When I think about Running

The start - Ben Lomond from Bridge over Forth

Braeval and Bluebell glades

Track along the Forth by Lemmahamish

Above Lochan Spling

Wildlife - a rusting Dragonfly in Lochan Spling

Trail along the Duchray

Craig Mor from the Duchray

Some years ago a Japanese author wrote a book 'What I talk about when I talk about running.' Although I plead guilty to sharing Haruki Murakami's obsession with running over the past 30 years, I think about it a lot more than I talk about it - running does not make easy listening for the non runner. I have had to miss it recently but I am now back into regular running. I went round my regular 12 kilometre circular trail around Aberfoyle today and took photos of the route that I am privileged to have as my home run. I have been doing this route for about seven years since two new footbridges were constructed across the Forth and Duchray rivers by the Forestry Commission. It allows an infinite number of circuits and eliminates the out and back runs that can take the edge off a run even in surroundings as good as these.

The trail provides everything: stunning views, quiet meanders through the forest, lochans, two rivers, a sharp hill with a view of the loch, and a mile of quiet road at the end to complete the run. There is a vista of Ben Lomond and the chance of seeing buzzards, osprey, deer, red squirrels, red kite, adders, frogs and the occasional person - usually on a bike or with a dog. As an escape to think about other things it is the ideal environment to think. Dozens of ideas have been dreamt up, talks composed and reports constructed in these surroundings. As exercise goes it is as good as it gets, within an hour you can resolve most problems and relinquish any hostile thoughts. The endorphins are released, the mind is sharpened and the sleep is easy.

Home straight

Bluebell Time

Looking across to Ben Vane

Oak green

The bluebells are about two weeks late this year and still to reach their zenith. We made a trip to Inversnaid and the sun dazzled on the shores of Loch Lomond. We walked to Rob Roy's cave along the West Highland Way. There were no feral goats, pine martens or eagles today but the oak trees and oak leaves provided a rich backdrop to meadows of bluebells and, across the Loch, the Arrochar Alps beckoned through the canopy of trees. Ah springtime.

Ben Alder

Walk-in to Loch Pattack, Ben Alder in cloud

Loch Etive from Beinn Bheiol summit

Ben Alder plateau

Ben Alder summit

Saturday, 22 May 2010

Ascent:       1295 metres
Distance:    44 kilometres
Time:          10 hours 46 minutes

Beinn Bheoil                   1019m       4hrs 10mins
Sron Coire na h- Iolaire    955m       4hrs  50mins
Ben Alder                        1148m      5hrs  59mins

One of the big walks in Scotland is the ascent of Ben Alder, a mountain that is as inaccessible as it is massive. It can be reached from the north, south, east and west. I have previously climbed it from each direction and usually combined it with the other 8 hills in the wilderness between Corrour and Dalwhinnie on two-day expeditions. Yesterday I climbed it with its neighbour, Beinn Bheiol, as a day trip entering from Dalwhinnie, the highest settlement in Scotland just off the A9. I was needing a long outing to regain my mountain legs before my proposed trip to walk the GR20 in Corsica. This walk to Ben Alder is about as long as a day comes - a 44-kilometre walk with over 5000 feet of climbing. I had heard that Mark was intending to climb it, so I arranged to pick him up at 6:45am and drive up to Dalwhinnie by the scenic route of Loch Tay, Tummel Bridge and Trinafour. We were walking by 8:45am.

The first 15km of the walk is along the shore of Loch Ericht on a private estate road that serves a number of estate buildings, which have recently been renovated at considerable expense.  The turreted castle, hidden behind seriously big gates and fences, would make a fine film set for horror movies. After the last of the buildings, there is a rising track to Loch Pattack and then we followed a path alongside a rippling river through some flat moorland to the Culra Bothy. Most other walkers had cycled in and we eyed a number of bikes at the start of the path to Loch Bealach Beithe that sits between the two mountains.

It was a hot, bright but sultry day with clouds forming and the threat of showers. We made quick progress up to the long northern ridge of Beinn Bheoil. As always with Mark, there was no time for taking photos until we reached a perfect knoll north of the summit for some lunch. There were splendid views down Loch Ericht and across to the eastern corries of Ben Alder where snow still provided a white border at the edge of the summit plateau. We met a number of walkers as we descended to the bealach and began the steep climb up the escarpment to the plateau. When I started this sort of walking it was mainly men in their thirties and forties, escaping to the hills when their team sports days were over. Not now, there was a couple in their sixties with dogs, four twenty-somethings with carry-outs, a solo woman, and a group of hard-drinking fifty-somethings from Glasgow whose patter could have gone out live at the Apollo. The only thing they had in common was bikes and were we envious as we battered around trying to beat 11 hours.

Ben Alder is a vast flat tundra with a high lochan, stones, bogs, patches of snow and a worn-down trig point. As a destination, it is not a head-turner but the routes to and from it are as good as anywhere as we were reminded descending the long leachas to the northeast. It is an airy ridge that provides an easy scramble and drops you onto the heather moorland flanking the eastern corries. And then back to the paths, we harboured a few lazy thoughts about becoming bicycle thieves. Instead, we opted for another 3 hours marching our way back to Dalwhinnie on a glorious summer evening. We met a pair of hill runners who were training for a mountain marathon and chatted about common acquaintances from my hill running days. A couple with a dog whom we had spoken to on the hill caught us up on their bikes, they had managed to get a lift back in a land rover for their dog whose pads had worn out.

I know the feeling and wished that we were not such a nation of dog lovers. We were back to the car for 7:30pm after my longest walk for two years. Perhaps I will manage to walk the GR20 in Corsica after all.

Cameron and Clegg become Olympic mascots

Clegg and Cameron in party colours

Has anyone else noticed the resemblance between our coalition leaders and the new mascots for the 2012 London Olympics? Yes, Cameron and Mandeville have the same colourway and are costumed in blue-grey suits, although Mandeville looks as if he has wet his pants.  Wenlock sees things through one eye and is prepared to ride any colour of the rainbow if it means sharing power. Whilst they move in perfect harmony with the hand gestures modelled on the Clegg speaking style, they are bland to the point of irritation.  I wonder whether Wenlock and Mandeville were modelled on Cameron and Clegg? With mascots like this for the London Olympics, I can't see even Coca-Cola demanding their logo to be visible on Clegg and Cameron.

The big question is whether Cameron and Clegg will fade into oblivion after the Olympics like the mascots or will we have to wait until 2015?

Two Tribes: Private Good, Public Bad

Theresa May made a strong play to the Police federation today, calling for the end of paperwork, the return of operational responsibility, improved focus on detection, less interference from central government, letting the police charge people for crimes and recognising the need for local accountability. The applause was warm from an audience more used to putting their hands on other people than together. At the same time Nick Clegg was flying his civil liberty credentials and promising the end of ID cards, regulation of DNA records, and the partial removal of CCTV and other intrusive interventions to our lives. These two events could have been taking place in separate countries, the lack of synergy between the two statements was palpable as soon became apparent.

The Police federation pointed out that detection rates were at their highest levels not least because of IDs for immigrants, CCTV in places of high crime risk and the DNA database. All of which would be damaged if Mr Clegg pursued his policies. It is one of the dilemmas of a democratic society; the need for individual privacy but also the protection and entitlement of the wider community by the responsible collection of personal information.

It seems rather hypocritical to reduce the controlled collection of personal information by the state when our activities are increasingly violated by banks, credit agencies, social networking sites, internet providers and traders who are actively involved in selling on our addresses and preferences to others. Junk mail and emails are the daily flotsam of the way the private sector collects and abuses our personal data for profit. The state, be it the police, inland revenue or councils, are generally collecting personal data to ensure that we get our entitlements and the vulnerable are protected from risk. Is this not more socially and economically ethical than what health insurance companies, credit agencies, online retailers, and social networks are up to? If so think more carefully Mr. Clegg, you are making an assumption of private good, public bad - but perhaps that is what the emerging coalition is all about.

Beinn Udlamain and the West Drumochter Hills

Loch Ericht and Ben Alder to the west from Geal Charn

Summit of A Mhaconaich

Honda 90 cavalcade on A9

Saturday, 15 May 2010

1310m of ascent, 23 km, 5hrs 35mins

Geal Charn             917m      1hr    5mins
A' Mharconaich      975m      2hrs  4mins
Beinn Udlamain    1011m     2hrs 49mins
Sgairneach Mhor     991m     3hrs 47mins

There are some hills that do not fire the imagination but nevertheless always give a good day out; such are the four munros to the west of the Drumochter pass on the A9. I have climbed them 3 times in winter, once in diabolical conditions, as well as on the September day of Princess Diana's funeral.   But never in the spring so this was a chance to pick up four easy hills. We had decided to do them north to south from Balsporran cottages, which is the better way and from the helpful starting height of 400 metres.  We started by 9:45am after a 2-hour drive along the scenic route through Killin, Fortingal and Trinafour that avoids the A9.  It was the first long walk since my back injury from last November and I was with Gregor and Mark, two of the fittest and fastest of walkers, but with Corsica approaching fast I knew that I had to push the body to see if it could cope with 2 weeks of continuous climbing.

There was a cooling wind from the south-west and the occasional shower but the tops were clear.  The ground was waterlogged from recent the spell of rain and the path through the heathers was made slightly easier by virtue of tracks from a vehicle. The views to Ben Alder beyond Loch Ericht came into view as we climbed the stony convex slopes leading to Geal Charn. Gregor was like a puppy let off a lead and had charged ahead as he did again on the long walk over to A' Mharconaich into the face of the wind and a rain shower for 15 minutes.  

We marched out to the summit but then kept together for the walk over to Beinn Udlamain where we ate some lunch.  We kept a good pace over to Sgairneach Mhor despite the stiff climb from the bealach at 800 metres.  We were feeling pleased as we jogged down the northeast ridge and then descended down to the Allt Coire Dhomhain and crossed the river.  Mark and I then went over An Torc, otherwise known as the Boar of Badenoch, whereas Gregor took the direct route back to the car.

On the A9 there was a group of motorcyclists riding from John O'Groats to Land's End on Honda 90 bikes for the Help for Heroes charity.  The Drumochter pass is somewhere I would rather avoid at the best of times but chugging along on a Honda 90 is a real feat of endurance.

Glen Finglas

Glen Finglas reservoir

Gate to everywhere over the peat hags

Monday, 10 May 2010
Stob Fear- Tomhais    771metres

There are lots of nearly secret glens in Scotland and this is one close to home. The Glen Finglas reservoir is a control reservoir for Loch Katrine and is inaccessible by road, although a track runs up to a few houses and alongside the reservoir. The land was bought by the Woodland Trust in 1996 and has an ambitious programme to replant native trees, restore the the ancient woodland and give access to the public through a network of paths that are being developed around Brig O'Turk.

I cycled up to the reservoir and then to the top of the glen where I abandoned my bike by a burn and climbed steeply up to the ridge leading to Cnoc Odhar. Then a 5 km tramp over peat bogs, through the gate and up to Stob Fear-tomhais, the surveyors peak, which is a seldom visited Corbett with excellent views in all directions. Although May, there was a hail shower and then a large brown fox, with a tail like Davy Crockett's hat, sneaked past me near the summit.

The landscape still had the pallor of winter but on the descent a warm sun emerged and stirred the glen into life -herons and buzzards flew close and I saw brown trout darting in the burns. I resaddled my bike and enjoyed an adrenalin rush on the fast descent until I screached to a halt trying to miss a lone walker as I emerged from a bend, it was a former work colleague dressed like Mr Bean and I should have taken him out!  When I returned to the car the breaking news was that Gordon Brown was about to resign. Where were you at the end of New Labour?  Nowhere offering solitude as tranquil as Glen Finglas.  I bet Gordon would have swapped it for Downing Street, the Queen and the media scrum and so will David Cameron in a year or so.

Strange Days

Before the news this morning, we heard that it was the coldest May morning for many years and then on the news that David Cameron had moved into no. 10. Last night provided compulsive viewing with both Channel 4 and BBC excelling themselves, the latter maybe partly due to the absence of Paxman whose trenchant style would have been unsuited to the occasion. It was a time for reaching across political allegiances, acknowledging the contribution of Brown and the efforts of Cameron to put together a coalition government and wish them both well. Most commentators and the majority of politicians rose to the occasion, although John Prescott remained true to his tribal roots and John Redmond was thankfully locked away for the night.

Nick Clegg had finally decided to enter a civil partnership with the Tories instead of living in sin with them or the old rascals in the Labour Party. The sense was that the Labour Party had run out of steam and almost wanted this outcome but Mandelson, Alistair Campbell and Gordon Brown, scheming until the last dance, set up a second front to box the Tories into making a less regressive deal with the Lib Dems than they were initially prepared to offer.

The concessions from the Lib Dems were significant on spending cuts, nuclear power, proportional representation, Europe and probably many social issues not yet revealed. More surprising was the extent that Cameron went to secure the deal. Allowing Vince Cable into the cabinet along with 4 other Lib Dems, raising the tax threshold and giving up inheritance tax changes.  If only George Osborne could have been sacrificed instead. The free vote on a referendum on Alternative Voting amounts to little more than political candy. Making Nick Clegg the depute PM is no big deal either, it simply provides a headlock on the partnership. It would appear from the snippets we hear that the deal could have been a whole lot more extreme but the real test will come with the emergency budget by which time the honeymoon will be over and the new politics will be gathering experience and breathing heavily.

Strange days indeed, the Tories have agreed to lower taxes for the least well-off, the Lib Dems have agreed to invest in nuclear power, and Labour have admitted that they lost.  Labour are taking what they seem to think will be a sabbatical to regroup and revitalise their progressive credentials. In these last few days of game playing the only thing that hasn't changed is the elixir of power.

Political Poker

The results of the election could not have been better engineered to cause a game of political poker. The next couple of days will be fascinating to see what emerges from this stalemate of an election. The real issue is to tackle the financial deficit - even more so in the light of the Greek tragedy and the fragility of European economies. And the second issue is a commitment to electoral and constitutional reform. It would make a great deal of sense if an agreement could be reached between the main parties and progress made on these two issues with the promise of an election in, say, 2 to 3 years time. Long enough to progress these issues but not too long to create the bad vibrations that could scupper economic recovery and escalate our endemic political antagonisms even more.

Either Brown or Cameron could secure a deal with Clegg and co. Brown has the first shot as the sitting PM but will probably need the Green (good result), SDLP, Alliance and maybe the Nats, who would certainly favour some types of proportional representation, to bolster any agreement with the Lib Dems. Cameron and Clegg would have a good working majority but there is an enormous gulf between them on the economy and taxation. The Tories would probably prefer not to concede any commitment to electoral reform.

So its over to you Nick, who lurves you the most and who do you agree with. From a dreadful set of election results you can outface either of the big players or if you want just let the Tories take the strain over the next year or so in a minority government and then have another go at a first past the post election. By which time the Tories may be in the mire of economic and public service collapse but Labour may be on the mend after a change of leader.  Not an easy choice and not one to get wrong for all our sakes.

Meall Na Fearna

 Stuc a' Chroin and Ben Vorlich from Meall na Fearna

Looking back to Loch Earn

Monday 3 May 2010

Ascent:      785 metres, 
Distance    11 kilometres
Time:         3 hours 40 minutes

Meall na Fearna    809 metres     2 hours 25 minutes

I was feeling jaded and beginning to panic over the GR20 trip to Corsica in June.  Normally I would have half a dozen longish walks in the bag by this time of the year but so far I had managed only two modest walks and hardly any runs although my back is at last beginning to feel less of a hindrance when walking. I thought a short outing on a nearby Corbett might jolt me into further action and contacted John who was up for a long weekend having just retired.  It was 11:00am before we arrived at Ardvorlich House on the road south of Loch Earn. I met and had a chat with John Lambert, an old colleague from KPMG, at the start of the climb to Ben Vorlich. He was with some of his family on a bank holiday Monday and it made me realise that I no longer lived within the constraints of public holidays.

John had brought Bridget for the first part of the walk and he explained to her that this sort of meeting with acquaintances happens all the time when we go walking. A new track was being laid up the glen so I went over and spoke to the site engineer. He told us that 3 dams were being constructed to produce 750kW of electricity as a private project commissioned by Ardvorlich House.

Further up the glen, we met an archaeologist, who was identifying the sheilings and explained the nature of her work. Bridget realised that this was more of a documentary than a walk but we were learning a great deal about the history of the glen and the future potential. As we started the steep climb, Bridget decided to forego the climb to Beinn Domhnuill. We made the summit and then meandered our way over the jumble of peat hags and up the final slope of Meall na Fearna.

We found a grassy hollow at the summit and sheltered from the cold northerly wind for some refreshments.  There were good views of Ben Vorlich and Stuc a' Chroin to the west and south-eastwards down the Forth Valley to the chemical plants at Grangemouth.  We set out on the return and it was easy going despite the wind and there were no interruptions. The walk had been just what I needed, I seemed to be in transition and regaining my appetite for hill walking. In the dying days of New Labour, this may be just what I need to evade the wrecking ball that will be released on the public by Cameron, Osborne, Gove and Pickles if they end up in government next week. 

2010 Votergate - time to make parliamentary elections democratic

As General Election Day approaches it is increasingly apparent that the real issue is not bigotgate or the fear of a hung parliament. It is the fact that we have no clear idea what is to be served to us in the future, whatever permutation of parties are in power. The carefully constructed statements from the main parties are notable for their absence of detail about what they will do about most issues from Afghanistan to Care in the Community. Their willingness to threaten what other parties would do or to argue for change, without defining what it means, are the only messages emerging from party machines. They are so defensive that the contest resembles a Spassky-Fischer world chess match from 1972 with a stalemate as the likely outcome. It begs the voter to ask many questions

• What will the new government do about taxes? 
• What will a defence review throw up? 
• How will the government support the growth of businesses? 
• What will happen to the funding and management of schools and hospitals? 
• How will they improve health and wellbeing, rather than safeguard the health budget?
• What are the plans for care in the community? 
• Will the car be banned from cities? 
• Will investment in public transport and cycling take precedence in our cities?
• Will the exponential growth of air travel and its massive carbon footprint be regulated? 
• What measures will be taken to reduce climate change?
• What sort of and how many new houses will be built and where? 
• How will the government help create new jobs and increase apprenticeships? 
• What will be the future of pensions? 
• What will happen to the minimum wage and universal benefits? 
• What do the government see as the future population of the UK? 
• How will the city be regulated to prevent the outflow of capital from the UK? 
• Will the government stop financial institutions from finding new vehicles to tap into the incomes and savings of workers?

All of these are tricky subjects that will hugely affect our lives. They all have strong advocates acting for and against change and no political party wants to offend these powerful lobbies. The result is that we have to speculate what will happen and decide which party, if any, to trust to get it right for the country as a whole and for us as individuals. 

I was searching for a track on Last FM yesterday when an advert for the Tories scrolled down the screen. I took the bait and watched David Cameron on YouTube for 3 minutes and 52 seconds. He said the video was the Conservative contract with the voters, it was delivered with Etonian panache but was simply empty rhetoric and failed to explain a single policy or proposal. It was a model example of whitewashing and blackballing that typified this election. The other parties are also guilty, albeit less brashly, of similar scurrilous innuendo and deceit. It is key evidence of the decline of democracy, or more bluntly the scandal of the can't tell, won't tell election. Let's call it Votergate.

One of the purposes of a political party should be to present a set of policies and values that can be scrutinised by voters who could then decide whether the proposals reflect their preferences. But they are scared to do this in the searchlights of a pluralistic society with far greater diagnostic capability than the parties themselves. All parties are still infatuated with keeping on the right side of News International and other press barons. Instead of policies, we are littered with simplistic and misleading leaflets and shoddy soundbites that echo around social media platforms. They are an insult to our intelligence. They are the product of the disruptive intent of party politics and the growing influence of social media.  The shift in the balance of power in a functioning democracy should be towards the voter through of the greater availability of information by the parties to enable objective reporting and analysis by the fourth estate. This has been disabled by the political parties who are frightened of voter scrutiny.

The voter as a consumer should be given a choice of policies and values not a hotchpotch of party megalomaniacs to choose from. This should be possible for each constituency by constructing a grid of important issues for the constituency and asking all candidates to state their positions on them. The voter would then choose the candidate(s) whose views best represent their position. This would allow the voter to weigh the relative importance of different issues in determining their vote. Instead of meaningless phrases like 'big society' and 'fairness', we would have direct and measurable ways of holding our MPs to account in a real-time democracy.

Political parties, and the attendant tribalism and sycophancy, would become less dominant in this process and would need to be reformed along with the House of Lords whose lifelong peers and party donors could be dismissed  It would be quite easy to construct a grid and provide this as part of the electronic voting process. The successful candidate would have a clear manifesto from their constituents, not the other way around. Their votes in the House of Commons could be captured and made available online to ensure that there was an acceptable level of concurrence with their stated intentions. This would require the Party Whips to become moderators rather than dictators. 

Alternatively, we could carry on as we have suffered over the past few weeks with Votergate. I found that track I was looking for on Last FM - I'd Rather Go Blind' by Christine Perfect with Chicken Shack.  It perfectly sums up my take on political parties in this election.