Grey - A'Chir in Arran

Photo: Richard Hewinson

Photo: Diana

Another exciting and challenging ridge to scramble is A'Chir in the Isle of Arran - west coast of Scotland. Arran is said to be "Scotland in miniature". But I was unlucky here. A dodgie jump at a place called "Le Mauvais Pas" (I wonder why is called like this...) put a stop to my walk at 6pm. I broke my ankle in two places and I had to be rescued from the mountain by some handsome guys, and lifted by helicopter. Six weeks on a cast and two operations did not stop my desire of going back and doing it again. Plus: God bless the UK National Health Service!

Brown - Stac Pollaidh the 1st scrambling

Scrambling is a method of ascending rocky faces and ridges. The term is somewhere between hillwalking and rock climbing. It means that hands must be used in the ascent. A very nice scramble I can suggest is Stac Pollaidh, a mountain in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. It can be climbed in less than 3 hours by any relatively fit person and once on the ridge the summit is located about 300 m to the west. To reach the it one must scramble over several rocky pinnacles and a good portion of skills is needed!

Autumn colours

This picture is to compensate the last picture published. It was taken on my way to the West Coast in the Autumn of 2009. And yes, this is Scotland!

Yellow bonfires - Guy Fawkes' night

This is an awful picture but it is the only one I have to illustrate the celebrations of Guy Fawkes' night in Aberdeen! It was taken on the 5th of November (2009) at the beach where lots of people concentrated to see the bonfires. This year, since Friday that we can hear fireworks in Aberdeen, but the big firework will be tomorrow evening! And what are British people celebrating? They celebrate Guy Fawkes' arrest and execution due to an attempt to kill protestant King James I of England (and bomb the parliament) in 1605. His objective was to trigger King James' replacement by a Catholic king. The 5th of November was kept as a thanksgiving day for the divine intervention in the King's survival and since then, people celebrate with (rather noisy) bonfires!