Whilst 2012 was largely a year to try to forget, 2013 was much improved, as reflected in a slightly less meagre tally. In addition to two armchair bags, I completed region 26, at last, and re-completed section 27C. A good visit to Spean Bridge, in March, included a wildlife day on Creag Liath and A'Chailleach with a large flock of snow bunting and several hares and ptarmigan in winter plumage.
I enjoyed a Shetland fortnight in the intermittent company of lots of assorted baggers, including my wife Heather who tripled her customary annual tally by ascending no less than three Marilyns. A wonderful day on Noss, the day we arrived, gave us close-ups of puffins and many other species. It was good to meet Rupert and Liz Booth who had arrived in Shetland at the same time as all the rest of us, but quite independently. Heather worked out that there was a Marilyn connection from Rupert's mention, on a guided tour of Mousa, of two hills to visit on Foula. The only disappointment was our failure to reach Fair Isle; Richard Tibbetts showed how it could have been done, but I was less resourceful and have had to fall back on the old excuse for a return ploy. Heather and I each had a great day on Foula. We went our separate ways and when she showed me her photos I was astonished to see that she had visited Da (or The) Noup, as she explained 'because it was between where I was and where I wanted to go'.
Chris Watson persuaded me to join him and others at Ullapool and to accompany him on several of his remaining Munros, all of them new to me and all but one (we chose a particularly foul day for Am Faochagach) high quality. The week was punctuated with a little gentle surveying with Alan Dawson - if the approach to Sgorr Tuath could possibly be described as gentle.
The other hill day of particular note was on La Palma, Canaries, in January when Heather and I achieved our longest ever drive-up, Roque de los Muchachos (P2423), except that there were too many other tourists around to consider disobeying the keep-off signs denying access to the final three or four metres.
