Balls and kilts

Summer balls that is.
I'd invited a couple of friends up to come to the camp summer ball the other weekend, and I think they enjoyed it.
The dogs are (left to right) Rosie, Rossie and Puddles (nee Rolly).
There were people in frocks, uniforms, kilts and dinner jackets, the shortest skirts were being worn by the men.

As with most balls at the mess there was also a selection of entertainments...Tom, a pilot, on a monkey bike.

Tasha and myself on the bikes.
Dodgems, with the station commander homes in on Tasha.Bungee running, BIG powerful elastic bands round your waist and try to reach the end before being pulled back onto you arse. Great fun.Mechanical bull with Tasha about to fall off, and...

Chris looking the part - McBrokeback Mountain anyone?

And the best, pudgel stick fighting!!! Chris and myself about to spar. Contender ready!

Longest day

After hearing about Stonehenge on the radio I realised that I have kept the vigil for the sunrise on the solstice. Not by choice so much as it's my job.
Mind you, the sun only really dips below the horizon this far north, it doesn't really get dark until late August. Not the full insomnia 24 hour daylight but certainly not proper night.
There's quite a few bits of this job that seem to hark back to more interesting times. There's a gate guardian (a mostly decommissioned aircraft – in this case a GR4 bomber) near the front gate that either says "THIS IS WHAT WE DO!!!!!" or that sits there, holding back the evil spirits (and reporters).
Reminds me of the Snow Ball at uni one year. Happened to be on the winter solstice and it was a beach party so people were dressed in their summer clothes and were stomping around to heavy drums with small flame throwers going off in the background. Drums, fire and summer clothes to bring back the sun. Nice.
Tomorrow we dress up in our finery (kiltage!) and dance (drink and eat) until the sun comes up, possibly making merry and "cavorting like the Greeks of old - you know the ones I mean!"
I'll try to get some photos for you all, but not sure about the bungee running and laser tag. It's the Mess ball, in case you were wondering.

A big old week.

A few weeks ago a friend suggested that we climb a hill for charity. A simple enough proposition, but this friend has an habit of suggesting fairly large hills.
So, for the Trail100/WaterAid challenge we were to climb An Teallach.
The walk in was nice, 3 km along and about 800 ft up, after that it got a bit vertical. Once we got to the ridge things got better, although we skipped a couple of tops and a major bit of grade 3 scrambling (which is a rope away from a V Diff climb) before gaining the summit of Skurr Fiona (middle peak in this image). At the summit it was calm, warm and sunny. By this point I'd been sun burnt but didn't realise it yet.
From there we went down then back up to Bedean a' Ghlas Thuill and the cloud came in.
One peak at 1060 m, one at 1062 (3484 ft), from about 50 ft start.
So far so good. Unfortunately for the rest of the group, the vast majority of walks I've done of late have been winter walks and so, when I went through my flat grabbing my kit, I grabbed my normal kit, including liners and my normal mountain walking socks. Note to self, when walking in summer, DO NOT WEAR WINTER SOCKS!!!!!
By the time we'd reached the major down hill I was suffering from self inflicted injuries on my feet, to whit, soggy socks and bad feet. Hurt lots. Also ran out of water - three and a half litres just not enough for hot days on big hills. I promise not to complain so much next time.
We had to change camp site that night - midges in Scotland are a bad thing and our first site was a touch close to the water. So close that we had to spend an hour and a half lighting a fire to get enough smoke to drive off the evil little bastards. We could have got it lit sooner but we were using flint and steel, and shaved sticks. When we got the fire going there was a definate "Ha, we are men, we make fire!" moment. I was using a head net as well, they look stupid but damn they work.
Didn't manage to avoid midges completely though, mainly on my feet where I was letting my soles dry out...Sorry about the ugly feet. Bugger did they itch! Best thing I've found for them was Boots Bite and Sting Relief cream. Or not uncovering skin to get bitten. Midges are a sod, the only good things about them are they are good for bats and other animals.

Next day, legs ached, feet itched, sunburn was a real bugger but we had survived An Teallach. Fantastic. We took the west coast route back and saw soooooo many amazing hills.

The rest of this last week, well, my parents have been up visiting. We went to see Culloden, which was really good, they've got a new centre there about the battle that's better than I was expecting. In addition mum and dad wanted to get to the top of Cairn Gorm. Last time they were up we took the funicular railway up but if you do that you can't go all the way to the summit; the only way to get to the top is to walk all the way up from the car park.
Now, my dad's 63, and used to be in the mountain rescue in the air force when he was much younger; my mum's 61 and didn't used to do much exercise, although she's been going to the gym three times a week for the last 7 months. This would be the biggest thing dad had done for a long time, and the biggest thing I think my mum had ever done.Mum's wearing a dear-stalker she'd bought in Braemar and dad is in a flat cap. They're both wearing jackets I recommended to them and I'd fitted mum out in wind proof gloves and neck gaiter, as well as Gore-tex gaiters. Which was a vast improvement on what she was planning on wearing up a hill that tops out at 1245 m, 4081 ft (trousers tucked into socks..).
Weather was good for most of the route up, until we got to the Ptarmigan restaurant, from where you head up to the summit. The wind picked up, the rain (and a bit of sleet/wet snow) started and the cloud came down. We made it up, and here's the proof. Mum and dad approaching the summit of the Cairn Gorm (I'm leaning on the summit cairn to get out of the wind).
Most people think that cairns (piles of rocks) are just to mark summits or just to look nice. Nah. When you're at the top and need a route in poor visibility you can use your compass and map, your GPS or you can follow the handily placed line of stone markers, visible in all but the very worst weather. Live saver!
We had a meal in the Ptarmigan and caught the train back down, much easier than walking!

So there we have it, six days, three Munros, even more tops, sun burn, midge bites, sore legs and feet, many miles covered and money raised for charity, and two very happy parents.
Not a bad week, all in.