2009 - A year in pictures

Early walk up a munro near Glenshee. We tried to ski. 2009 in fact turned out to be an excellent ski season

Linda cycling in Dumfries on the Ae MTB track. I survived the cycle ride then tripped down the stairs at the B&B that night, hurt my back and couldn't walk for a week.

Camping in Arran. In Glen Rosa campsite. You can't see the midges. Thanks Anthony for the photo.

Also in Arran. This is the Sou'wester route. A Scottish rock climbing "classic".

Originally it would have been done in hob nail boots with a dodgy hemp rope and minimal gear. Even with our high tech equipment I found it quite focused the mind.

2009

Notre Dame in Paris taken at a jauntily creative angle.

2009

The Paris catacombes and a few of the 6 million dead parisians from the 1700's.

Before this I took Linda down the very romatic Paris sewers. Also cheap with few queues and very educational.

Climbing the Dubh ridge from loch Coriusk on Skye. We stayed at a mountain hut which you can't see but it's down on the waters edge at the right.

Back at Loch Coriusk hut.

The "bad step" on Skye with a big drop into the sea. It's actually steeper than it looks since I tipped the camera the wrong way.

Clare, Dougie, Martin and Pete from "the club".

Linda and me in Shetland. It was perfect weather for over a week. Very unusual.

After the first two days of good weather, the Lerwick shops ran out of sun tan cream and ice cream.

Linda and Sarah on a cycling trip in Shetlands.

The bus shelter was inexplicably kitted out with chairs, radios, a wee library and a TV... all fetchingly set within a pink theme.

Camping below Ben Nevis after climbing observatory ridge. Very wet. That's Pete and Linda

Climbing Savage Slit in the Coire an lochan, Cairngorms. It was misty and rock less that perfectly dry. Pete leading the charge. Quite an epic.

A walk down in Dent, England, on Pete's 40th. I liked the bright green in this photo.

Mark Saunder's famous and traditional BBQ and bonfire on the beach.

Sunset near Inverie on Knoydart peninsula (Scotland west coast), on Mark's last muno weekend.

Approaching the summit of Ladhar Bheinn. See marks last munro.

Linda and someone else on a walk somewhere

Ok it's a postcard but we did go there and walk around it. The Cerne giant. It is truly a quite big and very impressive, set in beautiful countryside.

Jack's christening party at Mike and Penny's mansion down on the South Coast in Steeple.

Andrew's favourite afternoon. A small country tearoom, tea and scones and the Saturday's Guardian newspaper

We stayed in a small cottage in Cornwall near Landsend for a week.

More boats in yet another impossibly picturesque Cornish harbour.

Whilst we were down south I had to drag Linda to Cornwall to pick off another "Classic" at Sennen Cove. Linda built up a lot of credit that week.

Andrew and Jim's WW1 discovery tour. That's Dad checking out the (live) WW1 ammunition, dug up from the farmer's field over the last 6 months, and piled up behind the back of our Farm B&B near Passendale, Ypres.

The Ypres cloth hall was one of the largest commercial buildings of the Middle Ages, when it served as the main market and warehouse for the Flemish city's prosperous cloth industry. The original structure, erected mainly in the 13th century and completed 1304, lay in ruins after artillery fire devastated Ypres in World War I.

Glassie weekend near Aberfeldy. Wet is an understatement. But the scenery was lovely... before the fog came down.

That's Linda in the light blue.

Loch Katrine cycle tour... and cafe.

Climbing a ruined castle up Ardnamurchen way. Linda stopped me before I got too high.