2004 was a mixed bag - a year in which I said farewell Staffs and hello Shrops. One record attempt on the English and Welsh Relatives in 12 months failed, while an attempt on 24 in 24 hours succeeded in June, followed by 30 in 24 hours in November. Early-year adventures included a completion of region 42 with a mountain-bike ride round the Isle of Wight. The following day took in nine Welsh Relatives, finishing with a moonlit scamper along the summit rocks of Mynydd Carningli. Five days later I was possibly the only one who ran the Stafford half-marathon in the morning and then made it to the summit of High Willhays in the afternoon. Brown Willy followed the next morning, and a drive back up the M5 got me into work for lunchtime. I had another good Welsh day on 2 April, with Moel y Gamelin at first light then a clockwise push round Tryfan and the Glyders to Elidir Fawr, dodging squally wintry showers. A repeat visit to Great Orme completed the long haul.
The summit rocks of Mynydd Carningli
Two good days at the Kingussie meet in September - one over Gairbeinn, keeping an eye out for the stalkers above the Corrieyairick, then a real wind-blasting the next day on Carn na h-Easgainn. Since then a day on Bowfell and a weekend of trigs and county tops in the far east have kept me ticking over. Red-legged partridges in the back garden at Atcham made up for no capercaillie on Drummond Hill in June, and it's nice to know that it's less than an hour's drive to the solitude of mid Wales when it all gets a bit too hectic (and it often does). So, only 34 new Relatives (and 100 repeats) for the year, which has left a bit of catching up to do. I hope the skates will be on again shortly though.
