Cavers: Doug Blane & Damian Harris-Dowsett

Urdhva Padmasana (upside down lotus yoga pose) inside Gaping Gill by Doug Blane.

Many thanks to everyone who helped, especially:
Damo for sharing the adventure
Rich & Carl for lending us caving kit
TD for logging us out & back, making mugs of tea on our return
Sally for her lovely veggie dinner
Andy Morse for the route prep / advice
Ingleborough Estate for permission
Everyone in the MAC for making life fun & keeping my ego from becoming too big
Carol Smith for introducing me to Urdhva Padmasana yoga pose
All my vinyasa yoga teachers for helping me flow
To life its self for flowing…

Doug Blane

Hello all, hope everyone is well.

We have had a lot of fun since my last letter, loads of stuff to tell you about – are we sitting comfortably?

We went to a rodeo. There were lots of cowboy hats, belts, buckles and boots on view, and some very interesting characters. Just in front of us were a group of maybe 30 Mormons. Now this religious group look like slightly trendy versions of the Amish. Their hair is an acquired taste, but if you enjoy wearing braces and rounded hats, then this this is the life for you.

Behind us were 3 retired rodeo cowboys. They were great, and explained all the disciplines on show, and their origins. Clearly the origins were mainly from the cattle ranches way back, but most seem to be derived from drunken dares. For instance, as our cowboy friend said, who would jump off a perfectly good horse to wrestle a steer to the ground, or get on the back of a very angry and large bull? You can imagine that dare, cow tipping on steroids. The bare back horse riding obviously came from breaking in the horses, but now you don’t want them to be broken, or after a couple of rides it would be a very boring spectacle, so they are bred to be as nasty and as ill tempered as possible. Any really nasty mare and stallion are coupled with the intention of producing some real spitting and snarling beasts. Very good entertainment. Also very good was the bull riding. You don’t have to breed these to be nasty, they just hate having someone on their backs. I wouldn’t do it.

The other day we witnessed the worst example of aggressive nationalism that we have seen. We were in a bar when in staggered 4 drunk firemen in kilts, with bagpipes, and who were on a wake. They played several loud pieces, which was good fun, but then they introduced the star spangled banner by shouting out the following “This is for all of our honourable fighting men who are right now in Afghanistan hunting down and killing the cowardly mother f**!!*s who want to take away our freedom and destroy our constitution and way of life”. I got the impression they wanted someone to say something un-patriotic so they could have a fight. As they were wearing kilts, I thought about asking if they were from England, but decided that it wasn’t the time.

I am all for a bit of patriotism, but some Americans take it way too far, it can be a little frightening. Definitely intimidating. There is so much importance placed on this idea of freedom, security and the constitution. It is alot like Shakespeare “I believe he protests too much”. If you are lucky, this will be the topic for another day.

I also had a fantastic weekend in the hills with a friend from work. Dom is the maintenance manager at work, and he is great, one of those people for whom nothing seems impossible. He owns 25 acres at the top of a mountain in Pennsylvania, and he took me there in his HUGE pick up truck, towing a HUGE trailer with 2 quad bikes on the back. We got to the bottom of the mountain where we stopped, drank a beer and loaded his pistol with 28mm rounds. Deliverance came to mind, not helped later when I met his neighbours on the hill, hill billy red necks to put it mildly.

So we got to his ‘cabin’ and checked it over for bear damage as they often get in when on one is home. There were scratch marks and damage to a door, but the 3 bears were not home. When I say ‘cabin’, it is because this is a huge wooden dwelling. It is bigger than our house in the UK, and could comfortable sleep 12. Dominic built it with his brothers in just 4 weekends. Amazing. He is a real active and positive kind of guy.

We went out on the quad bikes that evening and he showed me all around his property. He would not go anywhere without his pistol tucked into his jeans – for personal protection. At the time I thought this was abit paranoid, but later I was to think it was a good idea……….

That evening, after we had eaten and it had turned to dusk, we were sitting on his porch drinking some whiskey when around the corner walked a black bear! Now, I had so much wanted to have a close up black bear experience in America, but didn’t think I’d ever get the chance. We both saw it at the same time, not hard as it was just 10 feet from us. It knew we were there, snorting at us to prove she was tougher than us. Being around 400 pounds, this was obvious without all the snorting. We sat very still, and let it do its thing, it was in front of us for around 10 mins before it moved to the back yard, just behind Doms truck.

Dom said (I found out later it was meant as a joke) “Do you want to go watch it from the back of the truck?”. Yes I said straight away, so we jumped up into the open back of the truck with 2 small and torches, and a 28mm pistol (only to scare). The bear was patrolling the ground in front of us now, clearly stamping her authority on us. We were both abit nervous, until we noticed 2 more bears in the tree line, then we became very nervous! Dom asked me if I had loaded his gun properly – now I was becoming freaked. We could not leave the truck as the bear was closer to the cabin than we were, and even made an attempt to get in, standing up and leaning on the door. After around 15 mins of this, my torch failed, so now we had only 1 weak torch to keep track of the 3 bears, and with one gun that I loaded, this moved me into the officially scared category. Eventually the bears move off, so we carefully move back into the cabin, and locked the door!

A very cool experience.

The next day we heard from a local red neck hill billy that the bear we saw has some cubs, so the 2 we saw in the tree line were probably those – even cooler.

Attached is a photo of the bear, and also a shot taken 2 miles from Doms cabin on the Sat we were there by a motion detecting camera. This mountain lion has got to be 6 feet long, that is a large stag he has got, a white tailed deer like Bambi. I now understood why he carries a gun.

The rest of the weekend was spent riding the bikes, and shooting his guns. He bought the 28mm I have mentioned, a 38mm Magnum revolver, a 22mm rifle, his high powered rifle and a highly illegal Buggsy Malone style shot gun. Yes, a revolving barrel semi automatic shot gun. Fun.

I had bought some UK beer for him to try from the local liquor store on the way up. Disgusting. It was very old beer, the best before was Oct 1995. We returned it on the way out, and the store man said he had a customer who would drink it – he would strain it for him. Did I mention the locals were red neck hill billies?

Walking in American towns is not easy. I tried to walk half a mile to a shop when my car was having a service. It was abit like following sheep tracks in the hills, you think you are on a path only to see it stop. This happens alot, there will be a footpath along the front of a couple of shops, but it will just stop at a road, with no way to cross, and no path on the other side. What do they think people will use the path for?

If you break the law and cross with out a crossing, you have to bushwhack and dodge cars before another footpath starts up and goes nowhere. Very odd, and annoying. Glad I’ve got that off my chest.

We have just returned from 4 days in Vermont to see the Autumn foliage. This is 2 years running we have done this which makes us “leaf peepers”. Once again this was amazing, well worth doing if anyone loves this time of year. It is very cool as the trees are all different colours so the hills look alittle like a child’s mosaic when they scrunch up all colours of cotton wool and stick them on paper.

The photos can do it much better justice than my words can.

There is something great about driving in an area where the road signs warn of Moose.

We went for a couple of walks, and on one, we watched a couple of nice beavers (I never get tired of saying that). They were swimming around in a pond and slapping the water with their tails to show who’s boss. Yes, Dave H, there were wet beavers.

This trip was abit of an experiment to see how well the children took to being in the car so much. They were excellent as it happens, which means we are ON for our cross country trip next summer. We plan on spending several weeks on a road trip out west, and now plan on an extra week to drive there from here – huge road trip. I will need to compile a decent selection of big American road trip music – lots of hair and tight trousers I should think.

This trip will come between jobs, Viki has confirmed with work our intention to return next summer. They had hoped we would stay longer, but there are too many reasons to come home, and not many reasons to stay. It was quite an easy decision to make once we sat down and thought it through. We will be leaving here early next July, travelling for 4 to 6 weeks, flying home and then starting work again end Aug. Viki doesn’t have a job to come back to yet, but you all know Viki, she won’t allow that to stop her doing something!

So it is official, we’ll be home next year. Still, time for another few letters before that.

Send me all your news.

Dave and co.

St.Kilda and other Islands

13th to 17th September 2009

St.Kilda is the name given to a group of four main islands (Hirta, Dun, Soay and some 5 miles away, Boreray) and numerous sea-stacks. Two of these, Stac an Armin and Stac Lee, are the highest in the UK. The archipelago lies 60 miles due west of Tarbert in Harris, and are the eroded remains of a volcano that was extremely active some 55 million years ago. The crater was more than 6 miles in diameter and its magma has produced the UK’s highest and most spectacular sea-cliffs.

Apart form the hundreds of thousands of pairs of sea-birds who call the place home, people also lived here for at least 5,000 years. They mostly subsisted on their avian neighbours as fishing was simply too dangerous in the surrounding waters. However, their existence was hard in the extreme, and the arrival of commercial visitors from 1838 onwards soon highlighted this. A more financial-based economy was inflicted upon the residents, and ultimately a dependency upon supplies from ‘outside’. When the WW1 Naval Wireless Station was removed in 1919, some 25% of the population followed within two years. In 1930, after repeated crop failures and various tragedies had befallen them, the final 36 inhabitants asked that the government evacuate them and re-house them elsewhere; most were taken to Loch Aline by Mull.

The islands were subsequently bought by the National Trust for Scotland (NTS), who leased part of Hirta to the MOD in 1957. The MOD established a radar-tracking station and a rather ugly utilitarian pre-fabricated base to house its personnel. Despite a recent proposal that this be closed down, it has just received a stay of execution, at least for the duration of the current lease period. This in turn means that the base will continue to provide water, power and communications for the NTS staff and Hirta’s visitors.

As a result of their special significance, the islands were designated one of Scotland’s first National Nature Reserves in 1957. This was followed in 1986 by their being awarded UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site status, and in 2005, Cultural World Heritage Site status; one of only 25 such dual designations in the world! For a time this lead to access to the islands becoming more restricted. However, with the passing of the new Access Laws in Scotland, the NTS realised that they had to work with their potential visitors rather than risk being ignored, and in 2008 some 3,600 folk were allowed to visit. Over half came by cruise liner, with most of the remainder being transported by the handful of Hebridian-based charter boats.

Significantly though, most visitors were only allowed a few brief hours ashore on Hirta; long enough to visit the original village, its museum and the NTS shop, but not giving them enough time to disturb the wildlife further afield. Hence, people wanting to land on other islands and to climb to the summits of each of them are still considered a nuisance as far as the NTS are concerned. To be fair though, we visitors need to be sure that we won’t disturb any nesting Schedule 1 birds and hence risk committing a criminal offence!

Enter, me… I spent nearly two weeks camped on Hirta in 1975 with my school, and back then things were more relaxed, with the army allowing us access to their base and all its facilities, and even treating us to trips round the archipelago in their inflatable boats and landing us on Dun. We also clambered over every square inch of Hirta that we could possibly manage! I later returned in 1988 sailing with my father, when we climbed up Conachair on Hirta, but though the weather was perfectly settled, we didn’t dare leave our yacht Aeolian unattended for any longer.

Since then, I’ve discovered ‘hills’, and more pertinently, Marilyns. Defined as hills with a re-ascent of 150m from all sides, this means that six such entities exist in the St.Kilda Group, four of which I hadn’t climbed! As there are other poor deluded souls with similar ambitions, I joined a group of them for an attempt in early April this year. Permission was obtained from the NTS to land and climb all six hills as this would be before the birds came ashore to nest but unfortunately the weather, the ultimate arbitrator of whether one can visit St.Kilda or not, was being less positive and after waiting for a week, I had to leave. To rub salt in to my wounds, those who were able to wait longer were rewarded with a day trip two days later during which eight of them managed to land and ascend Boreray.

This hurt, and so when I learned that a second trip had been granted climbing permission by the NTS for later in the year once the nesting birds would hopefully have left, I quickly booked my place. Boats were being ‘reserved’ for a two week period, and this time I made sure that I could stay as long as needs be.

As September arrived, the volume of emails discussing and reviewing all of the possible arrangements for the 20 folk due to go increased dramatically, with all sorts of climbing alliances and tactics being proposed for possible ascents of the Stacs. Equally amusing was the attempts of us all not to have to use our own climbing ropes as they would be exposed not only to the salt but also the ammoniacal effects of bird guano!

Then, as the start of the ‘access window’ drew ever nearer it became clear that the weather was about to provide us with a prolonged calm period; this reached the Western Isles a couple of days ahead of us ensuring that the swell would die away during the morning of Sunday 13th, exactly when we required. The trip was ‘on’.

By the Saturday night, we were all either in Lewis or in Harris, depending on which boat we had been allocated to – ‘my’ boat was to leave from West Loch Roag whilst the other would depart from Leverburgh in Harris. 6.30am departures were agreed, and so I found myself leaving Laxdale just before 5am on a very misty and damp morning. The drive across to the West Side did reward me with a sighting of an otter in the headlights as it crossed the road though….

I actually arrived at the pier a few minutes before the crew, and it was rather depressing to see the drizzle swirling in the neon lights by the parking bays. However, this soon ceased, and everyone’s spirits lifted as the daylight arrived and we all went on board (having first signed various disclaimer forms…!) The initial exit from Loch Roag was calm enough, but as we left its shelter and headed out past Gallan Head, several folk became rather introverted. Sure enough, it wasn’t too long before several had succumbed to their mal de mer and had lost interest in their surroundings.

Which was a shame really, because over the next couple of hours the wind and swell died away, the mist lifted and the sun came out; this allowed us several sightings of porpoises, and one each of dolphins and a minke whale. It also let us see Boreray on the horizon ahead of us, so at least we were going in the right direction!

As we approached, we could eventually see that the other boat was waiting for us and a discussion was soon underway between the two skippers. Despite appearances, there was still enough of a swell to make the landing on Boreray awkward, and as the forecast was for it to improve still further later in the day, we continued on into Village Bay to check in with the Warden as all visitors have to do.

He seemed to be really crabby and only begrudgingly accepted the fact that not only did we have written permission from his boss, but we also had a senior RSPB chap in our party who would ensure that we didn’t damage the Puffin burrows on Dun.

We later found out that he was probably really more concerned

about the latest rare visitor that had only just arrived from America;

a Blackburnian Warbler which is about Chaffinch-sized and only been reported twice before in the UK. Sadly for the birders who subsequently tried to get to St Kilda, this specimen wasn’t seen again after this day and the accepted wisdom is that a Skua probably spotted it rather easily and had a light snack!

Anyway, we high-tailed it across the bay to be landed on the northeast shore of Dun, just to the right of the central saddle on the skyline, and got ashore without too much difficulty as the swell was less than half a metre. We had to walk along the shore some 100m or so to the right before we could get through a short but steep wall of grass, but were then able to walk without difficulty up and left on the 20 degree hillside to the saddle.

It was only necessary to drop down a couple of metres on the other side of the saddle to get a feel for what we could expect on Boreray and Soay – very steep grass slopes of between 45 and 55 degrees. This doesn’t sound too bad until you add in the pucker factor of 30m plus sea-cliffs, and the consequently rather abrupt ending of the grass…!

Anyway, in order that we minimised our disturbance to the said Puffin burrows, our route from the saddle kept fairly close to the skyline, and the views from the route up and from the summit were spectacular.

Views from Bioda Mor on Dun back to Hirta

Time was slipping by though, so we rushed back to the boats to head over to try to land on Boreray.

Stacs Lee and Armin are 172 and 196m respectively; the harder by far is Lee which is taller than it is wide, despite its appearance from this angle.

The easiest way up Boreray would have been to have landed on the southern end, but even the slight swell that remained was surging across a nasty rock shelf, and so the boatmen decided that they would have to land us on the east side where the party in April had summited from.

The landing point is in the extreme right of picture; after crossing the rocks shown below we were faced with some 20m of outwardly sloping rocky shelves, with a considerable amount of loose material balanced wherever it could. Most used a rope for their ascent, and all used it on the way down!

The route was then diagonally up under the gannet colony through a quagmire of spongy guano and numerous gugas (young gannets), both healthy and severely injured from falling from their nesting ledges high above, before striking out rightwards up the steep grass slope.

This lead up on to the knobbly summit ridge which was followed back left to a small grassy tower from where the nearly 200m Stac an Armin looked quite insignificant!

The ascent of the rock band had taken such a large group as ours quite a long time, and so a few of us went on ahead to prepare the abseil ready to start getting folk back out to the boats as soon as possible, as the mist was beginning to envelope the top of the island.. Once about half were safely down I followed them out to Lochlann for a coffee and bite to eat before we headed back to Hirta for the night.

In the end it was 7.30 or so by the time we landed there and received our ‘dos and don’ts lecture’ (sorry, introduction) from the warden. This only just left us enough time to get our tents up before darkness fell, but at least the army were willing to sell us a ‘carry out’, even if their rules now forbade us entry to the famous Puff Inn bar. We also had a brief council-of-war in the kirk (it was indoors and had pews) to make plans for the morning and decided that as the size of group on Boreray had been too large for comfort, we would stagger our landings on Soay for safety. The more influential group members were allocated to the first boat, whilst I and another ‘climber’ were asked to lead the second attempt. At least this would give us a chance for a morning’s walk on Hirta!

The early start of the previous day had left me more tired than I realised as for once I was definitely not the first up; a few intrepid souls had actually climbed Oiseval behind the base to witness the sunrise of what soon promised to be a wonderful day’s weather before they left for Soay. At least I was able to have breakfast first before being treated to fantastic views of Brocken Spectres and cloud inversions.

The extent of the army base can be best seen from the slopes of Oiseval; the white buildings in the bottom left are the Manse with the kirk behind, whilst those in the centre right are the Factor’s House and the toilet block.

The outer wall round the village houses (six of which have been restored) can be clearly seen, as can the numerous sheep folds and ‘cleitan’ – stone shelters built by the St.Kildans in which they stored their collected bird carcasses in order that they could be wind-dried and thus preserved….

Stac Lee, Stac an Armin and Boreray from high on Conachair, with the ubiquitous Soay sheep.

Soon after leaving the summit of Conachair the inversion rose to leave the hill tops all in cloud. This remained the case for much of the rest of the day, including our trip round to the north of Hirta and through the narrow channel to the

so-called landing place for Soay where Enchanted Isle was waiting.

The overhanging cliffs beneath An Cambir. The exceedingly difficult to climb 73m Stac Biorach

Our landing was on the rocky inter-tidal promontory at the foot of the nearer ridge. We then climbed a 12m ‘Diff’ pitch to get on to the slightly easier broken ridge above, which we followed to just short of the obvious notch whereupon we traversed round the corner on a ledge to gain the steep grass slopes beyond. These were steep enough that the camera didn’t reappear until the flatter ground near the summit, as I needed one (and sometimes both) hands to hold on to the grass….!

The mist was a mixed blessing as it made finding the correct route back down from the large relatively flat summit a difficult necessity.

However the descent itself was probably made easier as we could see very little of the drop beneath us until we emerged back into sunlight some 150m above the sea.

The accepted wisdom is that the slopes of Soay are steeper than those of Boreray, with an average gradient of more than 50 degrees!

Shortly after this photo was taken, the Enchanted Isle headed off to Stac Levenish (southeast of Dun) where they managed to land one determined person who made it to the 62m summit, but who had great difficulty in regaining the safety of the tender as by now the swell was rising again. Even on this more sheltered side of Soay, we had to contend with more than 1m of height which surged up the rocks to twice that height at times, making our own embarkation rather interesting.

Landings on Soay are rare, and not just because the NTS would prefer that you weren’t there. The weather ensures that less than 10% of attempts are successful, and the terrain then exacts its own toll – even on this remarkably benign day when we landed ten folk from our boat, five decided that discretion was the better part of valour and went no further than the landing promontory. I don’t know when the next landing will be, but I guess that for some time at least, I shall have been the last person to have set foot on Soay….

Once back at camp on Hirta, there were an awful lot of very wide grins and a palpable air of relief that we had all got back safely from both Boreray and Soay. By now we knew that the weather was deteriorating and that Stacs Lee and an Armin would be impossible come the morning, and anyway, the warden had over-ruled our permissions as the gannets had stayed late on their nests this year. To be honest, most who aspired to try either or both of these formidable sea-stacks were secretly relieved as it would have proved a nightmare trying to get through the colonies of these birds with their extremely sharp beaks. “Maybe another time” was a view being held by both these aspirant climbers and those who had failed to climb Soay.

By this time we had discovered that the museum installed in house no.3 had permanent heating to preserve the artifacts and presentations, and so after a meal we all repaired there to socialise and discuss further plans. The Enchanted Isle was due to leave for Harris at 10am in order to stop at various islands in the Sound there, whilst our Lochlann was scheduled to depart at 12 noon, so a few of us expressed a wish to ‘jump ship’ to make use of the three spare spaces on the Harris boat. It was agreed that we could raise it with the skippers during the 8.30am radio call.

This made me realise that if I wanted to do any more walking on Hirta before I left, I would have to be up early! Darkness wouldn’t be too much of a problem I decided, as the army had built a road up to the central ridge to access their radar stations making its ascent quite straight-forward.

A quick look out of the tent the next morning confirmed that it was dry if possibly misty higher up, and so I was away soon after 5am. As it turned out, the mist became quite thick above about 200m, and it required some careful navigation along the cliff edges until daylight began to appear about 45 minutes later. At least in the dark I wasn’t being attacked by the Great Skuas as I had been the previous morning, or else I wasn’t aware of them!

A brief thinning of the mist allowed me to identify the Lover’s Stone on my way past.

Young St Kildan men wishing to marry had first to prove that they had a head for heights and so were able to support their brides by climbing down the cliffs to collect birds and their eggs. They had to make their way out to the end of this slab where they then had to stand on the edge on one foot and reach out to touch the toes of their other foot out in front of them. I have crawled out there in the past, but not on my own on this damp and misty morning….

Having reached Mullach Bi, I decided not to bother with An Cambir but to head back for my breakfast and to pack up my tent, etc. Predictably, I passed five others on my way back who were all heading out with similar intentions, but at least I got back dry which was more than they could say as we were treated to a sudden and very sharp shower soon after.

The boat-swapping plans were fortunately approved by the skippers, and it wasn’t long before those of us leaving first were down at the pier to be embarked. By now the wind was beginning to rise and gusts were sweeping across the water. We stopped for a brief look at the Stac Levenish landing which was clearly not an option for today, and then set course for Pabbay in the Sound of Harris.

The run back was quick if somewhat bouncy as the waves began to build behind us, but they disappeared almost completely as we entered the tidal shallow waters in the Sound. We were able to land at the south corner of Pabbay which, like most of the islands in this area, has large areas of sand held together by short grasses and, in early summer, a profusion of flowers. This is known as machair.

The final landing of the trip was on Ensay, which I had also visited during my first St Kilda trip in 1975. Back then we were shown the cemetery on the east shore that is gradually being eroded by the sea, and so its inhabitants are being unearthed (un-sanded would be more accurate). This has required that many of their remains be housed in a shed that we were shown into – shelf after shelf of human skulls!

So ended a fantastic trip to St Kilda. However, as the weather was due to improve once again on Wednesday, further plans were already being considered, and by the time we landed in Leverburgh we had already booked a smaller 7-man boat for the next two days. First however, the logistics of being in Leverburgh and having left Mum’s car in Meavaig (and having some of my kit taken back there) had to be sorted. As a consequence, it was 11.30pm before I finally made it home and set the alarm for an 8am departure in the morning.

The next morning was again glorious and I was able to relax as I’d been offered a lift down to Scalpay where we were to be collected at the Caolas Scalpay jetty. There was hardly a breath of wind as we boarded Free Spirit and set off for the Shiant Islands, situated some 5 miles southeast of Lewis.

The Shiants, or Enchanted Isles, were also formed as a result of volcanic activity, the earliest of which was a couple of million years before that of St Kilda. However, whereas the latter’s rocks are predominantly gabbros and dolerites, those of the Shiants are more basic basalts, giving rise to the areas of columnar cooling seen in some of the sea-cliffs, and similar to, though less pronounced than, those of Staffa..

We were landed on the northeast corner of Garbh Eilean and climbed up yet more steep grass slopes before making our way down the steep rocky descent to the storm beach between it and House Island. The islands were bought in 1925 by Sir Compton Mackenzie (author of “Whisky Galore” and various Highland novels that became the basis for the TV series “Monarch of the Glen”. He often stayed here during the summer whilst writing.

Having climbed Eilean an Tighe we were taken over to Eilean Mhuire which is the third of the three main islands. Landing was eventually managed just south of the west-most point, and yet more steep grass enabled us to climb up on to quite a fertile plateau that showed signs of many lazy beds from previous times, as well as the remains of St Mary’s Chapel that gave rise to the island’s name.

The journey towards Loch Seaforth was memorable for sightings of porpoises but more impressively, several sea-eagles that breed in this area. Our boatman Ruari is also employed to ring the chicks and so was able to provide a lot of information on their habits. Having been re-introduced on Mull and Rhum in the mid-1970s, they have flourished, and out of more than 200 birds currently in Scotland, there are 46 breeding pairs that managed to fledge 36 chicks in 2009. They are the fourth largest eagle in the world with a wing span of up to 2.5m.

Our final stop of the day (having by now dropped off one person to walk through the rugged and remote area known as Pairc to reach Eisken) was on Seaforth Island, where we first practiced a technique that we were to use throughout Thursday; namely where the shore was steeply shelving to simply hold the bow of the boat (which had a large rubber fender fitted to it) against a suitable rock whilst we all walked ashore. This saved everyone a great deal of time and effort.

The high speed run back towards the relatively new Scalpay bridge took us past Toddun and the village of Rhenigidale. Throughout my childhood this was a place that could only be visited by foot or by boat as a road wasn’t built until 1990, at which point electricity finally arrived for the first time too! Once back on dry land we visited the highest point of the island of Scalpay before heading homewards.

And so to our final day of boating. We headed south from Leverburgh down the east coasts of North Uist and Benbecula to the island of Wiay. I guess that not much grazing takes place here as the heather was extremely tall and hard-going in places, but the top was duly visited. We then repeated the process on the island of Ronay just a few miles to the north., with its views of the mountains of North Uist.

By the time we returned to the boat the southerly wind was strengthening quickly, and the run northwards to the shelter of the Sound of Harris became quite exciting as the boat began surfing down the face of the waves.

Consequently, Ruari had to increase speed still further in order to retain steerage control, and at speeds of up to 24 knots at times we were overtaking the 2m waves and every so often we would scoop up the crest of the one in front and some of it would be thrown over the cabin to land on those sitting in the open stern….!

Our final stops were on the islands of Groay, where I found a large fishing boat fender 20m above sea-level some 300m from the shore, and on Killegray with its beautiful beaches.

Sadly, we then had to call time on our island-hopping activities, but what a five days we’d had. The final tally of summiteers was as follows:

Dun, St Kilda 16 summited Bioda Mor (178m)

Boreray, St Kilda 17 summited Mullach an Eilean (384m), plus two of the crew of Lochlann

Hirta, St Kilda at least 14 climbed Conachair (430m), and many did other hills as well

Soay, St Kilda 13 summited Cnoc Glas (376m), with a further 5 landing but not climbing

Pabbay 11 summited Beinn a’ Charnain (196m)

Ensay 8 visited the highest point (49m)

Garbh Eilean, Shiants 7 climbed Mullach Buidhe (160m)

Eilean an Tighe, Shiants 7 climbed to the highest point (125m)

Eilean Mhuire, Shiants 7 climbed to the highest point (90m)

Seaforth Island 7 climbed to the highest point (217m)

Wiay, Benbecula 6 climbed Beinn a’ Tuath (104m)

Ronay, Benbecula 6 climbed Beinn a’ Charnain (115m)

Groay 6 visited the highest point (26m)

Killegray 6 visited the highest point (45m)

Of course, none of this would have been possible without the skills and experience of the skippers and their crew:

Seatrek,

Lochlann & various RIBs

Murray MacLeod

Uigen, Isle of Lewis west side.

T 01851-672464

www.seatrek.co.uk

Crew – Donald & Iain Angus

Am Bothan Bunkhouse

Free Spirit

Ruari

Leverburgh

T01859-520251

www.ambothan.com

Crew – Duncan

Enchanted Isle

Seumas Morrison

Leverburgh, South Harris

T 01859-502007

www.seaharris.co.uk

Crew – Donald & Iain Angus

There are of course other companies running similar trips, most notably:

Kilda Cruises, Orca II, Angus Campbell, Leverburgh, S.Harris. T 01859-502060 www.kildacruises.co.uk

Tricky

October 2009

Poison Ivy is a stupid and mean plant.

You roll in it and get stung without realising it. You then spread it all over your body because it gets on your hands without you feeling anything………..for a couple of days, and then OH MY GOD that’s itchy.

What kind of a defensive strategy is that. By the time you have come out in itchy blisters you have no idea where the plant was, so can’t avoid it in the future.

Poor Robert. 6 days of extreme itching all over legs, chest, back and face, doctor visits, steroids, cream, bath solutions and allergy medicine. If the Beaver should be the national animal of America, Poison Ivy should be the national plant – overwhelming force, and perhaps a questionable strategy.

This happened on the camping trip from hell.

Pay attention, cos this is good.

Our good friends George and family invited us to join them for a weekend of camping. They had a pop up trailer and a tent, so we were just to take sleeping stuff – so far so good.

We arrived at 9pm to find that the tent had been broken on their previous trip when they left in a hurry due to rain. Fortunately I had taken my tent to show the children, so Robert and I stayed in that. I say stayed and not slept as sleep was impossible. This area is clearly the place to camp if you live anywhere in north NJ or NY City – there must have been over a thousand ‘campers’ in the couple of miles along the river. I say ‘campers’ as it is debatable that many of them were actually camping. Granted they had tents, but most also had electrical hook ups and I saw TVs, computers, video games, and even a full drum kit and electric organ in tents. Many of these ‘campers’ were very excited to be out in the wilderness, and were there to have fun – all night long. Drums, shouting, wolf calls, laughing and car alarms – its strange how some people never get tired of car alarms. I didn’t sleep for even a minute.

Next day didn’t get much better, most of the day was spent helping George sort his car out which wouldn’t start, and had to be towed away to be fixed. A second disturbed night – quieter as the partiers where tired, bless them, but it is impossible to keep 1000 campers quiet enough to allow a good nights sleep.

Sunday we thought went quite well, until on Monday it became obvious that Robert had at some point rolled around naked in Poison Ivy.

The highlight of the trip for me was seeing a full sized TV in someones tent and it not being the most inappropriate camping accessory on display – the drum kit wins it for me.

I also had a great camping trip since the last letter. Ingrid came to visit and we went to the Gunks – a famous climbing area and the hippy centre of NY state. Very fun. We backed off the climb we really wanted to do, but still got up some good routes.

Ingrids trip was not without incident either, but I refuse to embarrass her in any way by mentioning any of the many interesting things she did, but I have to agree that Pen Station Newark does sound like Pen Station New York. Easy mistake to make Ingrid.

Ingrid spotted an Americanism that has bothered me since we have lived here; many American cars have red rear indicators. Worse than that, sometimes it is the same light as the break light, so the whole rear of the car lights up red, with just one of the lights flashing to show it is turning. Very hard to spot, and in my mind very dumb design. Thank you for spotting it Ingrid, and from someone who forgot to retrieve their ONLY CASH POINT CARD and ONLY SOURCE OF MONEY from a cash point machine, that shows just how dumb red indicators are. Oops, I wasn’t going to mention that, sorry Ingrid.

The weather has been really good for a couple of weeks now, so we have been hitting the beach again.

We go once or twice a week, the sand is hot, the water cool, and the sky blue. Very nice. Robert and Amy are getting really good at body boarding.

We visited a flea market recently, and spent some time talking to the owner of a knife and sword outlet. Robert enjoyed feeling the weight of the swords, and especially liked waving the claymore around. The owner was shocked to hear that we were not allowed to take swords back to the UK, but conceded that as we don’t have many guns, perhaps we wouldn’t need one! We found this interesting – the idea of owning a full sized claymore being for self defence in the home. Wierd, and scary.

You will be surprised and abit scared to hear that I was offered the role of project manager for a $2,500,000 project the other day. I turned it down, but agreed to help as project coordinator until they could find a real project manager!

Actually it is fun so far, the president of the company is great, very supportive and positive about my contribution. I seem to be helping too which is even more suprising than being offered the job in the first place.

This also means that Viki and I both have the same boss now, and we are working in adjacent rooms – very odd.

You all know that I find baseball and American Football very long and dull games to watch. Well I find this hard to justify, as I have been trying in vain to explain why after 22 days of competition, and at only 1-1, the last 3 days of the Ashes series is so exciting. They just don’t get it, but 22 days of sport, and 1-1………… It is a great end to the series though. Come on the boys.

Let us know your news. Don’t assume everyone else is writing, cos they don’t – it is only you, and we want to hear from you.

Dave and family

Iceland 2000,

I have decided to archive some of my  pictures from trips over the years

What do you think of the format.

More pictures of Iceland coming soon,

Regards,

Carl

This weekend we will be camping at the Minors Standard pub, Winster.
If you see this pub, then you have arrived:

The camp area is behind the left hand pub car park.

http://www.winster.org/miners.htm

Kevin and Doreen Markham
THE MINERS’ STANDARD
Banktop
Winster
Derbyshire
DE4 2DR

TEL 01629 650279

Map:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=DE4+2DR&sll=53.138662,-1.64605&sspn=0.004216,0.010171&ie=UTF8&ll=53.138876,-1.647778&spn=0.004216,0.010171&t=h&z=17

The weather forecast is looking dry for Sat, maybe Sunday, so bring your shorts and sun cream.

http://uk.weather.com/weather/10day-Matlock-DE4

If anyone would like to know where we will be climbing on Sat / Sun, please look at this web site as I will be texting a tweet to my twitter which will be automatically updated in the MAC Tweet box on the right hand side of this web site -> over there…

Lets go climbing…, and botanising…, “all the gear and no idea”

Doug

Hi  Everyone,

Yes it’s going to happen, Karen and I are going to ride Tony(the tandem) from Lands End to John O’Groats. It’s going to take about three weeks to cover the 1000+ miles. It wont be easy, especially on my bum! So for all the pain, how would you like to sponsor us. You can do it online here or see us in person.
Donating through Justgiving is quick, easy and totally secure. It’s also the most efficient way to sponsor us: CLIC Sargent gets your money faster and, if you’re a UK taxpayer, Justgiving makes sure 25% in Gift Aid, plus a 3% supplement, are added to your donation.

So please sponsor us now!

Cheers J, K and T.

http://www.justgiving.com/johnkarenandtony

John and Karen starting on the cycle ride at Lands End on the Saturday.

Hello all,

I don’t want to labour the point, but there are a few more examples of the madness I was talking about last time that I want to share.

The poor little girl who hurt her finger – it took 5 days to get an insurance company to agree they would pay for her to see a doctor, and yes she had a broken finger.
Someone I know had to have his appendix removed when he was 19, he had no insurance, but he had no choice either, it was an emergency. He still owes the $60,000 for this operation from 12 years ago, and it will stand against him when he attempts to get a mortgage.
Viki slipped on some standing water when she visited the doctor recently. She asked for someone to clear it up, and was told that she would need to contact the owners of the building, as the doctors office are not responsible as they just rent the premises. Viki put them straight, saying she didn’t want to sue them, just get it cleared up so someone else, possible someone more frail, didn’t slip as well. They said “Oh, that’s very nice of you” but didn’t clear it up as that would presumably make them responsible if someone got hurt later. She told her colleagues at work who were shocked she hadn’t taken photos for her claim. MADNESS.

My favourite shop out here is huge, and it sells some really huge products (my cling film is 1km long, and bin bags come in boxes of 150). They have a 9 foot BBQ for sale at the moment. This thing has 3 parts to it, one section has the normal huge gas grill and rotisserie, plus a double oven underneath. Next section has a gas stove top with infra red ’singe’ plate, with a storage area for the gas bottle and shelves for what ever underneath. The final section has a sink with flexible spout, and a double fridge underneath.If you want this, you first need a huge flat patio, but also $2500. That’s a lot of money for a burnt burger.

Talking about huge;
Our local bowling alley has 82 lanes.
There is a warehouse just up the road which has 140 loading bays down each long side. As far as I can see, it is empty right now.
Some of the houses here are massive.
The food portions used to look huge, worryingly, they don’t anymore……………
I saw a pickup truck recently with that silly looking raised suspension and over sized wheels. It must have stood over 10 feet tall.
Some of the amusement parks are just silly.

I am researching how to avoid problems with bears as this year I will be camping and hiking in bear country a fair bit. 3 snippets I found might be of interest;

We advise that outdoors men fasten small bells to their clothing so as not to unexpectedly startle bears in the area. We also advise outdoors men to carry pepper spray with them in case of an encounter with a bear. It is also a good idea to watch out for fresh signs of bear activity. Outdoors men should be able to recognize the difference between black and grizzly bear droppings for example. Black bear droppings are smaller and typically contain berries and squirrel fur. Grizzly bear dung is larger, has little bells in it and smells like pepper spray.

Bear size pepper spray has been proven effective at stopping a charging Grizzly Bear about 90% of the time.

IF A BEAR COMES INTO YOUR TENT

This is the worst possible situation. It very rarely happens, but there are a few documented cases. At night attack usually comes from a predatory bear. If you act like prey, you become prey.

Once more, don’t panic, run, or scream, but don’t remain calm. Instead, fight back with everything you have. Don’t lie still in your sleeping bag. Don’t play dead. Use the UDAP Bear Deterrent Pepper Spray. Make loud metallic noise. Use an air horn. Shine lights in the bears eyes. Temporarily blind the bear with the flash of your camera. Use any deterrent you brought with you. Unload on the bear with everything you have. Anything goes. Use whatever physical resistance you can.
No shit, and only 90% of the time…..great.

Don’t worry though, no bear will come near me, I very rarely wash when out and about, and I am usually with someone slower than me – sorry Roger.

It is not just the bears you need to watch out for, hunters are a real menace too, and far more dangerous. I was walking in the woods the other day (wearing black) when I just about bumped into someone hiding with a bow. Deliverance came quickly to mind. SQUEEEEEEAL LIKE A PIG.
Another time, before entering a hiking area, there was a sign advising against wearing a white hat or gloves in case you get mistaken for the back end of white tailed deer.
On the Appalachian trail I passed an area miles from anywhere which was ringed by signs stating “Do not carry loaded guns or notched arrows in this area, and never shoot towards protected zone”. All very comforting until you realise the protected zone was a camp site, and that if hunters could mistake your hat for a deers bum, they probably can’t read either.

On the wild life topic, I looked out of the kitchen window recently to see 6 fully grown wild turkey walking across the road. Don’t fancy their chances around here with all the hunters.
A work friend has a cabin and 25 acres up in Pennsylvania. He has a problem Black bear which keeps on breaking in. He installed motion detecting cameras to see what was around and got this great shot of his tenant. See pic.

We had another good dump of snow recently, about 8″ overnight. Great fun, we all went sledding and had a lovely time. Don’t think we will get any more now, it is starting to feel like spring. We may have seen the last of the frozen lakes too, they were covered with around 6 – 9″ of ice for over 2 months. Pictures of Amy ice fishing and making snow angels, and of Robert looking thoughtful on the local lake.

I took Robert to watch an ice hockey game at Madison Square Garden this weekend. Now this is the most sports like of the North American ’sports’ that I have seen, some of these guys even broke into a sweat.
The game is split into 3 periods of 20 mins. About 7 minutes into the first third, all the players just stopped and skated around aimlessly. I asked what was happening, and it turns out it was a stop for a commercial break for the TV network. This happened 3 times in each 20 period.
Although it is clearly a very fast game, and looks like a very aerobic, there were 13 subs and only 6 on the ring – that’s too many subs surely.
The players seem to be expected to have a few fights. This happened 3 times in the game we watched, all of a sudden gloves go flying across the ice and 2 players have a set to. Now I am all for random fights breaking out in all sports, it helps to liven up the game, but these were actually very disappointing fights. The 3 refs home in on the scrap, let them get on with it, but step in when one player has a clear disadvantage – falling over, or having your shirt pulled over head is deemed to be a disadvantage. Have you ever tried ice skating? It is hard enough standing up, let alone having a scrap, so it is not long before someone falls over and the fight is stopped. Also they wear so much padding that it would be hard to get hurt anyway. More like handbags at 10 paces than a real fight, but it got the crowd excited.
It was a very fun day out though, very pleased we went. Our good friend George got us tickets and took us, so it was great to see the game with an expert.

Finally, so you all know, anyone who is thinking about visiting and wants to do so in the summer, this summer will be the last chance, it is likely we will be home next summer. Book now, Hotel Matthews has vacancies at the moment.

Let me know all your news,

Dave and co

Here we go again.

Happy new year.

The topic today will be insurance in America. It is out of control.

Car insurance.
New Jersey suffers from the highest car insurances in America (and therefore possibly the world). Last year we paid $3330 for ours, and the lions share was to cover possible medical bills.
Many companies (including Viki’s) will not entertain offering company cars as the insurance burden against class actions is too great. Madness.

House insurances.
In New Jersey it is not too bad.
However, in parts America, like southern Florida, insurances are huge. A work friend’s mum has a $40,000 trailer down at the bottom of Florida, and the insurance on that is $1000 per month. I am no risk management exec, but that looks very much like they expect the trailer to get munched once every 4 years. What you would also like in that area is Earthquake insurance, but no one offers it, so if a big hole opens up and swallows your house, you need to throw a match in there to get any help.
This situation was always bad, but the hurricane seasons have been getting worse (don’t get me started on the warming of the oceans) so the insurances are steadily rising. I have a friend who’s sister lives in Florida (not the same area, further away from the hurricane affected bits), and she could only get insurance after she spent $10,000 to modify her house, and then agreeing to a deductable of $25,000. Yes, a deductable of $25,000. Madness.
Most American houses are made of wood. The story of the 3 little pigs comes to mind, I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down.
Even where there are no hurricanes, urban areas are within woods, and are very dry in the summer. Almost all American fire departments are run on a voluntary basis. Madness.

OK, the big one – Health Insurance.
To start with – let me just say – madness.
I have talked with many people about this. People are very interested in the UK system of universal health care, and I am not surprised. I have not always been a big fan of the NHS, especially after my knee experience, and I think there are limitations and things to change, but having seen how an alternative system might work – we’d better protect the NHS.

Here are some interesting snippets from the American health system.
If you do not have insurance, you can still get treatment, there are charity providers, and if you are truely broke, it will be free. But if you have equity, or a job, you will be expected to pay the costs in a similar way to a mortgage, over 30 years if the costs high enough.
This is not an attractive propersition for the uninsured, of whom there are an estimated 60 million (10% of the population). With so many uninsured people, there are an estimated 100,000 people who die each year as they are too scared to seek medical help.
Medical costs are huge. This is not suprising, doctors get paid for how much work they do, so they offer as much as possible. People (those who go to the doctors) are insured, so they happily accept the max treatment. Insurance companies bear the cost so put up the premiums. People pay so much for insurance, that they want the most treatment possible to get their monies worth. It seems to me that when you get your licence to practice medicine, you also get a licence to print money. So premiums are constantly being driven up.

We have seen this ‘unnessesary treatment’ often. Viki had to go to a chiropracter about her back. They sent her for x-rays of her spine. From the x-rays they were able to diagnose the problem but still wanted to send her for an MRI. She asked why (as she is responsible for the health care costs of her works plan) she needed a scan, weren’t they sure they could see the problem? Oh yes, we are absolutely sure from the x-rays what the issue is but an MRI would make sure. She didn’t get a scan.
Robert had loads of dental work last year, so much that we spent all of his insurance. At a check up they were going to take a set of x-rays (they had taken a full set just 6 months earlier). I asked if it was completely necessary as we had no insurance left – “Oh no. you don’t need them, we just do them to be safe”.
A friend on our street hurt his back. After the normal X-rays and MRI, his doctor said he needed spinal surgery. He didn’t like the sound of that, so got a second opinion. The second opinion was also surgery. He still didn’t like the sound of it, so left it. Within 4 weeks he was playing racket ball again. I am not saying he doesn’t need surgery, but when a doctor out here recommends spinal surgery (or any other expensive treatment) you find your self wondering if it is really necessary, or just to help pay for his Christmas presents.
Doctors peddle which ever pills gets them the biggest lunch. There are typically several options out there for most conditions, and you will get prescribed the pills from which ever pharmaceutical company has done the best job of bribing, sorry, selling their pills to the individual doctor. Which companies do you think have the greatest bribing, sorry, selling power? The ones with the most expensive pills. Hence insurances get driven higher still.

So how much does medical care and insurance cost.
An average birth will cost an insurance company $30,000.
An MRI scan (which is over used as explained) will cost anywhere between $1000 – $4000.

A low paid cafe waiter I met in NY State had to have an injection (1 injection), and it cost him $1500. He was uninsured so paid for this himself. He then took out insurance, which costs him $400 per month for fairly basic cover.
A typical family has to fork out $1200 per month for insurance. On top of this, everytime you go to a doctor or buy a prescription, you have to pay an extra co-pay of $20 or $30.
Most people have insurance as part of their package at work, in fact it is one of the most important parts of the package. It is often the first question people ask – “what is your health insurance like?”. But this is not without draw backs, someone still has to pay.
Companies are becoming hamstrung by rising insurance costs, it is often the highest cost behind wages. Can you imagine a small employer taking on a young newly married lady if the company is self insured? They would be thinking – children, $30000 per pop.

We have 2 good friends who met when their children were in hospital with serious conditions. They both had problems with their insurances.
Friend A recieved a bill, at a time when it looked like his child would die, for $120,000. His employer guarenteed he would not have to pay, but not before much unneeded panic and stress.
Friend B recieved a bill, also whilst his child was still in hospital, for $270,000. This took him 2 weeks to sort out over the phone, and at a time when he didn’t really need any extra stress.

MADNESS.

Here is a great little example of the madness.
We take it in turns to pick the children off the bus. I walk them all home as it is only 200 meters at most. Everyone else uses their cars. This week a child got their finger trapped in the door of the car, it is possibly broken. The mum rang up the doctor, who said they couldn’t see her as the medical insurance would not pay out as it happened in a car – the car insurance must pay. This happened in someone elses car, so the correct way to get this unfortunate 5 year old seen by a doctor is to ask the friend to make a claim on their car insurance. This would undoubtably result in a $250 – $1000 deductable, and increased premiums for the next few years. The people who’s car it was refused to give their insurance details out and saying that the mum should claim on her own car insurance saying it was their car. Meanwhile the child has a very sore finger. Madness.
This could take a few days to get to a point where they can even see a doctor, and someone will end up paying alot of money to do it. I think the finger had better be broken!

So next time you visit the doctor and have to wait for a couple of hours, be very happy about it.

Other interesting things.

Viki had to change her wording of the company policy she introduced in Texas which read “All employees and visitors must wear safety shoes on site” to “All employees and visitors must wear safety boots whilst on site” as she was told “Texan men do NOT wear shoes, they wear boots” Real men down there.

Fuel prices dropped from $4.00 to a low of $1.35 per gallon. They are on the rise again now and it costs a massive $24 to fill up. Whilst it is nice to have such cheap fuel, I wish it was higher. When it was $4.00 a gallon, it was a hot topic – why do our cars do so few miles per gallon, how can we conserve fuel, are there alternative fuels. You could not sell a truck, and you saw fewer on the road. But now people are out driving their trucks again, 10 miles per gallon, no probs.

On the environmental topic, I saw a product that so shocked me, I had to ask to see if I understood the concept properly. In America it is possible to buy a cheap DVD that you can only watch for 24 hours. It is packaged in the normal 3 layers of wrappings, and the DVD is coated in something that deteriorates, once opened, in 24 hours rendering the DVD useless, so it can be thrown away. This is seen by some people as much more conveniant than having to return a rented DVD. Madness.

The weather is proper winter now. We have seen a couple of dumps of snow, the lakes are mostly frozen over, and temps have got as low as -14C at night and -8C by day. This week we are due to get 6 days and nights below freezing before it briefly creeps up to 2 degrees for a day. It is lovely, and I enjoy getting out for walks when it is really cold. We are hoping for at least 1 big dump of snow, we keep getting 2″ or so which isn’t quite enough to get really silly in.

We went to a proper burger place last week. You can ‘build’ your own. As many toppings as you want. Robert had a 10 oz one, and I managed a 20 oz one. We are both on the hall of fame now as if you finish ‘the big one’, you get your photo taken. Strange thing was that it was gorgeous. Whilst it took a few minutes to polish off, it was so nice that it wasn’t so hard.

The children are doing well, they are happy at school, and have a pretty good social life.
Viki is hard at work and is still enjoying all America has to offer.
I am hoping for a fab year, I have started climbing and hope to meet new people to go climbing with outdoors this summer. I’d better look at my insurance first!!!

Hope everyone back home is well, send us your news, it is always great to hear from friends.

Dave and co.

MAC Xmas weekend & AGM

Friday 5th (evening) – Sunday 7th December 2008

Skirfare Bridge Barn, Kilnsey, Yorkshire

Organiser: Karen / Russell