The Missing Miles......

It was an early rise this morn, but not to get to the Den o Alyth car park in a timely fashion to start this weekends training walk, as you might think, oh no! the alarm was set for us to wake up and watch Andy Worry, sorry i mean Murry finally put to bed the 75 year wait for a British man to win that elusive slam!

Three straight sets later however, we were off and running and managed to get a mere five miles along the road when I announced that I had forgotten my walking shoes...cue stoney silence as the car was screeched to a halt and turned round.....finally we arrived at the car park and were immediately faced with a very slippery dilemma! The path that lead us from the car park to the start of the trail looked more like a bob sleigh track! and neither of us fancied breaking any bones for the cause! so it was decided to walk along the roadside which would cut out the woodland trail all together, but the distance would remain the same.

After a few miles, we stopped to look at some chickens and geese in a homely looking farmstead. The chickens were very friendly and came right up to the fence! I announced that this was the closest i had ever been to real life chickens (as opposed to parts of them in neat little packs on supermarket shelves) to which I'm sure the retort went along the lines of "oh my God you're such a city girl"........but i couldn't really be sure.....

The road soon forked and we took advantage of the photo opportunity props we found, before we followed the signs to Glenisla, proceeded up a steep hill and both laughed at the road sign informing "Horse drawn carriages" to go through the gate to avoid the cattle grid! Neither of us could recall seeing any horse drawn carriages thus far, so we carried on regardless!

Eventually we ambled onto the Cateran Trail, part of an old drove road, and climbed up out of the valley and onto the open moorland surrounding the area. It was time for a scooby snack and although none of us felt particularly hungry, there is always room for some yummy chocolate and a few sugary Moams!!

The town of Alyth seemed to come into view very quickly given that this was a 7 mile trek we were on, for both of us it was like we had only just left the car! I began to think 10 miles is just a walk in the park really! a pleasant meander!and this buoyed my spirits greatly and went a long way to quell those dark feelings of self doubt that creep in now and again about my ability to complete the WHW at all! It was downhill all the way from here and even though the air was bitingly cold, it felt good to be amongst these glens, feeling alive and real and chilly and nippy......it all just felt fine!

As we were drawing to the end of the walk and entered the main streets of Alyth to return to the car, we popped in on a work colleague of Fiona's, Cathie, for a very welcome coffee and a blether. What a lovely day!

Oooh excitement ensues!

Whoop whoop!! We've had an article printed in Dundee's Evening Telegraph!! :-) What great excitement! I hope and pray that this brings in even more sponsorship! :-)

We have also had confirmation of a donation from Dundee United for us to raffle- I think a pub quiz in the Fort is in order!! What you reckon?

As for the gins of the other evening- you will notice I have been somewhat quiet this week....I learned a VERY valuable lesson this weekend.....NEVER drink a lot of gin having walked 12.5 miles!! SO not a good plan! I at least feel human again!! lol!

You will also be glad to hear that there are no rants this evening.....not ones I wish to share here anyway!

Just been talking to my counter part who is, as I type, planning the training walk for this weekend- it could well be a training weekend- golf on Saturday, walking on Sunday- not sure where yet, could be a magical mystery tour on foot!

Will keep you posted!

Resisting Temptation and all that rubbish!

Hello our two followers!! Well I can report that today I have just completed 12.5 miles in an astonishing (well for me it is) 3hrs 50mins!! I'm well chuffed! can hardly move now! Maybe not the best plan when one is heading oot on the toon! I'll be the one sitting in the corner giving it big zzzzs!! As for the other half of the partnership, this weekend she is through in Johnstone seeing the parental unit!

My meander took me on a great circuit from the Bell Tree to Carnoustie and back via cycle routes! It was FAB!

I set off with some toons in my ears, swiftly overtook a couple of pensioners and made my way along the edge of the A92. I wasn't even thinking of food until I saw the glorious golden arches of Ethiebeaton!! I resisted the temptation and made my way along past Top Road tourers onto the old bit of road. At this point, embarked on something which I thought would only afflict me in my twilight years.....having a rant to myself, out loud I hasten to add regarding the mess of rubbish all along the verges!! The rant went something like this " What is wrong with people that's they can't just take their ******** rubbish home with them! Why lob it out the car window?! Just cause they don't want their crap, nobody else does!!" Anyway, I won't bore you with the finer points of the rant, suffice to say I spent the next 20 minutes or so regularly tutting as I saw yet another McDs bag or KFC...this started the next conversation with myself "I wonder what KFC that was? Is there one in Arbroath?" Yeah, I know, I'm sad!! I'll get my other rant out of the way now so as to not bore you with it later on- dog crap! Why do people think that just because it is on the grass at the side of the path it is ok to leave it lying?! At times, the 12.5 miles were a health hazard I tell you!



Bubbles IN the ice!





Ok, rant over! I made my way down past Barry Mill which was lovely- in all my near 36 years, I never knew exactly where is was- guess I know now! The walk continued on from there to Barry station where I took up the cycle path back to Monteuchter.  Some of the icy puddles and trees were lovely so took some pictureskew photos en route.

Now those who know me will know that I am not one for doing what I'm told- I will usually do what I think is best based on the facts presented, however there comes a time in a girl's life when she just HAS to do what she's told!!

I was given a welcome break at about 7-8 miles when my mum phoned for a wee chat :-) The view at this point and right along the front was stunning as the sun broke through the clouds and created some beautiful shapes and colours in the late afternoon sunshine. On a serious note, that's when I know for sure there is something much bigger and much more powerful than us out there....

I continued on my merry way to Monfieth- Barnhill-got a wee bit confused coming up from North Balmossie St to the car at the Belltree!!

Not yet had the obligatory pint, however, I have the feeling it will be replaced just shortly with numerous Gins!!

Cheers!!

3 hours on Wii Fit, 200 lengths of St John's swimming pool and twice up the Law....

Well, after my grandiose plans of the above, I managed 45 mins of Wii Fit, and EIS meeting and three gin and tonics!!

However, I am delighted to announce that, although not 100% sure, we think the pledges we've received are tipping almost £700!! We are just delighted!! The poster in the school has been rubbish btw, therefore I am going for the more direct approach.....send flyers out to the parents via the kids!

Our pledges haven't only come in monetary terms, we have managed to secure a night at Rowardennan Youth Hostel courtesy of SYHA (http://www.syha.org.uk/hostels/central/loch_lomond.aspx)- Thank you so very much, we are hugely indebted to you!! We have also had requests to have our blog feature on a couple of company websites- is fame beckoning at last?! Nah, doubt it!!

As for the training walk this weekend, we are having to do our separate things do to various family commitments- me here, Lesley Paisley :-( Any suggestions about safe, not too scary/lonely walks which will not involve children, mad dogs or cyclists? Mmmm, perhaps staying at home would be the best bet!! Any suggestions email whw2011@hotmail.co.uk with your suggestions!

OK, I'll keep you posted on our adventures......!!!

A cut of the hair and Spag Bol!

Well, here I go again- updating all two of you on our progress! Please feel free to tell others about our amazing blog! AND what we are doing as we need to swell the coffers some more!! On saying that we have raised pledges of over £500 so we are well chuffed! :-)

Training has been a bit off today- other than the usual trekking back and forward along the corridor and up and down to the washing machine to wash lost property that has been it other than cutting mum's hair and having spag bol!! Does laminating count?!!

As for my counter part....she's no well :-(

Hopefully I'll be able to report 3 hours on Wii Fit, 200 lengths of St John's swimming pool and twice up the Law tomorrow.....!

10 miles, 2 pints and a curry! (and 8 deer and numerous pheasants!!)

Saturday 16th January, our first proper day's training together took us along the Pencaitland railway walk on what was a very blustery, dreich, miserable, damp, dank (you get the picture) afternoon.

The walk started after a great deal, of debate and procrastination as to the merits of doing it on Saturday or Sunday! Lesley was more than keen to point out that Sunday's weather forecast was far more conducive to walking than Saturday's was- I have a funny feeling this argument was supported by the fact Hearts were meant to be playing United on Sky Sports 1 in the pub!! Saturday prevailed!

Off we set only to find the old railway track resembled a river/canal! We were not perturbed however and traversed this watery hurdle with great athleticism!

Fortunately the weather DID improved and we made it to Pencaitland within 2.5 hours. En route, we discovered three totem poles which- believe it or not- were carved by my cousin, Susheila Jamieson when she was artist in residence at East Lothian Council!

Once in Pencaitland we searched for a wee pub- it was so wee we couldn't actually find it so settled for a tuna piece and flask of coffee against the route sign for our return journey followed by some Moam sweeties -the following being the result!!

We continued merrily on our way only to find a thing which resembled an over sized dog kennel!! I hope the bunk houses and hostels on the Way are more to our standard!!

As we made our way back along a different route, we found to our dismay, the path totally submerged in flood water. Upon doing the stick test, we found it to be almost a foot deep so Ray Mears skills had to come into play! We found a log and made a footbridge over the burn as we didn't fancy having soaking wet feet for the remainder of the journey. At this point Darkness began to fall and the creatures returned to their homes for the evening. This was fine in the open areas of the walk but we really did become a couple of big girls jumping and squealing as pheasants etc took off from the trees squawking and making one heck of a racket! We covered the last 2.5 miles in just over half an hour. As our eyes began playing tricks on us in the dark, we convinced ourselves of "lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my!". We did however see 8 deer along the way- not sure what kind- to us they were just the scary kind!

We eventually (almost sprinting) returned to the car- I was a little fearful of there being a Wolf Creek moment but no, all was good! We did however have a lucky escape because when we were leaving the car park en route to the pub, we saw a sign saying that the car park closes at 4pm- by this time it was 5.25!! How lucky were we?

We ended our days adventure with a couple of pints and a well deserved curry! We both really enjoyed it and what's even better is that we feel fine today and had GREAT fun popping Lesley's blister!!

And the money keeps coming...

THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!!

Thanks to some VERY generous pledges from bosses and Councillors at Dundee City as well as the pledges our colleagues have put in, we are already sitting at almost £450!! This is truly fantastic! But I KNOW we can get more!

As for the training, the Wii Fit was amazing last night- did an hour on it, burned off 200 cals and today I feel like 100!! I've discovered muscles in places I didn't think you had muscles- much to my embarrassment when doing Daily Physical Activity (DPA) with the kids- doing 10 leaps was torture!! So tonight I have my jammies on, gin poured an am watching Corrie! Looking forward to our 10 mile walk on Saturday though!

Anyway, pass on the message to all about our efforts, let's push that total up up UP!!! :-)

Training Regime continues...

Well, the pledges keep coming in which is fantastic!! I am about to put information out to the parents at the school to get them to dig deep :-)

As for my training, curling went really well last night, plenty of sweeping (totally wrecked after it) as a result some movements were a little tricky today!! All good though! The training is about to get even better though- the Wii Fit arrived today :-) FAB!!!

So I'm guessing that movement tomorrow may be a little tricky too! Lesley is doing well though- I was going to walk to work today too but looked out and saw two inches of snow and quickly thought better of it- not to mention the layer of ice under the snow..... Does the man upstairs not know we've got training to do?!

Donations Galore!

Well, what can I say?! So far we have received pledges of over £140 towards our cause! I am astounded!! It is truly amazing!

As for training....I've walked up and down the corridor more often today and I am about to do my fitness regime on the Wii- so far, Wii Fit Plus hasn't arrived although DHL guarantee it will be here tomorrow- won't hold my breath!! Lesley definitely did mor than me though! I knwo how far that chemist is.....!

We have now booked all accommodation and are frighteningly excited about the whole adventure!!

Curling tomorrow night so may not be able to post a blog/update!

We must be mad!!

Well, that's it, the decision made, the planning done- WE ARE DOING IT!!!! We are walking the West Highland Way for two causes close to our hearts; Altzheimer's Scotland and Rowantree Primary School.

We set off on our excellent adventure on 2nd April from the way marker in Milngavie and end in Fort William on Friday 8th April all 95 miles later!! It is going to be a killer but we want to raise as much as we can for these two worthy causes!

We will use this and Facebook to keep you up-to-date with what we are doing. If you wish to donate then please do so via Paypal to email address whw2011@hotmail.co.uk or in person if you see either of us (Fiona and Lesley) in person!