Slovakia September 2015

Another late summer trip to the Slovakian mountains.This time I flew to Vienna rather than Bratislava and also did some walking in the Western Tatras as well as the other nearby ranges that I visited in 2013 and 2014.Great food as usual.
Link to photo album here

4/9/15
Manchester to Vienna on a convenient early afternoon flight (Jet2.com) and stayed at Hotel Graf Stadion near the Rathaus. Nice place,nice lift.

5/9/15
Train to Bratislava and then on to Liptovsky Mikulas where I also stayed at the start of my 2013 trip.Like the previous trip the weather was very cool for the first couple of days but then got warmer and drier.

6/9/15
Local bus to Ziarska Dolina and a walk up the road to the Ziarska Chata just getting caught in a shower before I got there. A coffee then walked up the path to Smutne Sedlo.Rain showers turning into sleet and snow by the top.

Quite chilly so a welcome coffee and beer at the hut on the way back down.

7/9/15
Another local bus to Jalovec at the foot of the next valley west from yesterday.A drizzly day with a bit of sunshine later on.Had a look at the partisans bunker and then a slippery walk to the top of Babky.Had time to walk further down the road into Bobrovec (bar) to catch the bus rather than wait around in Jalovec (no bar).

8/9/15
Train and bus to Liptovske Revuce via Ruzomberok and then for the third time in a row walked up to Chata pod Borisnovom. Same way up via Zelena dolina and Kysku as last year but with a different way back than before ,along Cierny kamen and down the red path to the valley.

Klobasy ,pickles, mustardand horseradish

9/9/15
The weather was improving so I was able to set off on a hut to hut walk in the Mala Fatra mountains Last year I crossed over the far western end of the ridge but this year I planned to do the main central ridge. Caught the local stopping train to Sutovo and walked up to Chata pod Chlebom much quicker than I expected. A coffee ,beer and soup and got my bed for the night before exploring the ridge behind.

Garlic soup - Cesnakova Polievka

Roast lamb and Halusky (potato dumplings) I think?

Good value hut with nice food.

10/9/15

Hemendex!

A day along the ridge west to Chata pod Suchym where I also stayed last year.Quite a few people walking up Velky Krivan ,the highest summit,from the cable car but after that I only passed a couple of small groups.Lovely walk ,up there with the best.The end section over the pinnacles would be tricky in the wet.

Maly Krivan

West end of the to Suchy

Red cabbage soup - Cervena Kapustova Polievka

11/9/15
My next destination was Stefanova to the north of the range ,so rather than walk down to catch the train/bus at Strecno and travel via Zilina I'd worked out that if I walked the short way back up to Javorina and then on down to Varin I could catch a direct bus round from there.Quite strange entering Varin as there were bursts of  loud music being played  through speakers that were permanently mounted to the telephone poles.A relaxing day so had a very nice pizza and beer before catching the mid afternoon bus.

12/9/15
Back onto the main ridge via the Vratna-Chleb cable car for a day walk eastwards along the section of ridge that I'd still to complete.

What's good is that the cable car and ski slopes don't really over-impose themselves on the rest of the ridge. Early mist then increasingly warm and sunny.Lots of other walkers out on a Saturday.

13/9/15
Most of the Stefanova car park had filled up while I was waiting for my bus down the valley to Zilina and the buses coming the other way were also full of Sunday walkers. The train to Bratislava was running late as they normally seem to.I was going to spend my last night of the holiday in Bratislava so wasn't in too much of a rush.

More roast lamb with Chleb ,pickles,horseradish,mustard

Found this website when I was looking the names of some of the dishes:
http://www.slovakcooking.com/

Another late post written on 9/11/15 a wet and windy November day.

Glasgow to Sanquhar July 2015

21/7/15
I rejoined my friend Andrew in Glasgow for part of the southern section of his walk from Cape Wrath to Stranraer. My new lightweight Lowa boots stood up to the test ( of not wrecking my feet) even though the route varied between tarmac and bog over the course of the journey and included a 30 mile day.Another friend Richard was also along having joined Andrew near Loch Lomond.

Photo album here  best viewed as slide show.

A welcome from Richard and Andrew at Finnieston Quay

The Clyde in central Glasgow

The People's Palace on Glasgow Green

Templeton Carpet Factory - now a microbrewery and restaurant

Crossing the river at Cambuslang

Clyde near Uddingston

Bothwell Castle

The last part of the day involved negotiating major roadworks around the M74 Raith Interchange north of Strathclyde Loch.The footpath diversion signing wasn't up to much but there'd been a trail race along the CVW route the previous weekend and the yellow marking on the ground came to our rescue a few times.

22/7/15

It was Richard's turn to suffer from blistered feet and he decided to make his own way by public transport to meet us at New Lanark ,tonight's destination.Andrew and I left the urban landscape behind and walked through a more rural setting mostly on good riverside paths.

The Clyde at Barons Haugh

Left over from the race - presumably it washes off eventually

New signs and path maintenance once you move between North and South Lanarkshire

Downstream from New Lanark

We made quick work of the 16 miles between Motherwell and New Lanark,arriving around 4pm. Richard and Andrew were booked in at the Youth Hostel but when I'd made my own arrangements shortly before the trip it worked out better value for me to stay at the hotel.A bit of luxury.

  

23/7/15

Richard was leaving today and we all had an early breakfast at the hotel before Andrew and I headed off on a long day across to Sanquhar.Our route left the river a couple of miles upstream from New Lanark and then followed minor roads above Douglas Water ,with a short detour for early elevenses and lunch supplies at Cairn Lodge services ,before heading south up the A74 old road.

Starting off from New Lanark

Corra Linn

Folkerton Mill near Douglas Water

Marker post near Uddington

From tarmac to bog! After a stretch uphill along the cycleway we left the road to continue on old hill tracks to Crawford.While these are still shown on the map they've mostly disappeared on the ground and some sections were slow going.

Across the bog

Crawfordjohn

A quick late lunch stop then another short stretch of road before heading up the trackless Glen Snar and across the watershed at Reecleuch Hill down to Wanlock Water.

 

Climbing out of Glen Snar -this section was fairly slow going

Old mine workings above Wanlockhead

The last 6 miles from here to Sanquhar were along the South Uplands Way on a much clearer path which made for quicker going and we reached our destination at around 7.45 pm. The day worked out at just short of 30 miles.

Cogshead

Nearly there

Moot Hall opposite the Nithsdale Hotel where we stayed

(a catch up post written on 9/11/15 ,a wet and windy November day)

Summer fruit veg and flowers

The post title was going to be "Summer raspberry troubles" but I decided to go for something more positive given the number of other crop successes compared to failures.
All the alliums ; onions,garlic etc, seem to be doing well this year including Rossa Lunga sown from seed,and the gooseberries, currants and loganberries which I planted last year are all producing good crops of berries.

Rossa Lunga bulbing onions

Loganberries

Slideshow

The summer raspberries canes (Glen Ample and Leo ) were looking healthy enough a month ago and I even added more stakes to accommodate this year's strong growth.However,they have now become weak and sickly and are starting to die off.I've removed the worst of the canes to see how the rest fare but would welcome anyone's thoughts on what's caused the problem and any possible solutions.It could be root rot or a virus? They might all need digging up and throwing away.I'd hate it if any contamination spread to the loganberries and autumn raspberries.

Early July veg

Thought I'd take a few veggie mug shots to record progress with other years. I'm now cropping strawberries and globe artichokes which are a bit behind last year's , whereas lettuce ,rocket ,radish ,onions and garlic have made a quick catchup in the recent warm temperatures after May and early June's joke weather.It's been very dry for a few weeks but now expecting a bit more rain which should do wonders for everything.Doubt if things will catch up to where they were on 22nd July 2013 when I was harvesting a glut of mangetout peas and courgettes?

Monster lettuce protected from the icy May and June blast by a basic polyhoop

Snowball onions from sets - harvested as continental onions while the green tops are fresh

Wild rocket,red globe radish and Flavor garlic

Alliums seem to be doing well with the onion sets maturing early and the first garlic bulbs already a decent size for roasting from fresh.The leek plantlets are also much further on than last year.
Pleased with the radish sown from a packet bought in the Canary Islands with enough seed for a small field.