Eagle of the Ninth - a Braveheart buster in the making

Watching the battle being filmed in Finnich Glen

Summer Isles with Rainbow

Remember the last King of Scotland and its opening scenes on Loch Lomond? Well, the reason may be related to the fact that the Director is a local man, Kevin MacDonald, who kens his childhood haunts with affection. He is currently directing a film - Eagle of the Ninth - based on the book by Rosemary Sutcliff about the lost Roman legion in Scotland. Two thousand years on he has identified some spectacular locations for the shoot of the film. Speaking to the locations manager on set last week, I discovered that they had already filmed extensively in the primaeval scenery near Achiltibuie where mountains jump out of the ground and mesmerise you and where the seascapes are decorated by the challengingly named Summer Isles - see the evening rainbow there taken this summer.

The last two weeks have been on location in the Stirling area at the Devil's Pulpit in the Finnich Glen near Croftamie and at Touch estate near Stirling. The filming at the Devil's Pulpit involved a huge circus of caravans, vehicles, Hungarian stuntmen, rain making equipment (how daft is that in this part of the world) and was the setting for a bloody battle between the Seal people and the Romans in the river gorge. A funeral pyre was also burning whilst I was there. I am seen to the left of the person with the large bum in the photo. Filming continues over the next three weeks at Loch Lomond and then back north to Applecross and Loch Maree. Should be worth watching for the scenery if not the casting, which seems to have been cobbled together for the American market.

What's the point of Curries

The medical centre had me in today to vaccinate for the India/Nepal trip.  I had thought that all the curries I had eaten over the years would have provided sufficient protection. So in no particular order, I was shot for hep A, typhoid, hep B, and rabies, and my upper arms resemble pincushions. I didn't feel a thing but I was told to go home and rest which is a novel concept. I have delayed wallpapering for a couple of hours to catch up on other things like lunch, emails and to post this blog.

However, it will be reassuring if we come face to face with a Tiger in the Royal Chitwan National Park to know that I have had a rabies vaccination!

House Facelift Complete

Work in Progress

Job Done

As you can see the house has now had the scaffolding removed and for the first time in 6 weeks we have the house to ourselves again. I painted it over two dawn to dusk 12-hour days before the scaffolding disappeared. We decided to do it in the original highland green. Aileen wouldn't let me do it in totally nutmeg (a dusty yellow), or overtly olive (yes, look at the Dulux colour charts) as she doubted if I would get round to do the other elevations to match - such trust.

The roof repairs were much needed but the escalating problems with the timbers on the facade and the upper wall, which collapsed when I was passing through Gatwick on my way to Corsica, meant I had to abandon my Corsican GR20 attempt and return home. On reflection, this was no bad thing as there were 9 days of electrical storms in Corsica. I was a bit frazzled when I retired at the end of Q3 of my life, electroconvulsive therapy might have meant a premature ending of Q4.

When I arrived back from Gatwick, the bedroom was festooned with emergency scaffolding surrounding the bed and other effects, such as my bedside reading, running shoes and items that I had ditched at the last minute to lighten my rucksack. The bedroom had the random clutter of a Tracy Emin exhibit.

The bedroom wall had to be demolished and rebuilt with brick and new timbers, decisions on slates had to be taken - recycled or new. I chose the former and we now are sheltered by recycled slates from the Trossachs Church, where we had married 30 years ago. We had lots of different tradesmen, seven on one day, competing to find parking space in the drive. They were squatting in the garage with their tools, and randomly depositing nails, Irn Bru bottles, mortar, old slates, sawdust, uneaten lunches and worst of all the Sun newspaper throughout the garden.  I was a supportive foreman/dogsbody and I went through 4kg of sugar making teas and coffees for the breaks most of which involved surreal episodes of conversation.  It reminded me of an episode of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, but turbocharged with some Scottish invective.

You will see in the photo below that there was a silver lining. I managed to climb Ben Lomond virtually,  it is below my right hip, whilst playing on the scaffolding. This could save a drive to Rowardennan and a 2-hour slog up the boggy path during the fifth round.

Great place for a Roof Garden

Beinn Dearg - Autumn Gold

The summit of Beinn Dearg

Wednesday, 28 October 2009

Ascent:           990 metres
Distance:        25 kilometres 
Time:              6 hours 10 minutes

Beinn Dearg     1008m    2hrs 55mins

Today was the last chance to spend some time walking with Gregor before he sets off on a circumnavigation of the world in 150 days. The weather forecasts were ominous so we headed to Blair Atholl as the most likely location for rain and wind-free mountains. We were rewarded with a glorious morning as we trekked through golden beech woods towards Glen Banvie. We sighted several red squirrels before ascending into the clouds, the hills beckoned through the span of an intense rainbow. Apart from two bluff Yorkshireman, riding spanking new mountain bikes, the day was people-free.

As we approached the summit of Beinn Dearg, which was lost in the low cloud, we meandered into a flock of Ptarmigan. It was a delight to hear their calls - a cross between a gargle and scraping the teeth of a comb. On the descent shafts of afternoon sunlight raised our spirits and the bellowing of stags serenaded the hillside.

The tussock grasses stood out like burning embers from the wet green mosses and heathers. I was castigated for loitering to take photographs of such humble plant life but the results are stunning. It was a long walk of 26 kilometres and we were constantly jumping the swollen burns during our descent of the hill track on the way back to Glen Tilt. Unusually, I managed to keep my feet dry despite wearing a pair of trainers.

Across Glen Tilt Beinn a' Ghlo stood aloft from the brown-tinged lower slopes whilst Ben Vrackie was a mere hump on the wavy blue horizon of hills. When we arrived back at the Old Blair car park it was almost dusk and all other walkers had departed. We had extracted every tone and light condition from this autumn day. It prompted me to post my first blog.

Glen Banvie

Autumn Gold

Tussock Grasses

Looking south to Ben Vrackie