Specialist Outdoor Holidays in the Highlands of Scotland
After a two days of snow up here everything has changed! Otto went mad this morning when we let him out, I think it happens to us all the first time we see snow. Alex has spent most of the day clearing the track, today we were going no where….
Looking out to Glen Affric
Ottie looking for his frisbee
The wonder of snow!
Alex in the woods
This article about us was in last weeks Courier.
Wild Rose Escapes in the Courier
Best tour operator for local experiences, Wild Rose Escapes “Highly Commended”
If you would like to read what r:travel magazine wrote about the overall winners of The Virgin Responsible Tourism Awards and about us, click on the link above.
We had a wonderful evening at the woods last week, we ended up having a feast in the barn, probably the last of year, as it was getting just a little too chilly. We put a large piece of lamb in the outdoor pit oven at 12.30pm. We had 12 of us for dinner so it needed a long time to cook! After 6 hours we took out the lamb and cracked open the bread dough around it which had protected it from the ash and stones. Alex lit the candles on the long table, the baked potaotes and carots came out the oven and we seated everyone around the table on various stools and chairs. At that moment the rain came down, so the sheep and Otto joined us for dinner in the barn. Hot food and warm spiced cider made up for the fact we needed to be in hats and coats!
I made a pumpkin pie for pudding as we had a friend over who originated from Cape Cod- I nerviously waited his approval of my tart, which he said was a gooden! It was a lovely evening despite the rain.
(Recipe for pumpkin pie below)
Autumn feast with friends
Rosie’s pumpkin pie
Ingredients
Base:
wholemeal flour, 1 tbsp icing sugar, 175 gms butter
Filling:
1 small pumpkin
can of condensed milk
3-4 tbsps of double cream
3 eggs
1/2 tsp mixed spice
Firstly make a sweet pastry base. Mix the flour and butter and icing sugar, use your finger tips to make breadcrumbs. then add a little cold water ( enough to bind the pastry). Leave the pastry in the fridge for 1/2 an hour a greeced flan tin. Prick with a fork and place baking beans or a piece of greece proof paper with lentils on the top ( to stop it rising up while cooking). Put in the oven (190degrees) for 20 minutes, remove the baking beans and let the middle cook a little then take out the oven and brush with a beaten egg and put back in the oven to seal and pastry. Putting the egg on and letting it cook stops your pastry going soggy!
Meanwhile make the filling;
Cut up the pumpkin and put it in the oven on a baking tray and let it bake in the oven for 45 minutes. When the pumpkin is soft scoop out the flesh and put it in a bowl, pour oven the tin of condensed milk, add the cream and the three eggs. Blend all of these ingredients with a hand blender and add the spice. pour the mixture onto the flan base and bake in a medieum oven for 30-45 minutes- until golden brown.
Serve warm with creme fresh- delicious and perfect for November.
We had a very exciting trip to London this week, as we had been short listed for the Virgin Responsible Tourism Awards. The awards were held at Excel in London’s Docklands. I had no idea what to expect, but it was quite a do, luckily I had put on my smart shoes for the occasion. It was a great event with people from all over the globe attending. There were really interesting speakers including the director of Fairtrade, Harriet Lamb and Simon Reeve presenter of the Tropic of Capricorn.
The certificate!
It was great to be nominated initially by some of our guests and then to be short-listed by the judges was very exciting. We went on to become runners up in our category, which was ‘Best tour operator for local experiences’. Our framed certificate says ; ‘Highly Commended’, which is pretty nice! The company we were runners up to won the overall responsible tourim award, they were a pretty amazing duo who have set up tours around London lead by homeless people -really innovative. (Sock Mob Events, www.sockmobevents.org.uk)
It was a rather wonderful but exhausting day. We had a delicious lunch where I managed to get Simon Reeve to sign his book for Thora, who was patiently waiting outside with her grandparents, as there were no children allowed!
If you want to read more about us or any of the other finalists have a look on the offcial website: www.responsibletourismawards.com
A new home for the Bramley
As Autumn is a good time to plant trees and fruit bushes Alex and I went to the local garden centre this weekend (Lilliams in Kiltarlity). We ended up with three apple trees; a Bramley apple a Spartan and a Laxtons’ Superb along with blackcurrant bushes, raspberry canes and a loganberry. We had not even thought about cross pollination, but due to the lack of other gardens and fruit trees around us, we needed to make sure our trees could be pollinated. If we had only bought the Spartan and Bramley we may have ended up waiting for a while for our apples, the Laxton Superb is a delicious apple and also essential for us as a pollinator of the other trees. Alex and Thora spent a while working out where to put the new trees and bushes.
Can I help Daddy?
It feels like we are starting to get there, we now have our gooseberry bushes, red currants, black currants, plum and the new apple trees. Next, I want to add a few pear trees, a quince and few more apple varieties, including my favorite which is a Discovery, as it’s always the first to fruit and the apples are deliciously sweet with beautiful pink flesh. Now all we have to do is wait and eventually we will have our fruit.
We finished off the week by planting our new hedge which is a mix of Rowan, Hazel and Willow, it should look really great when it grows, although at the moment it is still pretty hard to see it! Alex has also been planting lots of other native trees in the clearing and was surprised and relieved when he realised he had got down to his last few sapling protectors, meaning he has planted an awful lot already.
The days are feeling much shorter and the sun cooler. We have been out busy foraging autumnal berries. Why is it we never make enough sloe vodka to last until the following year’s batch is ready? -it must be the more we make the more we give away! There is nothing quite like it on a cold wintry evening, perfect when unexpected friends pop by. The wood burner is on nearly all the time now and Otto’s basket has moved just in front of it!
We had a wonderful week at Polmaily Steading running our Autumnal Relaxation week. The steading was perfect, lots of lovely nooks and crannies and plenty of open space for morning yoga with Joanie. We managed to fit in craft sessions as well as local walks, including to Rebecca’s pottery to look over Loch Ness, Plodda waterfall and Glen Affric. We had a beautiful clear day for our walk in Glen Affric and we managed to find a stunning spot for lunch.
Picnic in Glen Affric
Saturday was the Cannich Gala day and, as we had a craft stall to fill, I had quite a lot of felting to do. Luckily the weather was good to us so most of it could be done outside – perfect; sunshine, water and wool! I ended up making bags, purses, glasses cases and
brooches. I used a mix of merino, shetland and cheviot wool, mixing the naturally dyed wools to create some strong and other more subtle shades.
We are running a felt-making day in Cannich Village hall on September 10th, just get in touch through the website if you want to join us or find out more…. If you are interested in buying any felted items from us just let me know what you would like and I can make it up for you; brooches, scarves, bags, hats, purses, wall hangings and more…I can make items using all naturally dyed wools or mix in brighter merino wools depending what you would like.
Charity Walk- Cape Wrath Trail
Lorraine McCall and I decided to walk to Cape Wrath- a 200 mile journey. We walked to raise money for the Christina Noble foundation in Mongolia. We only had 10 days to do it in, a journey which usually takes anything from 14-21 days. It meant some long days and lots of walking! -But we managed it with a little help.
Lorraine & Rosie
On April 13th we started our walk from the edge of Loch Arkaig (just North of Fort William) leaving Lorraine’s little Golf in the hope it would still be there when she returned!
The first night we walked to Kenbreak bothy where we spent the night after a lovely evening walk into the bothy.
The next day we awoke to clear skies and sunshine, walking in shorts and t-shirts. We had a picnic lunch along the way- flapjack of course was included along with our reliable loaf of Soreen. At this point we were carrying alot of food for our journey so we could take our pick. The scenery was stunning through heath land hills and across rivers. We walked on the Clunie Inn that evening where we had a warming hot chocolate and whisky!
Lorraine McCall and I decided to walk to Cape Wrath- a 200 mile journey. We walked to raise money for the Christina Noble foundation in Mongolia. We only had 10 days to do it in, a journey which usually takes anything from 14-21 days. It meant some long days and lots of walking! -But we managed it with a little help.
The next day we continued on to the Iron lodge, we walked about another 30km, through a lot of bog -but again in sunshine, which was lucky as on one of our river crossings I got a little wetter than planned.
Nearly half way!
Friday morning we headed off from the lodge in the direction of Achnashellach, passing by Maol Bhuidhe bothy and having a snack in cosy Bearneas bothy before heading up and over to Achnashellach, which has a path down to it which feels like it might take forever!
Here we had to make a decision, our supplies were getting a bit low, it was Lorraine’s birthday and some good friend of ours had rung to say they had cooked us dinner in Kinlochewe (where we were hoping to get to), so after crossing a river, through Gorse bushes, over the railway line and over a fence, we could not resist the thought of Pam’s mince pie and birthday fruit cake! (it was Lorraines birthday).
In the morning we left from Kinlochewe and walked across to Loch a Bhraoin. The rain came down and we were soaked, but luckily as we were passing through Leckmelm we could dry off at my house and Alex cooked us a big pie for supper which was perfect!
The next morning (Sunday) after a breakfast of eggs we walked from Leckmelm across to Rhidorroch and onto Knochdamph bothy where we had our lunch. We then continued on to Oykel bridge, where we found a little spot to put our tent up by the river- at this point we felt cold, so after a supper of delicious sausage (donated by Duncan) we headed for the bar where the very friendly bar man was happy to chat to us all evening while we drank whisky Macs and hot chocolate.
After packing up our rather frosty tent we headed on (Monday), our destination was Glencoul bothy- which looked a long way off- especially as our route crossed over two maps! We thought perhaps we might camp in the middle. However, after quite warm start the weather started to change, it got windier and wetter with quite a lot of sleet falling. As it got later we decided to try and make it to the bothy, the ground was boggy and knowing we were meeting a friend there who might have cooked our dinner spurred us on! That night we walked until 11.30 pm to reach the bothy- but when we got there it was definitely worth it- Steve cooked us steak, gave us red wine and brandy and had lit a fire- it was a great evening once we had become human again!
The next day we headed along to Glendoe bothy where we had our breakfast of sausages, bread and jam (very good combination surprisingly) we walked out to Kylesku and then went onto to the Rhiconich hotel.
The Rhiconich hotel was just what we needed, very welcoming and cosy- We had supper there, dried our clothes and had a bath. The next morning we were greeted by a mammoth breakfast- perfect for a day’s walking.
Unfortunately at this point my knee was giving me quite bit of jip so when Alex joined us with Clara and Olivia we started our final walk from Blairmore, to try and cut out road walking. We walked from Blairmore to Sandwood Bay, where we had a lovely picnic on the beach in the sunshine; from here we headed to a bothy once in habited by Sandy- a colourful character, who has left his mark by painting murals on all the walls. We had a lovely evening around a peat fire.
The next morning we left to walk up to Cape Wrath and the light house. It was quite boggy underfoot but by now we had got used to the ups and downs of the bog! We reached the light house at about 3pm and had a celebratory cup of tea and a chocolate bar- curtsey of the lighthouse. Thanks to Tony the warden of Cape Wrath we got a lift down the road and boat across to Durness, where we warmed ourselves and had supper in the pub before camping on the beach.
After breakfast in the dunes and a stroll down the beach Alex picked us up from the craft village.
Overall it was a fantastic trip- we seemed to have been very lucky with the weather for the first 4 days, with a bad spell in the middle and sunshine again at the end. We passed through some really wild country and until we walked to Sandwood Bay we had only passed one other person while walking! It was a truly fabulous time- and thank you to everyone who donated money to the Christina Noble foundation in Mongolia, so far we have raised over £1000 but hope to make it more…
Cape Wrath
Thank-you to everyone who we met along the way and all those who supported us.
Xxx
If you are interested in doing your own Cape Wrath walk, or would like to do another long distance walk, please get in touch as Lorraine is a fully qualified summer and winter mountain guide and would be happy lead you.
If you would like to donate to the Christina Noble Foundation please follow the link at the bottom of the page.
Mongolia, like us, has had an extremely tough winter with temperatures still as low as -20. The extreme weather conditions have led to the loss of over a million head of livestock and threatens the very existance of lifestyle of the nomadic herders. There are reports of severe malnutrition amongst herders and their families. The Mongolian government has asked for international help as they have admitted the situation is grave and out of control. The Christina Noble foundation works with homeless children in Mongolia, providing shelter, food and the chance of an education. At the moment the foundations work is vital, as the number of homeless children within Ulaanbaatar is increasing due to the current conditions within the country.
Last summer I travelled to Mongolia with the aim of learning Mongolian felt making techniques.
I landed in Ulaanbaatar and eventually met up with Arunaa, who is a social worker in Mongolia as well as a traditional felt teacher. Arunna has been involved in a number of felting projects.
The felt making co-operative
She took me to meet a woman’s co-operative. These woman worked together to produce some fantastic felted pieces. The woman were all single mothers working together to produce pieces for a co-operative shop in the city. The workshop was at the bottom of a block of flats just out of town, it was hot and dingy but the women were in good spirits and there was a really good atmosphere.
Final piece
Although none of them spoke any English, we managed to communicate as they showed me some of their techniques. They made traditional Mongolian slippers, wall hangings, mats and larger floor and wall coverings. I spent a couple of days in the city and then we hired a jeep and headed out to country side to stay with Arunaa’s cousin and her family. Arunaa’s cousin lived in a ger with her husband baggie and their two sons. They had over 200 horses, sheep, goats and cattle.
Mongolians, who are traditional nomadic herders, keep sheep, goats, cattle, camels and horses. All five of these animals play a very important part in a herder’s life style. Horses for milk and transport (horse’s milk is fermented and turned into a popular mildly alcoholic drink called Arak), cattle for milk, goats and sheep for meat and wool. I learnt very quickly how essential all these animals are to Mongolian herders.
Erecting the Ger
After a night in the guest ger we headed out to help Baggie’s brother who was moving home, from his winter to his summer grazing. We turned up and the family had put all their belongings and their packed up ger on the back of a lovely old truck. Everyone had turned up from around the area to help set up the ger. It was amazing how quickly it started to take shape. Everyone helped to put up the wooden frame.
Adding the felt layer
First the trellis went up and then the poles slotted in and went to the middle. The frame was secured and then the layers were added. The men worked on the outside and the woman on the inside. A cotton layer was added to the outside and on top of that a layer of felt. (In the winter two or three layers of felt might be added). On top of the felt layer came a canvas layer and then this was all secured with handmade ropes. The top square was then added. The furniture was then all placed inside. It was interesting to see that the insides of most gers look the same- the same painted furniture is added and put in the same places. One side of the ger is for the wife and the other for the husband and then the wood burner is placed in the middle. When I visited the black market in the city a week later- it became apparent pretty quickly why they all looked the same, as I looked over a sea of identical chests, doors, sideboards and burners.
Alex and I are pretty good at moving house (well Alex is) but less than three hours is definitely a record!
Milking the horses
Milking the mare for Arak
I was lucky enough to be in the countryside at a very special time, it was the first milking of the horses that year. All the families in the area gathered. The men and boys on horseback while the women prepared a feast. Baggie had over 200 horses and many of them had had foals. The idea was to catch the foals, which would then attract the mares and the mares could then be lassoed and milked. The horses (except those kept for riding) are pretty wild and have a life grazing on the steppe, both summer and winter, they are only brought in to be milked, to make the much liked Arak. It was so impressive to see these horsemen work; they had great respect for the animals they were catching. Once they had caught about 10 foals the mares started approaching and they were then lassoed and brought to the fence. The woman then brought over their milking buckets. The foal was brought to feed on the mare for a couple of minutes, then taken off and the women milked the horse, only for about one minute and then the mare and foal were reunited. This process only produced a little milk at a time. The horses remained tethered and were then milked again two hours later and then released the next morning. The milk is then left to ferment slightly.
Arak
Arak is drunk on every occasion possible and if you don’t like it- tough you still need to drink it! It tastes of sour fermented milk. It often has an extra kick when vodka is added to it.
Felt making
Mongolians cover their gers with large pieces of felt. The felt pieces are made in family groups. The wool is laid out on a large piece of canvas, separating it as it is done; the wool is put down in layers, and then sprinkled with warm water. The whole thing is then rolled up and secured. This role of wool is then tethered to a horse and rider who then ride off for a couple of hours with the roll of wool bumping along the ground behind them. When horse and rider return the roll of wool is unwrapped and the friction from its bumpy ride has caused it to felt.
Waiting for mares milk
