Continuing Day 1 of my Big Scottish Adventure... After walking along the river for a while, we turned right at this little green hut. I wanted to know who lived here, but there seemed to be no one home! M said it was owned by a Mountaineering Club, for them to use when they visited to climb in the hills. It's quite small though, so I don't think many of them can stay here at once... The sign outside the hut said "Respectez les fleurs". M said that meant "Respect the flowers" in French, so I immediately started looking for some flowers to respect. I found these beautiful tiny pink flowers. They were hidden in the grass. M said she thought they were tiny wild orchids. If you look closely at them then they DO look just like miniature orchids! AS we started going uphill, I found this curious pile of rocks. M said it was a "CAIRN", and that they are built to label paths and mountain summits. This one showed where the path we would take on our way back joined our outward path. I thought it made a great place for me to have my picture taken! Our path zigged and zagged up our first mountain. Sometimes we were looking at other mountains down the main river valley we'd walked in from... Sometimes we were facing what would be our second mountain of the day... I was surprised to see small white patches of SNOW up there! It was May, and at home the snow had gone long ago! Oooo...a mini cairn for my next photo opportunity! Then some rocky bits to scramble up... And FINALLY a big summit cairn to sit on top of! Hard work getting there, but the view was GREAT! Heading along the ridge to our next mountain, I found my first patch of snow! M was busy explaining to me that both of these hills were called "Munros", I just wanted to play in the snow! Sadly she wouldn't wait for me to build a snowman... Oh...a "Munro" is a Scottish mountain over 3000ft high, and there's a list of them that "Munro baggers" try to "tick off" and complete. (How strange humans are!) See M, I WAS listening after all! There were also rocky bits to negotiate on the ridge... And quite a bit of snow along the edge of the ridge. M said we needed to be careful and avoid this as much as we could. (Apparently bits called "cornices" can break off over the edge of the solid ground. You can fall off a long way with them!) It seemed to take a very long time, and it was a bit steep to get to, but EVENTUALLY we reached our second and final summit of the day. Great views in all directions. This one looks down the way we will head next. There was an old row of fence posts up there. It must have been hardwork for whoever put that fence up! We walked down on a muddy path next to this waterfall... Then lots more grass and uneven ground to negotiate... Before finally meeting the bigger path we took on the way out. (I was getting quite worn out by now. I only have tiny legs, and it had taken me a LOT of tiny steps to get that far!) I was so glad to make it back to this bridge, and shortly after to the car! That was the end of my first long day. I got back to the tent very hungry and very tired. I was hoping M planned to cook something yummy for my tea! That's all for now! Catch you later...Love Odd xxx
10 Comments
Hi everyone! Odd Sock here! Sorry it's taken me so long to remember to write my blog again! I've been up in Scotland with M and Buster, on a BIG adventure! This was the first Scottish loch (lake) that I'd stood by, and the mountains we saw on our car journey looked beautiful. When we got the tent out, I was glad to see that M had remembered all the essentials - like my chair! On our first night, I discovered that a big bag of maps make quite a comfy bed. Especially if you can find a nice fleecy hat to snuggle up in! In the morning, M and I ate a big bowl of cereal each. (Mine had a chopped up banana in it, as I love bananas. Someone once asked if I was related to the purple Minions, but I don't think I am.) Then we set off in the car to the start of our first walk, leaving Buster behind to guard the tent! From what M had told me about Scotland, I hadn't been expecting to need the sun cream out. As we started walking, this was my first amazing view. We'd be heading into the mountains ourselves very soon... More to come in Part 2! Bye for now, Odd xxx
Hi there everyone! This has been a very exciting week! PD Monkey, Buster and I have all come on holiday to Norway with Melinda and her husband! I've never been out of the UK before! I hope you like this great onesie Billy's Nan knitted for me, to keep me warm! So far the three of us are toasty warm, as we have just been sitting around a nice log fire drinking hot chocolate! We also met a new animal friend yesterday. Her name is Tenzin, she lives in a Norway most of the time, and she thankfully does not chew cuddly toys! When they saw the sharp axe things my human friends were taking to Norway, some of my cuddly Norwegian twitter friends assured me that this was typical troll-hunting kit! Our humans can't be very good at hunting Trolls, as they have been out 3 days in a row, and still not captured one to bring back! I did spot this odd looking snowdrift on the photos they took today though... My friend @JezzerBear thinks this is a hiding troll, and that the humans were lucky to escape! *By the way, Jezzer Bear writes an awesome blog himself, please check his latest post out at http://jezzerbear.wordpress.com/2013/12/09/two-chocolate-bars-from-estonia/ Well, the humans say they use the sharp axes for climbing frozen waterfalls, like this. (They also have spiked things on their feet called crampons, and they call this activity "ice climbing".) They climb to the top of the ice....(possibly looking for Trolls -maybe Trolls like living on top of frozen waterfalls?) Then they use a rope to slide back down again, like this. (They call this abseiling.) Apparently the snow is so deep getting to the waterfalls, that it is above our humans' waists! (Definitely not somewhere for short cuddly toys to venture out to!) Oh, and my other big news is that just before coming away, our poem book was reviewed, and both I and Melinda got interviews, by Destiny, for her blog! I've put the link to my own interview below, but you can easily find the other 2 articles from there too!
|
Details
AuthorsThe Top of the Wardrobe Gang: Oscar Rabbit, PD Monkey, Odd Sock, Burton Bear, Terry Tiger (TT), Burton Bear; helped by Melinda Kinsman Archives
October 2018
Categories
All
|