For the first time this (Scottish) summer, I put sunscreen on my nose today. I’ve also been high enough to touch some snow.
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Kingshouse Glen Coe
Today we crossed Rannoch Moor, reputedly one of Britain’s wildest, largest and most dangerous.
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Bridge of Orchy
As we ate breakfast this morning the sun was streaming through the window, and we could see that our B&B does indeed have a “hillview” as promised by its name. I briefly put my poncho on as we climbed the hill to re-join the West Highland Way, but it turned out to be a false alarm, as it stayed dry throughout our entire journey.
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Crianlarich
Water, water everywhere. And howling winds. We saw a waterfall spilling over the top of Glen Falloch blowing sideways instead of falling down like waterfalls are supposed to.
Inverarnan
We’ve spent most of today walking along the bonie, bonie banks of Loch Lomond – in the pouring rain. The sun that is supposed to shine bright upon the loch didn’t put in an appearance until we were leaving it.
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Rowardennan
The Way from Drymen climbs up hill through the Garadhban Forest, mostly along forest roads. Some of the trees have been harvested recently, as we could see by the piles of logs beside the track.
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Drymen
When we woke this morning in Milngavie the sky was blue and the sun was shining brightly. The clouds started to roll in as we were eating breakfast, but it hasn’t rained more than a few spits so we have had a great first day of walking. We could have started the day with a “full Scottish breakfast”, but the alternative of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs seemed a much better choice.
Glasgow
Because it would cost hundreds of pounds to catch a train from Oxford to Glasgow we decided to hire a car which worked out much cheaper. Felicity downloaded a GPS navigation app for her iPhone, and it directed us to the centre of town very efficiently.
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Cardiff
When I first arrived in the UK I caught a bus to Oxford, where I was met at the bus station by Felicity and her colleague Ros Burnett with whom we are staying. I had a couple of hours to shower and eat lunch, then we set off in the car towards Cardiff, where Felicity was keynote speaker at a conference.
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Causeway Bay Hong Kong
Because I’m not prepared to spend any longer than 12 hours sitting in an aeroplane, I spent a night in Hong Kong on my way to the UK.
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Moturua Island
For the final night of our Easter holiday, we drove back south and camped at Papa Aroha Holiday Park, again right on the beach.
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Coromandel Walkway
For many years Felicity and I have had an ambition to hike the walkway between Fletcher Bay and Stony Bay at the northern end of Coromandel.
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Fletcher Bay – The Pinnacles
Up at the northern end of the Coromandel Peninsular, past Cape Colville, is the beautiful DOC camp-ground at Fletcher Bay.
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Whanganui Island
In the Firth of Thames there are a group of islands running north from Coromandel. We visited some of them this Easter.
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Te Waihou Walkway
Not far from Putaruru, the Te Waihou walkway leads to the Blue Spring, which supplies 70% of NZ’s bottled water.
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Lake Okareka
With conferencing over, we spent Friday night at a DOC camp ground on the shore of Lake Okareka, off the road out to Tarawera,
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GP Conference in Rotorua
On Thursday and Friday last week Felicity was speaking at a rural doctors’ conference in Rotorua, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to have a few days away with her in the camper-van.
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Rangitopuni Creek
A recent newspaper article about king tides this weekend showing a photo of the Riverhead Bridge walkway under water reminded me that it has been a long time since we’ve been that far up the harbour.
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Karamea and Oparara Basin
After completing our tramp over the Old Ghost Rd, we stayed in a rented house in Karamea for three nights and explored the local sights.
Specimen Hut to Seddonville
The final section of the Old Ghost Rd cycleway follows the Mokihinui River gorge past the Glasgow Range to the end of the road at Seddonville.
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