I heard it on the jade vine

Route http://www.munromagic.com/RouteInfo.cfm?RouteID=47 Distance 17.4km Munros Carn Gorm & Meall Garbh (2 out of possible 4) Last Sunday (26th June) saw me attempting the Carn Mairg round of 4 munros. This route is 17.5km and, being 5km shorter, should have been considerably easier than my previous outing to Beinn A'Ghlo. A combination of appalling weather and very tired legs meant that this was never going to be an easy day out. The walk starts at Invervar, which is near Fortingall (which is itself near Aberfeldy) in Perthshire. It seems that over the years the estate which owns these hills has not been very welcoming to hill walkers, in particular they pretty much don't want to see people during the stalking season. With this in mind June seemed the perfect time for a visit. The estate has now provided a small parking area in Invervar with strict guidelines that once it is full people should just go somewhere else. The parking area is not that easy to spot

There are times when having a small kid really makes me realise just how much the world has changed. This morning Ella was chatting about space rockets and "blasting off" to the moon so I immediately got onto youtube and we sat down to watch footage for loads of the Apollo and Shuttle launches (subtly ignoring a few unfortunate fireballs along the way). We then went on to look at the Apollo astronauts planting flags and bouncing around on the moon. She was really fascinated with it all, although at first she got a bit worried by all the fire and the equipment falling away as the rockets got going. The one thing which truly puzzled her though was watching the earth-rise from the perspective of the moon. Clearly at the age of two the idea of the world being round is a tricky one. I guess I saw these things on TV occasionally as a kid but being able to see them on demand really is awesome. I also still can't get over how long it is since anyone last stood on t

Route http://www.munromagic.com/RouteInfo.cfm?RouteID=32 Distance 22.4km Munros Carn nan Gabhar, Braigh Coire Chruinn-Bhalgain & Carn Liath After a long time of not getting out into the hills I finally got a chance on Sunday 6th June. The main aim was to get out and do a few new munros and really just see if I was still up to the task. The target was Beinn a'Ghlo which is near Blair Atholl. It is actually 3 munros - Carn nan Gabhar , Braigh Coire Chruinn-Bhalgain & Carn Liath . There is no great technical challenge to these hills, you won't have "hand on rock" at any time during the day and there is no real "exposure" to sheer drops. That said, they are not uninteresting grassy lumps either, there are nice tops with good views (on a clear day...). There is also a fair amount of effort required, it's just over 22km and 1480m of ascent. The route starts from a rough parking area beside Loch Moraig near Monzie Farm. Getting from Blair