Thursday 14/11/2024

Good brisk walk this morning: a late autumn day that was cool, slightly overcast and calm, some leaves still on the trees but probably more bare branches now. In the woods as the sun emerged it felt a little warmer and there were still clouds of hovering gnats. 

The sun was already casting long shadows at not long after noon - it doesn`t tarry long at this time of the year - and by the time we got on the homeward path a brisker breeze was picking up, foretelling the change in weather that`s due. But it was a good, head-clearing jaunt.

It also helped to get the legs working again after a BIG walk on Sunday.

It would probably have been wiser not to go to bed late the night before, then, after about 2 hours sleep, drive over 100 miles to get to the titchy car park at the bottom of the path that leads up Schiehallion* 

It took a certain amount of moral fibre to get going as we were shrouded in cloud, it was damp, cool and we were knackered. However,once we set off up the path and the blood began to flow, we were congratulating ourselves at our early-ish start and deciding that the cloud would not deter us.

It was eerily still so we were a little surprised to realise that as we gained height we were walking out of the clouds and able to look across to see mountains on the horizon, the distinctive "nubbin" (technical word 😉) on the top of Clachnaben very clear. It also gave me and my climbing companion the perfect chance to strike dramatic poses......

Soon got our come uppance though as we continued climbing: we hit the notorious boulder field and found ourselves once more in cloud with a keen breeze picking up. Did spot - and hear - a couple of ptarmigan, already almost completely white which of course made them stand out - not quite what nature intended but the snow is on its way.

The boulders weren`t so bad going up the mountain (they would prove more of a challenge on the way down) but they did seem to go on for longer than we anticipated. Also, though we knew about the "false tops" it was much harder to assess how we were doing in the cloud. One enthusiastic young man tore past us at one point in an attempt to beat his friends to the top only to realise .... it wasn`t.

So a small congregation of us at the top, somewhat huddled in the increasingly windy and very damp conditions, a quick toast to our success (and to J.T.A. & H.C it being Remembrance Sunday) and it was time to get back down.

And as we tottered over the boulders, battling what was by now quite a strong wind, and got back onto the well marked path, Schiehallion relented: the clouds cleared, the wind dropped and we were rewarded with the most splendid autumnal views to make our descent.

Be good to go back when we can see from the top but all in all it was a memorable day.

*Schiehallion is not only a mountain of folklore and legend but also "the mountain that weighed the earth":

 https://www.scottishgeologytrust.org/geology/51-best-places/schiehallion

Monday 4/11/24

 A walk-for-ever sort of a day yesterday. So we did. Completely still, the overnight work of legions of spiders glistening in the sun.

As we set off for a longer walk, realised the wind turbines in the distance were completely motionless. 

Been a while since we walked up to them so it seemed a good destination for a change of scene.

 

 A  track between fields, with occasional glimpses of these behemoths standing sentinel,

 

then almost suddenly plunged into gloomy, damp forest, more spiders, (where are they all?!)

incongruously bright mossy decorations

and all the while being beckoned on by the turbines.

Once up close we wandered around between a few of them - simultaneously impressive structures and slightly sinister the way they just stood there......

 

 

 

 

until, as we began to retrace our steps, the whole thing became even more eerie as the blades on the one we were approaching appeared to shift. Thought at first it was a trick of the light but as we stood and stared upwards it was obvious that without warning, without any discernible change in the air, noiselessly, the blades were, indeed, almost imperceptibly beginning to turn. It was completely mesmerising.

It was as if someone had waved a wand.  All around us, one by one (though not all) the turbines began to wake up, either turning the blades or repositioning the way they were facing (which I have subsequently discovered is called the Yaw: "the rotation of the entire wind turbine in the horizontal axis") Fascinating.

Also a very good thing that we were there on a balmy autumn afternoon.

As we got back up on to the road and looked back it was possible to see that first one now bowling along merrily while others began to catch up, turning at different speeds (or some still not turning at all). All in all an education and an inspiration to find out how they actually work. Love to imagine Terry Pratchett style figures sitting inside what I now know is called the "nacelle", (though I don`t know how to  pronounce it) keeping an eye on the prevailing weather and making adjustments accordingly but I fear it may have more to do with algorithms.

Thus entranced we returned home as the sun gently began to sink lower and lower

briefly setting the trees on fire before finally disappearing.