time, resources for travel. Its been something I’ve been mulling over for a few years actually. And more specifically, after a few years of lots of “big” trips – either the month long lejog cycle or the multiple international journeys (India twice (for 4 and 1 months), USA for 6 weeks, Germany and Norway) and lots of London and “down south” visits to friends, family, loved ones and for my 5 month DTN course, I’d been feeling a lack of Scotland exploration. After all, one of my reasons for moving to Glasgow was falling in love with the Scottish countryside. For that, I gave up a rich and full London life.

But because of my tendency to say yes to pretty much everything that sounds shiney and fun, I end up with a full calendar that lacks opportunity to see a sunny weather forecast and head out the city. Which is pretty much the bestest way to do it if you’re blessed with living in Scotland. Also the shiney/fun events I would sign up for also squeeze out self-organised trips because the former have fixed dates and need prebooked. Suddenly my summer dancecard is chockablock and I’m needing to work the rest to pay for it all. No more thought I. I’m gonna *not go to events*. I’m gonna do more outdoorsing (hiking, cycling, camping) and in a sustainable way that means the times inbetween are not just workworkwork. As I get paid extra for working on Sundays, my best strategy for getting out the city without it requiring too much work are midweek trips. So how’s that been going for me?

The first couple of weeks of May involved a 9 day trip to southern England for a very important family commitment. Since then I’ve worked every Sunday so financially I’m stable. I’ve also managed to work an extra day or two most weeks which goes towards paying off £1000 debt I accrued from lejog + USA trips.

Monday 16th – Thursday 19th May. Walking Kingshouse – Fort William.

Cost under £50 including travel and food. 3 nights wild camping. Went with 3 friends. Enjoyed sharing the mountains with them. Though as we sat in FW waiting for our bus I was the only one not feeling like I wanted to go home. Hadn’t been out long enough to be looking forward to home comforts, possibly because I was most experienced walker/camper of the group and so maybe better prepared, it felt less out of my comfort zone and I had better gear.

Monday 23rd – Wednesday 25th May. Cycling on Arran

As I finished the previous week’s trip still wanting to be out the city, and the weather forecast was still so gorgeous, I decided on the Sunday whilst at work that I would go to Arran the next day. Put camping stuff into my panniers on Monday morning and got train/ferry to Arran. The total return fare was £21 (train + ferry). I stayed on Lochranza campsite as didn’t have time to get ready for wild camping. That was £9 each night and included hot showers and access to a microwave, which I used for boiling water as well as a microwave meal I took over! Felt incredibly happy from the moment I set off. So free and content to be on the road again. That my life was shaped to enable me to see a good weather forecast one day, and be off out the city camping the next.

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Arran is super accessible from Glasgow. If you don’t have a bike you can still get a bus from Brodick (where the ferry lands) to the rest of the island. There’s wild camping spots all over if you don’t want to pay for a campsite. And its so beautiful all over you can’t go wrong. Just check if you need to take provisions with you before you leave Brodick – there’s no shops in Lochranza for example.

On the Tuesday I left my tent and gear and cycled round the island. Its 55 miles, with hills but also stunning views, seals(!!!!), lots of places to stop for tea and ice-cream, super friendly people and hardly any traffic on the roads.

Wednesday before cycling for the 6pm ferry/train back to Glasgow, I walked up the glen behind Lochranza and saw golden eagles! They’re easy to spot if you know what to look for – people with serious expressions and even more serious binoculars looking at dots in the sky! They were enthusiastic to lend me their noc’s and show me how to identify them – incredible experience.

Day trips to Millport and cycling

Took a visitor from Oxford to Millport on a day trip – he was very excited to find we could pop over to an island for a day! Walking and beach and ice creams and cuteness of Millport.

Been going on cycle trips too – up into the Campsie’s, or to the seaside. The bike just opens up so many options. I like that when I work an early shift (6 hours from about 7am til 1 or 2pm) and the weather is inviting I can just head out. There’s lots of cycle paths. For example last week I went to Ardrossan (40 miles) and picked up a take away for the train home.

And tomorrow I’m heading to Orkney for 10 days :D Bit more expensive for travel – the combined train and ferry costs are going to be £90. But once there I’ll mostly be camping and as I’ll have my bike, my entertainment and transport are sorted :)

I feel very lucky to have a life that allows me to do so much of what I love. Exploring Scotland and just being outside, in nature, on the road whether that’s walking, cycling, public transport or ferry. They give me such happiness.

I want to be able to travel until I feel road weary. And then “nest” until my feet get itchy again. I love how great Glasgow feels to come home to. I can really appreciate having a kitchen and bathroom and friends and different clothes and getting back to my other hobbies and interests. I even enjoy work! But when I’m trapped here for too long I’m just miserable and all those things feel like meaningless trappings of a superficial existence.

Chanukah second night. Jen Marlowe and Lesvos refugee solidarity

I decided to celebrate Chanukah by focusing for each candle on something that I find inspiring, hopeful, joyful or otherwise characterised by love, humanity or progress.

Today two things stood out. The beautiful practical solidarity of those in Lesvos featured in Reelnews brand new short film “Stateless on Lesvos” just released today. (And screened together with Q&A with film-maker in Glasgow and Edinburgh next week!)

Jen Marlowe, who is just this most incredible person I feel super honoured to know, wrote about her day of making muppet mini movies and joyfully protesting Eric Garner’s killing. She is a beautiful candle in many darknesses, from fighting capital punishment, to her work in Darfur, Palestine/Israel or in Bahrain. And thinking of her, not just the incredible activism that she does, but her spirit which kinda radiates humanity and power and compassion and humour and love, I always find brightens me up inside.

I’m pretty tired tonight – had a busy few days and then a super early start and 8 hours of travel (I’m now in London for the next few days) – so can’t write as long as yesterday. But even though tired and head fuzzy from lack of sleep I made myself still light the candles and focus on each one as I find that the energy that I intend normally follows the ritual, if not immediately, then as part of a longer process. Its hard to describe, especially as my poor wee tired brain is super struggling for words and vaguely hallucinating just now. But I’ll know what I mean if/when I come back to read this.

But this feels the right way for me to celebrate Chanukah.

 

Last year / next year

2014 has been pretty good. Trip to India confirmed that travel is still as important to me now as it has always been, and so solidified my plan that I will go away most years for several months. Therefore applied to, worked/paid for, and am now most of the way through a diploma in tropical nursing, which was something I’d been contemplating doing since I started my nurse training. Some amazing people entered my life, one in particular :D

Things that weren’t so great were trying to process where “home” is having spent so much time out of Glasgow. Helped me re-remember how much I love being based in this city, but was slightly disorientating. Also I was quite disconnected from folks, even during the times I was here. Just felt different having slightly uprooted myself from Glasgow, and I wasn’t great at using the 5 months I was here to be with folks. However the time in London gave me opportunity to put time into relationships down there :)

My hopes/resolutions/plans for 2015

• Volunteer to help with Ebola crisis for 5 weeks.
• Have a vegan month. And maybe do alternating vegan/non vegan months afterwards. Will be one of the months I’m in Glasgow – should be relatively easy given the venues and friendship circles I have here.
• Start running again, once weather stops being disgusting. Plus regular yoga practice.
• Cycle from Lands End to John O Groats.
• Be a better friend. Put time and energy into the people important to me.
• Paint my sitting room and have a flat warming! Only taken since I moved into my flat in 2004!
• Go away again for the winter, probably leaving in November.
• Write up my masters research for public consumption.
• Spend more time being, rather than chasing the next adventure.

Have a great year ahead everyone! <3

Finally spoke to MSF about going to volunteer to help with Ebola (personal, not really about ebola, but more for my own processing and to reflect back on later)

Yesterday was a very positive day. As well as it being submission day for our essay (all over!), and socialising with coursemates, and a proper conversation with someone’s who’s an army nurse, there was a careers fair on at uni. So I had good chance to chat with different NGO’s who I might want to volunteer for. Top of the list for me is MSF, but I hadn’t thought that my nursing experience would be sufficient for them as, though I’ve been nursing for 6 years my specialty is being a bank nurse rather than A&E or ITU which is what they prefer. Anyway, actually they were really positive when I said I wanted to go and help with Ebola.

As seems to be the norm, they’re sending volunteers out for 4-5 weeks. There’s a induction/training/acclimatising bit beforehand, and then a 3 week quarantine afterwards as well. I’m thinking of going for April, though that feels weird/uncomfortable because my course finished end of January, so I could go in February, but had been planning for months to go back to India for 6 weeks straight after the course for a holiday and to catch up with people there. Going to India later is not feasible. Seems really selfish to be not going as soon as I could, and at odds with my strong desire to go over and help rightaway. It will mean the heat in Sierra Leone won’t hit me as hard though!

What are my fears/hopes?

Stupidly, I’m actually most worried about how I’ll cope in the PPE suit! I seem to be more sensitive than a lot of folks to physical irritants. Wearing the suits makes you very hot and sweaty – described as being in a sauna fully dressed. I don’t want to be a wuss, as we’ll all be going through the same thing, and I want to be strong and cope.

The prolonged time without physical touch, especially hugs, sounds rough. I already know that I don’t do well without that. Even after just a few days in solitary confinement (pre deportation from Israel for being a human rights volunteer in Gaza) meant that I broke down when I got a hug from a supportive stranger when I got moved to a main prison. And its always the hardest thing for me about travelling too. I really felt that in Malawi. Impossible to feel that in India though as the women there often gave me affectionate touch :) However this is only for 5 weeks. It will be tough, but obviously so much easier for me to go through than someone living there who has that all the time right now :(

My hopes are that I’ll be able to make a concrete contribution to some humans that are going through hell just now. I hope I’ll use the skills and knowledge that I was able to acquire through virtue of having the privilege to be born in UK, as this is exactly why I did my nurse training. I feel incredibly lucky to be in a position to be able to potentially do something about such a horrific situation.

I’m not afraid of dying. I mean, I don’t want to! Partly I picked MSF because I trust their experience and will to have the on-the-ground organisation in place that will minimise the risks we will face. But, what is my life for if not for this? What’s the point of being so careful to protect my life that my life is without meaning? I’m definitely not talking about taking uncalculated risks. I’m talking about using this one shot I get at existing, this single most precious gift I’ve been given, and making the most of it. I was talking with a loved one about going and he said “you’ll make a very direct and positive impact on people’s lives” and I felt it through my whole being that this is what my life is for, and to not use it for that, because I’m frightened of dying, is like keeping special food until past its edible lifespan so as to keep it for a special occasion, and in the process wasting it. Or not riding your fancy bike because you’re afraid of damage. Don’t do something stupid with it, but at least enjoy it and make the most of it, otherwise what’s the point in it?

A couple of times I’ve been in situations where I had to concretely look at possibility that I might be killed. And I’ve thought about it, and sometimes have decided that if I am killed doing this thing, that’s ok because that thing is so important. I don’t know if that sounds horrible, but the thing is that the only thing I can be damn sure of is that in 100 years I’ll be dead anyway. I don’t want that to come quickly – there’s so much I still want to see and do. My life is mostly very sweet, filled with incredibly wonderful people and experiences and I don’t want it to ever end! One of the frightening things about ageing for me is losing the ability to live a life as full as mine is. No longer able to go to new places, or learn, or feel the wind or waves throw themselves at me, or challenge myself on a mountain and feel my body stretch and overcome it. Having older friends who do all those things too reduces that fear :)

But anyway, perhaps that explains why death isn’t top of my fears. I don’t think its very likely, but if I do catch ebola, and don’t survive, well, I’d still rather that was the story of my life than that I spent so long protecting my life that it was empty and meaningless and not worth protecting.

 

 

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Other stuff about yesterday

It was submission day for the DTN essay – ended up pulling an allnighter as Thus-Sun had been a right-off, characterised by sleepness nights and panicky dreadfilled days, and so only actually started writing on Monday! I’m sure there’s a pun to be made with “instead of a write-on” or something, but anyway. Got the bloody thing done in the end, and though its def not the best essay I’ve written, I’m confident it will pass, which is all that really matters. Other good things that happened – had the longest, most personal conversation I’ve ever had with a current military person (an army medic), who’s on the course. I want to get over my kneejerk distress at being around folks in the army, as what I object to is the militarisation of society and the war machine. So taking advantage of being in a setting where I have army reservists as my peers to connect as humans.  Then in the evening a bunch of us from the course went to the pub to celebrate handing our essays in. Really enjoyed socialising with my classmates, and chatted with a few who I’ve not had much contact with before. We’ll all be in different places after the course, many heading to volunteer around the world, and it will be great to have this friendship network of others who are doing same sorts of things as me, and who I can keep up with, and maybe meet up with if we happen to be on the field in the same country. Feels very bonding to be going through this course together – most nurses I meet have very different lifestyles and priorities than me, whereas with these guys I feel very connected. I enjoyed how easy we all found it to slip into the familiar nurse camaraderie and black humour and mutual support and gruesome tales, which seems to be international! Several are also looking to volunteer in West Africa after the course, so they may be a valuable source of (phone) support during the inevitable homecoming crash.

Typing practise – travel vs anchored to a home

Where do I live? Where is home? What do I want and need from a home? What is Glasgow to me?

I feel increasingly cut free from an earthly anchor. I’ve been fairly happily living in Glasgow for ten years. I love this city, and the life it offers me suits me well. At a basic level, I can cover my survival needs without too much time and effort. I love that I can quickly get into the wilds of the highlands and islands, lochs and rivers and moorland and coastline, whilst also living in a city. The latter is important to me as I like to fill my time with talks, museums, coffee with interesting and intelligent people, variety of places to eat etc.

Travelling in India was every bit as incredible as I’d hoped. Every bit as fulfilling. My brain was nourished as delectably as my stomach. My eyes feasted. My ears savoured. Conversations, feeling the freedom of a 30 hour train journey, the landscape passing by, walking in the mountains and discovering precipaces beyond which the clouds partially veil miles of hills, forest, village, fields and yet more glorious mountains. And the food. Oh gods (every last minor village idol) the food. And whilst we’re on it, the temples. The melange of deities and spiritualities and ways of being. So each encounter was unpredictable and my universe was almost overwhelmingly rich with the colour of it all.

Could I live there? Probably not. There was plenty to frustrate and exhaust and drive my crazy. Travelling for 4 months in a place is one experience, but the delightful whirlwind would not be so great once the mundanity sets in and my brain isn’t eating so much, but the irritations have rubbed raw. But here’s the thing, I don’t think I could “live” anywhere anymore. I don’t want to settle. I don’t want to let an anchor hold me fixed. I need a certain amount of “home” – a place I have some sense of community and continuity. Where its easy for me to get together a road stake for my next adventure. Where I can reconnect with people and projects and possessions. And a washing machine! I love Glasgow for that. I love how good it is to return here and regroup. I love the people I have here. And the stability which gives my brain a chance to process and reintegrate and build from all that it has consumed. Home is now the novel, and so there is pleasure to be had from as minor a delight as hot showers on tap, and listening to my own music, and not having to repack my bag every few days. Wearing clothes other than the limited wardrobe of that which I could carry and was culturally acceptable. Hugs. Familiar foods. Ok, that last was not as great ;)

So what seems to be something that would work for me is to remain with Glasgow as my base, but to not be too bound to here. For Glasgow to be the place I am most, yet, not where I spend most of my time. I have been mostly here since April, but am about to go to London for 5 months. After that? I quite fancy India again for February, as a reward for completing my tropical nursing diploma and because I don’t need a justification for leaving the UK in the winter… I really want to travel back from India overland, via Nepal, China and Russia, but not sure if that will be viable. I definitely want to return to Gaza. Remote nursing in Canada for 4-6 months one summer appeals, and would be an amazing adventure, a heap of fresh nursing challenges, and a good way to earn money for other adventures.

As I approach 40 – and I’m still trying to deal with how that affects my identity and how I, and others, see myself – I’m suddenly feeling time pressures. There’s so much I want to see and do. This past year the boundaries of my world have opened up. I feel the call of the road as acutely as ever, but have taken off the muffles that for years I tried to mute it with. Now, music from Armenia comes on the radio and I ache to be there. I taste Persian food, and without conscious thought start googling the price of flights. I don’t know if its the same, having never felt it, but I’m reminded of how broody friends describe wanting to have kids. This is what I want for my life. This brings me fulfillment and meaning. To be unrooted, without anchor, free from fixed abode is what I feel I need.

Dhoom 3 – fun and great twist on white James Bond using non white countries as exotic playground

Dhoom 3 was amazing! Such a good movie. Really high production values and lots of fun. I think as my first Bollywood film it may have set future expectations unrealistically high. And the big baddie was a white corporate exec called Warren Anderson! Surely it can’t be a coincidence that this is exactly shared with Union Carbide’s chief exec, himself responsible for the corporate manslaughter of thousands here in Bhopal?!

USA was used as the exotic backdrop and the white cops were kinda dumb and useless and needing the assistance of the smart (in all senses of the word) Indian cops. It was the Indians who had the fancy moves during the chase scenes and the white cops who had the big smash ups. In fact apart from one white character (and she could speak Hindi) the white guys were either dumb or evil. But after decades of the reverse (eg this year’s “Captain Phillips”) this seemed just!

In particular a river chase scene invoked all those James Bonds where river boats are ripped through – but this time its brown guys using a white city as a playground. Somehow I enjoyed that. And I really like that unapologetic self-confidence rather than the internalised-racism self-cringe.

I thought my initial 2 days of travel plus jet lag had intensified and clouded my emotions and so biased my love-at-first-sight reaction to even Mumbai airport, but no, its getting deeper every day. I became unmotivated to learn any more Hindi last week as it won’t be useful after I travel south next month, but I’ve picked it up again this week (today I learned to (sort of / badly) count to 100) because I think I will come back here, to Bhopal. And so much of the north to see I will have to make at least one more trip to this gorgeous country.

Also on the way home and still feeling invigorated from the movie, I got my hair cut right back – I’d let it grow to about an inch so it would be less shocking out here. But after a fortnight I realised that the best thing I can do is wear Indian clothes, which anyway are gorgeous. I am white and that is enough to get stared at off the beaten track. I can’t fade into comfortable background however long my hair gets, so I might as well have the hairstyle I want! India is very diverse so can probably handle this weird chick with shaved head. So I went into a barber’s, showed him a photo of me with a shorn head (I long ago learned that I will otherwise get disbelief that I understand what I am asking for) and now am again bald. :)

Endnote : the gender politics in D3 were pretty standard – female characters pretty and used for love interest and eye candy. Please don’t go see this movie thinking its particularly progressive. I just enjoyed it that’s all.

Feminism, objectification of women, and how we regain power when we all stand together

A couple weeks ago I saw a flyer for a night club in Glasgow which made me really upset, because of the way it objectified women and referenced sex work as “sexy”. But I felt there was nothing I could do about it, and just felt sad and frustrated about it. Then, yesterday, I sent a message about it to the uni feminist society. Then they all got angry as well, but in a really empowered/powerful way, and collectively organised to challenge the night club, and the night club backed down, and removed the sex work imagery from its publicity!!

London to Edinburgh – east coast train trip

At the end of a very busy 10 day trip I’m finally on the train home. I feel the calm of a long train journey. I can watch the world go by, lost in thoughts, with no guilt that I should be doing anything else. Its restful, meditative, nourishing. And its a spectacular journey, up the east coast from London to Edinburgh.

The expansive flatness of east Anglia is really striking to my adopted Scottish eye. Towns with high steeples churches provoke imaginings of how they would have worked and felt hundreds of years ago.

Further north and we pass allotments, red bricked terraces with back lanes behind them – why were alleys between rows of houses made? That’s a genuine question by the way – please do answer if you can. :)

And then off to the left suddenly a profile of a giant face in a bing! Luckily my smartphone could tell me where I am and googling “cramlington sculpture” I found that it wasn’t a mirage, but someone is actually creating a giant sculpture out of the waste from an opencast mine! I find this a bit disturbing – opencast mining is really destructive of local environments and this seems like the art version of greenwash… but it was still pretty cool.

Then a herd of deer on a hill! And holy island – the tide was in so couldn’t see the causeway but def want to visit someday.

The further north I get the more agriculture and buildings are replaced by hills, wild areas, cliffs, trees and birds. Landscapes made more dramatic because just a couple hours ago the picture was so different. My personal history of moving from London to Glasgow, and falling ever more deeply in love with Scotland, gives a subjective context for this train journey.

Pretty berwick. Again on a future to visit list for a future slower journey north, perhaps by bicycle.

Rugged coastline. Now overtly human presence is the exception to the wild rule. When the trainline does rejoin the A1 we easily swoosh past the cars.

As we approach Edinburgh the landscape becomes more manshaped, with fields and buildings again. The coast is still closeby and frequently visible. The roads have less traffic than down south. And brick is rarely visible now. I missed neat cozy brickwork for a good few years after moving north, and still enjoy it when I’m back in England. Sandstone and various cladding is mostly visible up here.

Approaching Edinburgh mountains can be seen in the distance. Oh to be catching another train further north yet, rather than my Glasgow connection!

Money and priorities

Years ago, due to work, I ended up with some money in the states, and when I finally got around to having it sent to me, with the help of a friend, IRS tax had been taken out of it, despite that as a UK citizen and resident I shouldn’t have been taxed. Its both a large and small amount of money : $2800 – “baby bear” as its too much to not chase, but not enough to get professionals involved in helping to extricate.

I finally got around to trying to sort it out this week – I contacted the IRS! And turns out that you can’t reclaim tax after more than 3 years – being as I bet they can chase us for it into the grave and beyond this was more than a little annoying.

I won’t find out until I’ve checked various paperwork next week if I’ve left it too long, and I was busy kicking myself and feeling full of regret and self directed anger when it occurred to me there was a reason I hadn’t chased it before – I don’t prioritise money very highly at all when I’m working through important and urgent things I need to do. In fact whenever I’m making decisions, finances are very low down in the process. Which explains in part why I don’t have much money, and am normally skint, but also explains why I’ve had an interesting life!

Eleven years ago left my career as a computer programmer because *all* it brought was a good salary, but most other parts of my life were unfulfilled. I blew the savings I had made during the final year of the best paid job I’ve ever had on an amazing trip to West Africa, without thinking at all about whether that was the best use of a decent lumpsum – and I have no regrets at all. :)

These days, as a temp worker (bank nurse) I fit paid work around my real life – I work just enough to cover my meager outgoings and am often broke and struggling to cover rent by the end of each month because I will drop work the second something more interesting comes along. I always scrape by, and have done since I left home at 18, but apart from a few years here and there I’ve been mostly pretty financially poor for the majority of the last couple decades. And thats because twice now I’ve quit fulltime work because it stole too much precious time from my week – the last time was almost 2 years ago when I stopped working as a nurse fulltime.

So what has that meant? Well, I’ve been free to walk in the mountains, be very active politically,  attend interesting events, work on a masters, read, occupy part of a university, travel, explore, think, talk, listen and mull. I’ve actually had a really full life. And I’m definitely not saying my choices are/were better than others, just that there were personal assumptions, attributes, values and priorities that led to them. And that not holding money as an important determinant has both led to annoying and frustrating fuck ups, but also led to the best of adventures and a life of meaning.

Cairngorms Sept 2011 – Glenmore, ryvoan bothy, bynack more and strathnethy

Arrived in Glenmore on Wednesday and bumped into Rona, who I know from anarchist circles. :) Paolo and I then walked to Ryvoan bothy, our home for the next 4 nights. We had the bothy to ourselves, built a small fire and chilled out.

Thurs we climbed Bynack More. Fun climb and beautiful rock formations and view at the top. Paolo had to stop just 40 metres from the top due to vertigo and a sore back so I was alone on the actual summit. My knees started hurting on the way down so limped home. Bothy to ourselves again. :)

Tools on side of Bynack More

Paolo descending Bynack More

Friday Paolo wanted a more relaxing day, and we were meeting Maria off the bus at Glenmore anyway later in the afternoon, so we decided to go in early and get the fried food and rest day that Paolo was craving!  We were disappointed to discover that the touristy but fun red squirrel cafe was closed for staff training, though that led to a discovery of a more delicious nature – fab food, though not cheap, at cafe mor just along the road at the glenmore visitors centre. After a yummy lunch of soup with homemade seeded wholemeal bread and roasted beetroot with goats cheese, he stayed there for coffee and to read while I popped round loch morlich – very beautiful. Native woodland thriving with new growth. Lots of mushrooms. Wood ant nest. Views over to mountains. Met Maria off the bus and took her back to the bothy.

Carrot Cake in Mor Cafe

Loch Morlich

That night we def did not have the bothy to ourselves – in all 15 of us shared the bothy fire and cooked on the tiny table, though 9 of them slept in tents outside. Amongst the crowd were a fascinating and inspiring family from Germany, inc 2 adolescents, who were on a 6 month cycling trip! I also bumped into the second person this trip who I’d interacted with before as the MBA regional organiser for the area turned up with a couple of other members to finish the rebuild of the fords of avon refuge: I’d been emailing with him about coming up for it a couple weeks ago but wasn’t able to in the end. When he said where he was going and I’d said I’d nearly come for the rebuild he asked me straight off if I were Alice! Turned out they’d had to evacuate out due to a gale halfway through the work party … glad I missed it! The mountain bothies association is a fabulous organisation of volunteers who upkeep and build bothies throughout Britain for the free use of “all who love wild and lonely places”.

Saturday Paolo wanted to chill at the bothy, and the cairngorms challenge meant cyclists were streaming through the forest I’d wanted to walk in so Maria and I decided to check out the path along strathnethy … turned out to take us through a bog! An hour of fun but slow going jumping from rock to rock we decided to retrace our steps. Back at the footbridge Maria suggested we check out a patch of trees in the other direction along the river – a 5 min scramble through heather took us to a stunning gorge. The river rushed and jumped and swirled while clinging onto the rocky sides were old and young Scots pine, birch and of course heather.

River Nethy

Paolo had a good fire going – he offered us tea as soon as we walked back into the bothy, ti amo! We had a quiet rest of the day reading, fetching water, and Paolo cooked a scrummy last supper on the fire. Bothy to ourselves again. :)

Ryvoan Bothy Toilet

Sunday Maria and I popped up meall a bhuachaille as the bothy is on its slopes. It was very very blowey and quite steep but not high. The wind was exhilaratingly swaying between fun and slightly dangerous – I was blown over but just onto the soft vegetation mattress you get on top of hills.

Maria on meall a bhuachaille

Then down, to pack up, clean the bothy and walk to glenmore. The red squirrel cafe was open, so we ate fried food and watched the birds and squirrels raiding the feeders a couple of metres away.

Red Squirrel at cafe in Glenmore

A gale is supposed to be hitting the area today, so it is probably better that we had to leave yesterday anyway. Probably. Though there is still so much of the cairngorms to explore, and snug in a bothy with plenty of firewood is not such a terrible place to ride out a storm, let alone spend a birthday trip in the mountains.

Ryvoan Bothy from Meall a Bhuachaille