Glen Clova Sunday Escape

Jon, Isabelle, Duncan
We are about to sell the Walkabout VW minibus, so we though we'd give it a proper send off with a trip to Glen Clova, which despite being relatively close to Edinburgh, is rarely visited by us as the access is via Dundee and so is off our regular routes.

It is a stunning glen to visit to see autumn colours, even if you are racing the clouds moving in and the early onset of darkness now the clocks have changed.

We walked up Tolmount via Jock's Road, the old drovers route eastwards from Glen Clova over to Braemar. The views from the top were of many familar places from a new angle; the ski tows of Glas Maol (Glenshee), the back end of Lochnagar, the (still green) Glenshee Hills, last visited on touring skis and the bigger hills of the Southern Cairngorms now speckled with large snow patches. You can see the sea from the summit too, which is cool for a hill which has a definite INLAND feel to it!

A great day which ended a pint and chips in the Glen Clova Hotel

Awesome Arran

Guides: Jon, George, Isabelle
Driver: Mr H
Conditions: Monsoon, followed by a stiff gale then hillfog clearing to brilliant sunshine for the descent of Goatfell and the journey from the island.

Customers: Anna, Cathy, Charlie, Desiree, Eric, Jess, Jim, John, Lisa, Louis, Maria, Marti, Tomas

This was a Pre-Summit Adventure for the Adventure Travel Trade Association annual summit which was held afterwards at Aviemore - we managed coastal walks/flooded road wading, Round The Island Biking, uber-adventurous sea kayaking and a walk up Goatfell as well as castle and distillery visits, Golf!! and local food tastings in three short days

Heart of the Highlands September

Guide - Peter
Customers - Dan, Erin, Kristina - with Elizabeth and Jane for single days
Conditions - autumnal!

Big Highland Tour September

Guides - Peter, Ian
Customers - Emma, Eve, Elizabeth, Frances, Graeme, Greer, Jaqueline, Julia, Sreya
Conditions - Usual mixture!

Skye Discovery September

Guide - Ian
CUstomers - Anne, Mhairi, Patrick, Kerry, Kathleen, Virginia, Paul
Conditions - usual Skye mixture

Carn Liath (Blair Atholl Munro) by train

Guide - Jon
Customer - Jenny
Conditions - Mostly dry but overcast with a cold wind on the tops
A good escape from the hustle and madness that is the Edinburgh Fringe! Blair Atoll has the nearest clump of Munros that are reached by train from Edinburgh (two hours each way) and despite a route marching pace and 24km distance, we still had time for a pint and a whisky in the Atholl Arms afterwards.

Heart of the Highlands August

Guide - Niall
Customers - Anna, Karin, Maria, Marion, Richard, Tamar
Conditions - mostly good!
Special note: our ultra reliable minibus had its first breakdown but this did not affect the programme at all

Highland Railways & Hills August

Guides - Gary, Isabelle
Customers - Bob, Georgina, Jacqueline, Ken, Mary, Osnat, Virginia
Conditions - mostly good

Skye Discovery August II

Guide - Ian
Customers - Catherine, Carolyn, Dale, John, Marc, Marina, Nancy, Tracy
Conditions - mostly fine

Ben Nevis Weekend August

Guide - Ali
Customers - Carl, Caroline, Claire, Geraldine, Kevin, Vera
Conditions - Good

Skye Discovery August I

Guide - Ian
Customers - Alice, Clare, Eitan, Gary, Jonathan, Shona, Silke, Veronika
Conditions - mostly fine!

North West Highlands July

Guide - Shaun
Customers - Alexander, Elizabeth, Nicola, Kathy, Ranney
Conditions - Wet!

Big Highland Tour Custom July

Guides - Joe, Peter
Customers - John, Kathy, Cynthia, Gary, Olivia, Amanda
Conditons - mostly wet!

Schiehallion Day Tour

Guide - Jon
Customers - Finnish Biologists and Anders
Conditions - We hadn't been up Schiehallion for a while so headed up there for a sunny Friday day trip - great views, not too warm, no midgies - ace!

3 Peaks Challenge July

Guides - Niall (Ben Nevis), Jon (Scafell Pikes, Snowdon)
Driver - MJ
3 Peaks Adventurers - Jia Nee, James, Jonathan, Matthew, Mike, Sally
Conditions - Slightly damp on Ben Nevis, sunset on Scafell Pikes turning into thick hillfog in the dark followed by a biblical deluge on Snowdon
Three Peaks trips (especially big events) are more than slightly controversial with the amounts of large groups on the hills at the same time - however for small groups of friends, the Three Peaks is a great challenge and achievable adventure

Highland Railways & Hills July

Guide - Gary
Customers - Maurita, Oliver, Marianne, Nathan, Daniel, Adam
Conditions - Scottish Summer!

Big Highland Tour July

Guide: John
Customers: Peggy, Mariangela, Lane, Emilie, David, Peter, Elizabeth
Conditions: Mixed

Skye Discovery July

Guide - John-Paul
Customers - Elena, Kathy, Ali, Ken
Conditions - Damp-ish

North West Highlands June

Guide - Peter
Customers - Dagmar, Eva, Nigel, Kim, Beatrice, Tom, Rida, Peter

Sense International Inner Hebrides Trek June

Guides - Peter, Mr H, Jon, George the Dog
Customers - Ana, Daryl, David, Ed, John, Miles, Noleen, Richard

Walkabout were on hand to provide logistical support and midgie hats for a small group of charity walkers supporting Sense International - http://www.senseinternational.org.uk - the route took in Islay, Jura, Mull and Iona (transferring from Jura to Mull by RIB past the Corryvreckan whirlpool). The weather was amazing and the midgies were unusually benign.

Western Lochs and Highlands June

Guide - Geordie
Customers - Bruce, Judith, Frans, Kim, Marie, Karen, Roberta
Conditions - Hot and dry

Ben Vrackie by Train - Saturday 19th June

Guide - Ali
Customers - Barbara, Benjamin, Itzhak, Gilli, Sam, Trish
Conditions - Warm!
The trip was swapped to a Ben Vrackie by Train from Ben Lomond due to transport issues

Skye Discovery June

Guide - Ian
Customers - Donald, Deborah, Lise
Conditions - fine

Highland Railways & Hills June

Guide - John
Customer - Judy, Ken, Virginia
Conditions - fine

Ben Nevis weekend June

Guide - Jon
Customers - Alan, Emma, Janet, Jo, Nichola, Sue, Tom
Conditions - Hot and thirsty trip uo Ben Nevis on the saturday followed by (for the first time in ages) the Buachaille on the Sunday, under increasingly darkening skies.

Heart of the Highlands - May

Guide - May
Customers - Allen, Claudia, Dolly, Edward, James, Janice, Robert C, Robert P
Conditions - Mostly fine with one downpour day and a whiteout on Ben Macdui

Ben Nevis Weekend May II

Guide - Jon (Ben Nevis), Gary (Glen Nevis)
Customers - Candace, Marisa, Matthew, Suzanne
Conditions - Hot and muggy on the way up Ben Nevis, cold on the summit, baking on the way down followed by a better walking day in Glen Nevis

Custom Skye Trip May

Guide - John O
Customers - Lyn, Carl, Jeanne, Norbert
Conditions - Overcast but dry(ish)

Big Highland Tour May

Guide - Geordie
Customers - Alison, Anthony, Billie, Susan
Conditions - Colder than usual for May

Ben Vrackie by Train Day Tour

Guide - Jon
Customers - Eli, Kelly
Conditions - Everything including constant hail on the way down before a quick half of Moulin Light at the Moulin Inn followed by a dash downhill to Pitlochry station with 10 minutes to spare

Ben Nevis Weekend May

Guide - Gary
Customers - Christel, Jurgen, Susan
Conditions - Gloriously sunny both days, with a good covering of snow still on Ben Nevis. The skinny dipping in Glen Nevis on the Sunday was slightly extreme!

Terry's Skye Munros

Guides - Martin followed by Andy
Customer - Terry
Conditions - Everything from morning ice melting away in early Summer sun followed by rain and wind for 10 out of the 11 Cuillin Munros

Alison's Last Skye Munros

Guide - Ian
Customer - Alison
Conditions - Great day Monday followed by challenging weather for Cuillin scrambling

Skye Discovery May

Guide - Peter
Customers - David, Ellen, Frank, Kristine, Mary, Rachael, Trish
Conditions - Usual Skye mixture!

Blaven - Monroe on a Munro

Guides - Jon & Isabelle
Cutomers - David, Ellen
Conditions - Great sunny bank holiday Monday walking up the steep and spectacular "other Skye Munro"

Ben Nevis Day Tour

Guide - Jon
Customers - Jo, Jess, Rob, Sam
Hard to believe (but not really) that just a week after the blizzard, white-out kilt-wearing Tartan Army fundraiser I would go back up there in glorious sunshine, with awesome views of the surrounding hills, most still capped with snow. Ace!

Tartan Army Kilt Walk

Tartan Army Kilt Walk
Jon walked with Andrew Ness, Andrew Cook, Chris Duffy, Paul & Simon Johnston plus Ramone and a load of Scottish football fans (The Tartan Army)

20 miles on the West Highland Way starting at the top of Glencoe, up and over the Devil's Staircase in the dark to Kinlochleven followed by the long walk over to Glen Nevis before an ascent of Ben Nevis, still with full-on winter conditions on the summit

An ace (and challenging) trip in aid of the TACC Children's Charity

http://www.justgiving.com/tartanarmyness

Lowther Hill Half-Day Tour

Guide - Jon
Customers - Emily, Katja
Conditions - Cloudy

This was the first ever half-day tour to Lowther Hill, Scotland' Highest Pub Walk. You would expect the highest village in the country to be somewhere in the Highlands, Tomintoul perhaps, but in fact Scotland's highest villages are Wanlockhead and Ledhills in the north-east corner of Dumfries & Galloway, 50 miles south west of Edinburgh. It is great walking up a 700meter mountain with wide ranging views, however on this day Emily, Katja and I had only thick hill fog for company. And a load of white mountain hares.

Skye Discovery April

Guide - John O
Customers - Jane, Mark
Conditions - Usual unpredictable mixture

Ben Nevis Weekend Easter

Guide - Gary
Customers - Akbar, Bruce, Keith, Lucy, Peter with Louise & Jo along for Ben Nevis
Conditions - Mixed wintry for Ben Nevis Saturday, gloriously sunny for Glen Nevis Sunday

GARY'S BLOG

Skiing the Pentlands

Not a Walkabout trip - but we were just having fun on the hills you can see from the office

New Year to Spean Bridge and Invergarry

Guides - Jon, Ian
Customers - Elvan, Nina, Sally, Ranald
Conditions - Winter Wonderland!
Day 1 - Devil's Staircase in Glencoe and a Hogmany celidh in the evening
Day 2 - Creag Meagaidh
Day 3 - Buchaille Etive Beag/walk in the woods
Day 4 - Glen Nevis