Tulloch to Fort William on the mountain bike

We loaded the bikes onto the train at Fort William, and took it to Tulloch station.  From here it was a few miles along the main road, where we turned off at Monessie Gorge and crossed the bridge into farmland.  We followed the muddy farmland tracks and path along the River Spean back to Spean Bridge, then up through the forestry to Leanachan and Nevis Range, and then along the cycle path back to Fort William.  The views along the route were great, I just had to remember to look at them, when not concentrating on the uneven ground I was crossing!

Mountain bike from Calluna to the Lower Falls and back

I took a spin straight up the back from Calluna and joined the Cow Hill path up to the mast and then down the Peat Track to the forestry road and up to the Lower Falls.  It was a great cycle, cloudy but cold, with frost on the ground, made for some interesting slips along the way!

 

Quick spin to the Commando Memorial

Lovely Autumnal Sunday for a bike to the Commando Memorial and back.

Camping and kayaking on the West Coast of Scotland

I went back to Fort William (a 3 hour drive from Edinburgh) to visit my family for the weekend and we packed up the cars with kayaks, bikes, tents and the BBQ and headed for the Back of Keppock, about an hours drive away from Fort William, which is is just north of Arisaig and south of Morar on the West Coast of Scotland. We pitched our tents at the bottom of a friends croft which led straight onto the beach.  The weather could not have been better, sunshine, blue skies and warm!

On Saturday we got the kayaks out and paddled around in the bay all morning, then we were joined by friends who had a small boat.  My niece and nephew both loved having a shot in the kayak and the boat. My dog Megan didn’t quite know what to do, with all of us out on the water and her still ashore, so she ran along the shore keeping us in sight at at all times. In the afternoon my Dad and I went for a longer paddle out of the bay, it was such a beautiful day, the water was crystal clear and turquoise!  Saturday night was BBQ time, the midges weren’t too bad so we all sat out eating and chatting, till the sunset, which was amazing!

On Sunday when we were all packed up, I went out for another paddle with my Dad and everyone else went for a cycle.  Then we visited the Arisaig Hotel for lunch before heading back to Fort WIlliam and me back to Edinburgh.  It’s great to be able to have a short summer break in Scotland only a few hours drive out of the city!

Modelling for Blacks

Blacks had put the word out around Fort William looking for non-models to model clothes for an upcoming campaign, I sent a picture of myself in and they asked me to be in Roy Bridge today.  Having never done anything like this before I was quite excited (but slightly nervous at the same time)!

They have been in the area for a few days doing a recce with Mick Tighe for todays shoot and also doing a shoot of the Scottish Mountain Heritage Collection (SMHC).  Blacks is celebrating it’s 150th birthday this year, and the SMHC has a number of old historic Blacks items.

Morning call was at Glenspean Lodge at 8am, where I met the other models, the photography crew, make-up artist and the staff from Blacks.  The photographer was Jonathan Blackham and the make-up artist was Sophie Higginson.  We had a campervan for getting changed in and doing hair and make-up.

Our first location was up Glen Roy for some pictures in the woods beside the river.  Second location was further up Glen Roy at the Turret Bridge.  The good old Scottish weather wasn’t playing very fair today, it was very windy with showers, so hair and make-up kept having to be touched up after each shoot.  Third and final location for the day was on the shores of Loch Laggan, it was a lot less windy there.

All in, it was a fun day! I’m looking forward to seeing the pictures when the are published in the campaign!

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