Glen Ey

On Sunday, after the clocks went back, the wife and I decided to head to Glen Ey near Braemar for a spot of cycling, hiking and steep uphill walking (not climbing, it was hardly that). It started off bright and we began with a 12km or so cycle in, mainly on a gentle uphill. After that it was largely cross-country to reach Beinn Iutharn Mhor. It was quite a steep pull up the flank of the hill and it took us a while to reach the top. It wasn't too cold except for when rounding the corrie, where our faces were numb with the updraft.

Beinn Iutharn Mhor

Beinn Iutharn Mhor up the Ey Burn and beyond Altanour Lodge ruins

Odd rock

Looking down Glen Ey to Morrone

Loch nan Eun and Gleann Taitneach

Approaching the summit of Beinn Iutharn Mhor

From the summit we made our way down into the corrie where it was easiest to descend and then faced a crossing over some very inhospitable terrain for a few kilometres; bog, peat haughs, mud etc. It was pretty bad.  Eventually we pulled up onto the ridge at the other side though and it wasn't far to the top of the second Munro of the day: Carn Bhac. There were great views of the Cairngorms from here, all browns and greys as the hills are now wearing their Winter plumage!

Beinn a'Ghlo

Carn Bhac

The Cairngorms

The walk back down to the bikes was again through wild country, no paths, plenty of mud and water though. It seemed like such a long trudge and the rain came on a bit before we even reached the bikes. The ride back was much easier, mostly downhill and took about half the time of the ride in. 15 minutes after getting back to the car, it was dark. It seemed to come on all of a sudden. What a difference putting the clocks back an hour makes!

Clocks and Doves

The Island of the Day Before is in a large measure about clocks and doves. One chapter alone is entirely about Doves, but merely because the mysterious dove of the island, which is borne of fire, represents the lady he loves in some sort of unobtainable way. Roberto cannot reach the island, he cannot see the dove, he cannot be with his lady. So here I am writing test documentation for my PHP, Javascript, mysql etc. but I chose not to bore you with that, because it is boring and if I ever end up doing it for a living then fate will have played a cruel hand indeed for poor unfortunate me.

I'm terrified I'll end up living vicariously through my kids: my son now plays the guitar quite well and he's a lot younger than I was when I started playing. He also plays golf quite well too, and he's a lot younger than when I started playing. You see a theme evolving there? I'm only 35 for Christ's sake.