A DINOSAUR WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE
In April, we have been used to going for a weekend away. Well, nowadays you can't do anything with anyone unless they live in the same house as you. The dreaded virus has changed everything. Until we enter the post CV world, our social walking has been replaced with social distancing, which is not quite as much fun.
In an attempt to replicate real life, people are taking to doing all sorts of virtual things. In line with that trend, here are some virtually real reminders of past weekends away in April of years gone by. Hopefully, I won't have to do this again in November!
Number 1 Rua Reidh Lighthouse 2008
Is it a plane, is it a car? No it is a lighthouse, there weren't hundreds of cars going up and down the road at regular intervals after dark.
We did get some pretty good weather for walking.
The coastline was pretty spectacular and the sea was positively tropical, unless you actually fancied a paddle.
Before we went home, we went into Flowerdale on another beautiful day.
Lunch was at the Old Inn in Gairloch - not a sign of social distancing. We would all be locked up for this today.
Number 2 Inchmarlo 2009
Obviously the first trip didn't put us off and we did it again the next year, going to Inchmarlo in Aberdeenshire.
This was us in the car park getting ready to start one of the walks that weekend. Already the range of walking gear was becoming more colourful and more expensive.
A few of us at the Burn o' Vat.
Then, on for a vat of soup before posing on the lawn.
Quite a formal pose, I think.
Number 3 Glenshee 2010
Christmas dinner in April, this was one of our strangest away weekends.
It was also one of the wettest and coldest, but not quite.
It also seemed to be the height of our blue period.
We did get to some wild places that weekend.
All together for the leaving photo when the weather was a bit better.
Number 4 Ullapool 2011
That was west, east, east and back to west for 2011. Up the brae from Ullapool and some pretty reasonable weather and walking.
The view from our digs was pretty good.
We were still doing hills at that stage in our lives, so we got a good view of the ferry heading out to the Western Isles - how prophetic was that?
Even higher up and there were nice views of a wee boat coming back in. In fact, at that height, everything seems wee, even the village.
Stopped off under a big tree at Inverlael on the way home.
Number 5 Harris 2012
Spooky, or what? The ferry leaves Ullapool and a year later we are in Harris! Time travel to the land of eagles and beaches.
Over the hill to Rhenigidale. Still doing hills!
Down towards the beach at lunch time.
Made it.
Great seascapes.
On the beach at Huishnish. It was slightly cooler than the sky would have you believe.
Number 6 Mar Lodge 2013
Back to the east again and probably the biggest cottage we stayed in on all our trips.
This was the front garden.
Hi ho! The seven dwarfs.
Off into the wilds again.
We went further than we thought, ending up in Iceland, it would seem.
Here we are outside the cottage.
Number 7 Lower Largo 2014
This was the weekend when Chairman Mao Smith took us on the Long March.
Here we are trekking across the Gobi Desert.
Next, we were sheltering by the Great Wall.
Then, to prove how egalitarian we all were, we got the bus home.
Where we were all able to partake in the celebratory cake marking a phenomenal walk of 60 miles in one day.
Number 8 Morenish 2015
South to Perthshire and the shores of Loch Tay, scene of the latter day miracle of the feeding of the 500 with just one fish.
Up into the hills - how did we manage that, and, looking at the weather, why did we manage that?
A better day was to come and the sun shone.
It was a long day, though and a few of us were flagging a bit by the time it came for tea and cake. This might have been the moment when we really were over the hills.
Number 9 Glenlivet 2016
Remember when I said way back in 2010 that the weekend in Glenshee might have been the wettest and coldest? Well Glenlivet beat it hands down.
We all felt like this little lamb on one of the walks.
It was a little wintry.
Atmospheric too, unless you were actually there!
There were some compensations, though.
How did we all get in this small house? Oh yes! Sue and Charlie brought their own bedroom with them.
They even brought a bath with them.
Number 10 Gairloch 2017
Probably the trip with the best weather, but we deserved it after Glenlivet.
We had a lovely house to match the weather.
A lovely garden as well.
Lovely rooms and food.
Lovely golf.
Lovely uniforms apparently.
Lovely place to sit out.
Lovely moon and stars if you could work the telescope.
Back in Flowerdale before going home after a lovely time.
Number 11 Banff 2018
We flew over to the east in 2018 and Banff. We had some mixed weather then.
There was a fair amount of rain, which led to some fairly damp action men.
Probably a bit more actionable than the girls.
We had walked into Banff, where we were not allowed into the Spotty Bag shop, so no photo of that place. Instead we had lunch here, which was more suited to our station in life.
This was not only a lunch spot, but the scene of the infamous bananagate scandal.
We did have some sunshine and we saw dolphins
Dolphins were not the most unusual things we saw, though.
Number 12 Stromeferry 2019
Last year and more fine weather in the west.
If only our house was not sliding down the street.
If only this had been our house, but it was Attadale, which house and gardens we visited on the way home.
Peaceful Lochcarron. A great place to stay.
Drinking in the car park. That's the jail for you any time, never mind nowadays.
Bridging the gap.
Picnics! Haven't really had many of these this year.
Heads, you win.
Of course, we did not stay on the mainland. Here we are on an island waiting for a ferry to another island - Raasay.
What a weekend that was.
Doubtless there will be more like that to come if we all wash our hands.
See you all soon.