This was orignally ment to be a write up myself and Peter’s adventures at LAMM last year but I never quite got arround to posting it. This years lamm is fast approaching and I have yet to enter because Peter is not able to take part this year due to PHD deadlines so I need to find a new partner.
If anyone reading thinks 2 days running about the scottish highlands sounds fun check out the LAMM website and see if you would be comfortable doing the novice class.
A good event which all the scouts enjoyed. The weather coperated with just enough rain to make things interesting.
We had a fire on the beach beside high camp on the Saturday night with some very humerous performances from both staff and scouts.
The photo below is the view I woke up to on Sunday morning.
Off to Helsinki in the morning. Looking forward to the week off lots.
So LAMM is with us once again and this year we are off to the far north of Scotland. Inchnadamph in Assynt to be particular. Should be lots of fun. Our team number is 515 if you want to keep an eye on our progress over the weekend.
As part of my involvement in the Sionnach team I am off to cappanalea to help out with the running of P.E.A.K. which is a weeklong training adventure for upto 36 Scouts normally aged about 15 to 16. Going to be lots of fun and hopefully not too wet.
The second part of this documentary is on TG4 this wednesday at 10:30. It is well worth watching even if you haven’t seen the first part. It is this sort of thing that justifies Public Service Broadcasting not the usual crud that leaks out of Montrose.
A film on the greatest nomadic journey left on earth. The Nenets are native Siberian reindeer herders with extrovert, irrepressible personalities who spend their lives on a gruelling 1600 mile journey across the tundra to the Arctic Ocean and back. 3 months shooting completed in Siberia.
The highlight of the weekend was a trip out to the OPWs very impressive visitors centre at Newgrange. The tours of Newgrange were sold out so we went to Knowth and as a first time visitor to this landmark site I was very impressed. I have now decided that OPW staff are execpt from my fire 50% of the civil service at random policy.
I really want to go climb some hills but both this weekend and next have stuff arranged. This whole working thing takes up way way too much of ones life. I have never managed to get to the top of Lugnaquilla and have decided it is one of my goals for this summer.
Plan would be to start/finish from Glendalough but due to the generally useless nature of public transport to wicklow I am probably going to have to overnight it somewhere along the route. This opens up some interesting options since it allows me to take in some of the other peaks in the area maybe even jump across the wicklow gap on day two and do Tonlagee and Stoney Top.
So you are standing on a knoll which you have identified on your map despite the fact that you can see no more than 5 metres due to heavy mist / fog. Now your next control is 200 metres away due east so you pull out your trusty compass only to discover that the needle is spinning in the housing. Thats right folks this here hill is littered with magnetic rocks. This day can only get better.
About to leave for the airport to head to Scotland for LAMM with Peter. Transport details have worked themselves out and we are sharing a hire car with a couple from belfast. Should get us to the event centre before 19:00 rather than the 22:00 it was looking like by train.
The weather forecast is looking good and I think we have a better equipment setup than last year so fingers crossed. For those who are curious you can follow our progress on the LAMM website over the weekend. Our team number is 462.
Myself and Peter took part in this event last year and it failed to kill us so we are going back to try again.
Due to various reasons not enough training has happened this year but hopefully the weather will be kinder.
At least I hope so.