Sunday 3 April 2011

Ben Chonzie


I hardly slept a wink last night. Must have went to bed far too early..and was still tossing and turning at the back of 2.   Anyway, up at 6.30, into the car , and headed for Comrie.
The sun was rising and a beautiful day beckoned.  This was not to be sustained though...

The mission for today, climb Ben Chonzie. (This is honestly easier done than said).
 I've heard so many differing ways to pronounce the name of this mountain
                                     

The track up to the plateau is soul destroying, large rubble and horrible walking surface.
I had the hill to myself as I started so early which was nice.
The highlight of the day was seeing all the mountain hares (for which this hill is famed for), bounding around.

Cue picture of hare:-

There was still a wee drop of snow on the way to the summit and it was really quite pleasant...and then, as is wont to happen to me it started to go belly up.  (if you are a reader of my blog, you'll know this is a regular feature of my life).

No sooner had I settled at the summit, cracked open the flask for coffee...and by god, did the snow come or what?   The wind speed hit about 50 knots within minutes accompanied by horizontal hail.

This signalled the time for a change of clothing, so off with the lightweight jacket and on with the heavy duty job.
By now my ears, which shall we say, are a tad prominent, started to freeze.
No problems as I had borrowed my nephews wooly hat...Had I not left it back in the car that is...

So, I headed back down, and luckily my jacket had a hood which I flipped up, pulled the tightening cords, at which point they promptly snapped.  Oh Joy!!!
This left me bent over, heading into the wind clutching my hood closed and my walking poles in my fists now protruding like a portable TV antenna from my head.

Ah well, better than sitting in front of a lovely log fire in a pub with a pint....

Back to work tomorrow and working on a shower hobbit and also drawing out designs for an exciting new addition to the microlodge range. (top secret, details to follow).

No comments: