448: Deer, dear, dear

Three words that sound the same in English but have different meanings. Two of them are homonyms (words that are spelled the same and sound the same but have different meanings) and the third is a homophone (a word that has the same sound but is spelled differently and has a different meaning). How did I get here, dear? On our walk yesterday we came across the leg of a deer hanging from the upright post of a fence. It's just the leg - our suspicion is that the deer got trapped trying to get over the fence and, over time, the deer starved to death and the rest of it, minus the leg, was eaten by some of the wild animals that roam these hills. See if you can spot the leg in one of the pictures. Two walks for the price of one in the blog today. On 3rd September Alisdair and I walked around Loch Badanoch and had a very nice luncheon in the Garvault Country House Hotel - the most remote hotel in mainland Britain - washed down with a local beer from the Orkney Islands. Thankfully, it wasn't my turn to drive so Alisdair got to watch me enjoying the beer! Yesterday we chose a route closer to home, behind Golspie village and up in the hills. Surprisingly, we shared the hill (Ben Bhraggie - 397 metres above sea level) with a mountain biking competition. The hills were alive, to the sound of music and the swish of bike wheels on the tracks.  

Thursday 3rd September - 19,723 steps 

 

Sunday 20th September = 17,877 steps

 

The 'stats' for both of these walks give the impression that we are 'dawdling'! Please be aware that walking cross country, in the hills, through the heather and the gorse and the bogs is not conducive to a fast speed. That's my excuse  and I'm sticking to it.

Minus 10 points to the new blogger.com interface and to the new face book interface, both of which are causing me grief and annoyancee! Why do these people automatically assume they know what we want? I suspect the majority of us were quite happy with what we had before.

Each day it looks more and more as though many European (and world) coutnries will be reimposing national lockdowns in the very near future in another attempt to bring the coronavirus under control.  Again. Isn't it incredible the number of people, of all ages, who think that the rules, introduced for the benefit of the whole community, don't apply to them. 

447: There's gold in them there hills

I'm out and about in the Highlands of Scotland. Many people have heard of gold rushes in Alaska and California. Not everybody knows that there was also a 'gold rush' in Scotland. It took place in the Strath of Kildonan in Sutherland in 1869. Click here for more information. 

My friend Alisdair and I went walking there yesterday and, needless to say, we found no gold and came out as poor as we went in. Nevertheless, it was a very pleasant 9 mile walk. The weather, unusually, was kind to us and, as far as I know, there was no coronavirus lurking in the hills just good, Scottish, fresh air. On this map it looks flat, but let me assure you, it wasn't! 

On the way to the walk we stopped at the coastal village of Helmsdale for a caffeine fix. Unfortunately, sleepy Helmsdale doesn't do mornings so the few coffee shops there were firmly closed. Never mind, we managed to get some cold starbucks coffee from the local Spar shop and got our fix that way. On the way back, after the walk, the village had finally woken up and we got some coffee in the Timespan cafeteria.     

A few pictures from the walk, showing the glorious heather and, a new word for me, an ancient sheep fank. 

The burn where they panned for gold

The sheep fank

Alisdair and I posing at the cairn atop Cnoc na Bèiste (350 metres). In the distance a mountain called Morven!

Finally, a short video clip about 'the gold rush'