Back home from the driest 6 days I ever dreamt Fort William could offer. The only real whitewater as the frozen stuff on the tops, especially on Aonach Mor where the ski lifts were still running and the sun belted down through clear blue skies....
Drove up on Friday (though forgot that we had only booked into Calluna from Saturday night...) and had a late evening play on Triple Drop on the Etive (running it, appropriately enough, three times), before driving through a huge herd of deer and into Fort William.
Triple Drop - the good bit
Auto-boof!
Gravity wins - Right Angle Fall
We met the West Mids team back in Glen Etive on Saturday morning where much discussion about walking / rock climbing / skiing etc., was had. Nothing doing, we wandered up for a look at the Allt a Choirrean which was as dry as a very dry Martini with extra olives. Back to Fort William and an afternoon in the shops... living close to Keswick really does take the therapy out of retail therapy when looking for goretex Gucci.
Sunday and an early start. The old faithful, Findhorn Gorge from Randulph's Leap down. Reasonable level; the Cauldron looking pretty nasty as Nige narrowly avoided swimming into it due to timely rope-led intervention by Bec, Becca and myself (I put the video camera down as it looked so serious - tsk, missed the swim through the grade 5 section!). Pity then that Andrew had the camera in his mitt and filming as I took my shoeing at the Triple Step like a man (well, at least I didn't cry and shout for my mammy, though did hit the "eject eject" button before floating under the central strainer...). A good run, sunshine and fun company. Bec's air paddling put Spinal Tap fans to shame as she corkscrewed her way through a rapid known as... corkscrew. Odd that.
Andrew fights the Corkscrew
What happens when the last stroke is on the wrong side....
Andrew - how to run Corkscrew
Some of the team decided to have a splash on the Pattack on the way back. This time I was filming when Pete ended up pinned and did cry out for his mam! And when Nige took his second swim of the day... strange; two in one day but the first two in twelve years!! Ah well, we are all between swims I guess.
A lazy day and the long trek out to Oban for a gander at the Falls of Lora resulted in further plans being hatched. Some of the players would drop in on the falling tide on the morrow (??) while the rest (that is the more refined among us) would take to the briny and hunt out some seals. The chips in Oban were just as good as I remembered them as well - bonus!
Tuesday and back to Oban. All the beer had gone last night so it was with some ashen faces that the hard men pulled over to stare in awe / terror (select as required) at the maelstrom of whirlies and swirlies that is... well, you get the idea? Bec, Becca and me poodled down through Oban to Cuan Sound. Fabulous; blue sky, bluer sea, ripping through the narrows. After collecting empty scallop shells and making certain that we had a polo ball in my boat, we set off to the north of Luing and out into the Atlantic (just a bit). Becca turned a strange colour as we basked in the sunshine on the glassy calm sea; must have been, erm, seasickness setting in. Decided that the cure was to walk back over the island while yours truly towed back her boat. And her kit. And the rocks that she and Bec had collected. No worries, we reunited opposite the ferry slip and manfully (!) made the long ferry glide back to the mainland. Satisfying, having watched two sea kayaks being portaged along the beach due to the strength of the current. Becca had recovered enough to take on Bec and me with a solid hour of polo training. Hmm - women!
We'd had a grand day out (thanks Grommit), topped when we heard that the playboaters hadn't managed to surf anything and had one of the hardest days paddling ever. Shame huh : )
Since the rest of the team were heading off in the morning, this evening was Andrew's birthday party. Cake, profiteroles, alcohol were consumed. After we came back from the Chinese / pub / etc.
Despite threats of hoofing up Tower Ridge, we ended up skiing on Aonach Mor for the youth's birthday. We both came close to sunburn, Andrew's eyes were red raw, the snow was icy and the walk back uphill to the Snowgoose gondola hurt, but a top day with 6 hours on skis and not a few laughs. Happy 15th birthday mate!!
Ben Nevis and Carn Mor Dearg from Aonach Mor
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