Bagging in 2015 only started with an April tour. Hill days were leaving feet as if bastinadoed and Kirk Fell needed recovery days. Travelling to Isle of Man, every tick was ticked and every rail option railed. Many cultural, wildlife and garden events took me through Liverpool and Wirral to the Lleyn peninsula for Mynydd Anelog, before breakfast. A fine day thereafter on Bardsey island. More gardens and the magnificent Welsh Highland Railway followed, with ticks en passant, before back to the Lakes for Seatallan, with late April snow.
Mynydd Anelog (photo: Mark Trengove)
Business and pleasure meant going north; Beinn Mhealaich from Glen Loth and two Orkney Mainland hills. Then Argyll for gardens, Marhof dinner and two more ticks. Many other attractions, including moving house, May island, Bell Rock, seaplane flight buzzing friends on The Cobbler, a week on the Scottish canals - things that did not hurt.
A day over Mellbreak and High Stile before Illgill Head saw the last of England's Marilyns climbed.
2016 will be poorer, matching pain and gain, however no longer with the wee van that gave 47 bed nights in 2015.
Someone asked if I had completed a calendar round of the Munros, i.e. been up a Munro on every day of the year. On checking, some days were over-subscribed and a mere handful of days were missing, scattered through the year. Because of other commitments, it has taken me a couple of years to get them. Choice of Munro did not matter, as they were all adding to the hopeful eighth round. Unfortunately, it poured on many of these inescapable days. Fed up with this I chose The Cairnwell for the last one so that the weather could do what it liked, as the ascent would not last long. It turned out to be a breezy sunny day with the Cairngorms in splendid array.
Initially when I started Marilyn bagging, I used to take the family pet on our adventures. I recall the police came to my door one time saying my dog had chased somebody on a bike. I said 'do not be stupid officer, my dog husnae got a bike'. The other week the wee dog ran off. I walked around the park calling his name for 20 minutes and still could not find him. A friend said I should look harder, so I shaved my head and got a tattoo. I still couldnae find the dog.
