Lots going on here, hence the lack of action on the blog. Sorry about that. There just doesn’t seem enough time in the day sometimes, but that’s a good thing. The warm weather – well, mostly – has seen the team out gathering material for the next issue and ‘banking’ stories for next year. 

Last weekend was spent camping with friends at the Lazy Duck Hostel, set in the middle of the forest at Nethy Bridge. I’d stayed at this particularly bijou hostel a couple of time before, but had never camped there. I will definitely be back. This is what good sites are all about. It’s small, mostly easy-going and packed with nice little touches, from a chimenea for evening campfires to a wet weather shelter, complete with chairs and table. Waking up to the sound of red squirrels clambering up the trunks of nearby Scots pines and the gentle quacking of the eponymous lazy ducks was a good way to start the day. Just watch out for the geese that also roam around. One of them has an evil streak.

Although the heavens opened on the Sunday, we had a brilliant Saturday with the sun a constant companion as we cycled through the pinewoods of Abernethy Forest, heading for Ryvoan Bothy. The views out over the heather to the high plateau of the Cairngorms, snow banks still glinting on northern slopes, emphasised that this is truly Scotland’s big country. A place to savour.

The only downer came when I decided to follow my friend, Iain, up the trail to Meall a’ Bhuachaille that snakes steeply from the bothy. It looked tough going, but we convinced ourselves that the descent would be worth it. After slogging a third or so of the way up, Iain turned around and demonstrated a textbook descent, coping with the tricky stone steps and drainage ditches along the steep trail with apparent ease. I was less fortunate, smacking my back tyre against one particularly sharp rock, resulting in an equally textbook ‘pinch flat’. We stood by the bothy congratulating ourselves on our safe descent to the unmistakeable sound of air leaving my back tyre.

Of course, for the well-prepared backcountry rider, this is no more than a minor inconvenience. We thought likewise, until it dawned on us that the puncture repair kit we had so dutifully included in our packs was not accompanied by tyre levers or any proper tools whatsoever. We had to use sturdy sticks, flat stones, key rings and even the edge of the fire shovel from inside the bothy to prise the tyre from the rim to patch up the tube. We got there in the end after much sweating and cursing, and were on our way. Such ineptitude. Honestly, for the editor of an outdoors magazine, it’s not good. But at least we remembered the pump.

This weekend, it’s off to Perthshire to explore Glen Lyon – a long, lonely and quite beautiful glen tucked away from the rest of the area’s many honeypots. Tyre levers have already been packed.

I hope you are also enjoying the summer and having lots of outdoor adventures of your own. And if you have pictures, please do send them in – we’d love to feature you in the Reader Adventurers column of our autumn issue, published in early September.

 
Bye for now
Richard