Saturday 9 July 2011

My First Mountain (Video)


Despite having spent a lot of time working in the English Lake District, and having them all around me, I never climbed a mountain until I moved to Lochgoilhead, in the Scottish Highlands, a week or so after my awakening.
The Steeple – standing at 1,279 feet – looms over Loch Goil. Although it’s fair to say it’s not one of the tallest mountains in the Highlands, it looks all the more mighty due to its proximity to the village – basically, once you step off the mountain, you hit civilisation.

I recorded this video (and took the photos) on the second day of my HappyTwoBirthday celebrations, on April 9th, 2010. I’d just been cleared of a cancer scare a few days before, and obviously I was on top of the world… but I went a little higher!

Super Mark, one of the Scout Leaders at the camp I worked in, could run up and down the mountain in about 45 minutes… which is a bit crazy, but he’s mega-fit. It took me around an hour, and it was a pretty hard, steep slog in places…

Getting to the top was very satisfying indeed, and the views were breathtaking, as I’m sure you’ll agree from looking at the photos and watching the video.

Not that I noticed him at the time, but it appears that Darth Vader was standing behind me when I recorded the video clip… how odd!

(Click on the images, below, to see them full size!)



10 comments:

  1. wow, so cool..loved the photos.. congrats tooo on climbing the mountain.. reminds me of a song haha ..sorry brain nuts again.. anyway..thanks for sharing.. LNovak

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  2. Thank you! It was an ace day. :-)

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  3. Okay looks chilly but I'll come for visit anyway! LOL Next time say something...you can't call it a blog unless you say something otherwise this is only a vacation video! LOL Hugs

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  4. Breathtaking and beautiful, Les...truly.

    eden
    xoxox

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  5. April, if a picture paints a thousand words, a video paints a thousand pictures, thus, this short clip is equivalent to writing one million words in my blog! :-P

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  6. It's a wonderful place, Eden... I'm hopefully returning in August. Can't wait to get back on that mountain. :-)

    xoxox

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  7. Thanks for sharing the photos and video. This area is part of the setting of my novel, "High on a Mountain," and I LOVED seeing the landscape. My character, Ailean MacLachlainn, lived on the shore of Loch Fyne, but he traveled through this area often, on his way to visit his sweetheart, Mùirne MacGriogair.

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  8. Ah, Loch Fyne isn't far away at all, as the Haggis runs. :-)

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  9. You look very sexy in that hat.

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  10. Very beautiful! Thanks for sharing. Whenever I am at the top of a mountain I always pause and wonder who stood in this very spot overlooking this very vista hundreds of years before me? What did they look like? What did they see? What were they thinking and feeling? I will be up on top of some beautiful mountains this weekend where I'll be tweeting from the Beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia in the USA!! We already follow each other on twitter so I'm hoping to share some great shots with you there. Thanks again.

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