Orkney bagging

Blotchnie Fold on Rousay, Orkney - an easy 5km walk or run along tracks and way-marked RSPB trail with an added bonus of no skuas or other dive-bombing birds. From the summit we could just about make out the light house on North Ronaldsay and the headland of Noup Head on Westray. Despite the sun the cold wind picked up in the afternoon hastening a retreat to the pub by the pier to wait for the ferry back to Mainland.

Almost a week later I headed on my own to Hoy to run a loop of Cuilag, Ward Hill and Knap of Trowieglen. It looked hard from the map with steep drops and climbs between all three hills. I was also worried about the number of skuas on the island, having been regaled by very colourful tales of vicious attacks.

The foot passenger ferry from Stromness to Moaness was very busy and gave me about 7 hours on the island. I had had a bad cold so was a bit worried about the time pressure. The day was scorching and I was already struggling in the heat as I slogged up Culaigs from Sandy Loch reaching the top in 40mins. A short section of road having provided suitable warm-up.

The top was covered in large loose squared-edged blocks, which had strange pock marks on them and a myriad of cairns. Haze spoilt the view a little, but I could still make out the hills in Caithness and Sutherland, mainland Orkney and the islands dotting the perfectly calm sea to the north.

I dropped off down a steep hillside, on short grass and heather to start back up Water Glen - which unfortunately had no water. Temperatures away from the breezy ridges was horribly oppressive. A few angry skuas swooshed overhead, but did nothing worse than that. After getting through the tussocky flat ground the going improved and the gravel ridge up to Ward Hill was very quick underfoot. In total contrast to the baking glens, the top was freezing - cooled by a bitter wind.

The decent off Ward Hill was short but brutally steep and my thighs were screaming by the time I reached the road. I was fading on the climb and did not enjoy the trudge through the rough ground of Stany Hamars to finally reach the top of the Knap after about 2.5hours of running. I had had enough so I dropped into Trowie Glen to paddle, splash and scramble down the gully bed. Slower but much more pleasant and fun than stumbling down the tussocks.

A quick detour past the Dwarfie Stane, Britain's oldest rock cut tomb, and a jog down the road top the cafe at Linkness. I got the last portion of Cullen Skink and chilled out fishing off the pier until the ferry came.

Kintail LAMM

After the organiser's dire warnings last Wednesday of severe weather, the LAMM last weekend turned out to be the nicest mountain marathon I have completed. To be fair to them, the abandonment of the Welsh 1000er Race the same weekend gives an idea of what the weather could have been like. The weather was perfect - not too hot, good visibility and only the odd shower of rain with enough wind to keep off the midgies.

Kintail is a great area with plenty of hills on the various lists with a great network of stalkers paths, some in better nick than others. Al picked the B class and with my lack of long distance training it suited me to do something shorter too. Day 1 starting at Cluanie Inn was a interesting route, traversing into remote corries but avoiding too many tussocks or peat hags. The checkpoints were easy to find, although we messed up the only slightly tricky one due to me paying no attention to the checkpoint description. It was upsetting that we missed out on the summit of An Socach by about 500m. So a zero bag weekend for me.

The overnight campsite in Carnach (Glen Elchaig)was fantastic. Dry and grassy with even the sun decided to come out to dry our shoes. A far cry from my last MM experience sharing a tent with Henry Blake. There was about 2 inches of water sloshing about inside and a gale outside. Not very nice after having struggled around the Elite course on the OMM. Much more pleasant.

The less said about route choice on Day 2, the better. Our choice of route to the first checkpoint was inexplicable in the extreme. I can only blame our chasing start number, B13, for our idiocy. After that, once I had put my toys back into my pram, we had a great day in the sun. Enjoying some more fantastic running and some great downhills on our way back to the event centre to finish in 24 place.

The distance was about 24km on the first day and 20km on the second - both days much longer than any of my runs this year, but I seemed to cope pretty well with not too much soreness afterwards.