St. Davids trip - Aug 2019

A camping trip in early August, during a heatwave, to see the extraordinary tidal effects in Ramsey Sound, on the Pembrokeshire coast of Wales, during a spring tide.  The sea changes direction through the sound with each tide, causing spectacular white water around the rocks known as 'The Bitches' which are very popular with kayakers and tourists on organised boat trips.

Scotland trip - July 2019

Our first place of interest to visit on this trip was Stob Dearg (1022m) in Glen Coe; this is a spectacular looking mountain with an iconic, triangular shape when seen from the A82 as one reaches the west end of Rannoch Moor before driving up the dramatic Glencoe Valley.  Having driven past this famous mountain on our last Scotland trip three years ago, we decided it would be nice to walk up it.

Stob Dearg

Looking west toward the Pass of Glencoe from the Stop Dearg footpath.

The vastness of Rannoch Moor, as seen from the summit of Stob Dearg

On the summit of Stob Dearg with Loch Linnhe in the distance.

We didn't see any Golden Eagles on this trip, but there was a big Raven hopping around on Stob Dearg's summit, admiring the view.

The south west view from Stob Dearg (Buachaille Etive Mor)

After a tiring seven hours on Buachaille Etive Mor, we drove on to our next camp at Glen Nevis where the next day we walked through the Nevis Gorge, deep into the heart of the mountains until we came to a fabulous waterfall, the Steall Falls, which is Scotland's second highest waterfall, with a single drop of 120m.

The Steall Waterfall

Standing in front of the Steall Waterfall

We then drove on upwards into the northwest Highlands to explore the Coigach peninsula. It was a lovely surprise to drive over a hill on Rubha Mor and then see the Summer Isles archipelago.  We decided to camp here at Altandhu, and for once we had a midge-free evening.

The Summer Isles, Northwest Highlands

High on the agenda was a summit camp on Cul Mor (849m).  We had been monitoring the weather continuously for a good day to climb it, but the forecast kept promising improved weather towards the end of the week. Running out of days, we couldn't wait around forever so we went up with a forecast for light cloud and hoped for the best.  But halfway up, low cloud rolled in and the summit camp, which should have been a spectacular event, turned into a white-out.  If only we had gone up the previous evening when the summit was cloud-free instead of trusting the forecast.

Cul Mor, Inverpolly, Highland, the day before we went up it.

Cul Mor summit, in cloud.  Not the weather we had hoped for.

A Song Recital in May

It has always been a dream of mine to perform a song recital of wonderful repertoire with a delightful soprano, on a magnificent concert grand Steinway piano.  This May, that dream came true.

Here's the video that I made of the recital:   https://youtu.be/Ru5Y1MOm8qY which was held in the chapel of Chichester University; with songs by Schubert, Mozart, Mendelssohn and others.