Posts Tagged ‘lorraine ishak’
Amateur night on the Buachaille
June 4th, 2010 • 3 comments Camping, Hill walking, Rock Climbing
Tags: bivi, broad buttress, buchaille, lochaber scrambles, lorraine ishak
Last night decided to solo the broad buttress and bivi on the top, I left Glasgow at 5pm into the rubbish hour traffic. It was a beautiful evening with a warm sunset dropping fast behind me, threatening to leave me in the dark if i didn’t move my arse. The climb was pretty exciting, i lost the route a couple of times and ended up giving over my life to a few clumps of heather and some grass. When i finally topped out it felt amazing to be alive. I walked the last few hundered feet to the summit and ate my sandwich and set up my bivi for the night.
Its the first time i have solo’d a hill never mind a scramble it felt pretty amateur to be honest, but i have learned a lot about my limitations, and where i need to work on stuff. Mostly navigation and route finding.
Would I do it again.. certainly but the bivi was pretty dull without company.
‘nice sunset i said to myself’ ..’aye’ i said back.
The Howick Tannery
May 20th, 2010 • 3 comments Around the World
Tags: abstract exploration, Howick tannery, lorraine ishak, midlands meander
After 3 weeks in my tent in the Drakensburg mountains it felt adventurous to be heading into civilization.
Ash and I ventured with wide eyed excitement along the dirt roads towards the small town of Howick.
Our mission; to find the rumoured tannery in the industrial outskirts to purchase some sleeping skins.
(Old faithful the thermarest having given up the ghost with an unidentifiable slow puncture)
This place blew me away.
Stepping through time into a bygone era of thick smells and grime. It reminded me that adventure and exploration can be found in the oddest corners, in this case; between the animal rescue centre and the taxidermists.
In this tiny tannery skins are processed as they have been since the middle ages, hand sorting, dipping, tumbling, stretching and fluffing. They work mainly with sheep and cow skins, but you can bring in any road kill /dead pets that take your fancy.
The folk that work there are smudged black and striking, like Dickensian characters, probably with Victorian pay and working conditions to match.
Any hoo; I’ve just realised that this is in the Zulu lands, not Scotland or even outdoors. Oops. Promise some mountains
next time ..
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