30/04/2011 by admin.

Just back from cycling the moray way and I could’nt of asked for better weather, mostly clear skies, light winds and a sun tan, not bad for easter time.

After cycling the whole route I would say that unless you have a good mountain bike and don’t mind having to push/carry it sometimes that some of the route is best covered by the roads, especially for a few miles along the coastal part and from craigllachie to grantown but this does mean that your cover the route faster and miss out on some of the best sights, so I have decided to write the book for walking and cycling the route with alternative routes to see certain sights or miss bad stretches of paths.

Each day is from 24 to 28 miles which for the fairly fit should’nt be too much problems when walking. I’ve covered such distances in the Cairngorms, such as last year when I hiked to Devils point and that took me 12 hours including stops for taking video footage - one clip can be seen on my facebook. So if you average 2 to 3 miles an hour walking then each stage could be covered in 8 to 12 hours. Cycling each stage took me from 4 to 6 hours which also included many stops to take photos and also cover the rough paths.

I also used wild camping amongst the WW2 defence relic’s along from Lossiemouth and B & B’s in order to add some variety in the avaliable accommodation in  the area for those who prefer camping or the luxory of a comfortable bed. The bike I used is an old apollo mountain bike with front and rear suspension which luckily despite many rough and rocky paths did not get a puncture and only needed the bolt for the rear arm tightening on the 3rd day.

Now that the easy part is over, I am now currently working on the route maps which I plan to use for a chapter purly on the details of the route such as conditions of paths or tracks plus any alternative routes avaliable due to unsuitable paths or erosion from the spey river, these I envision will be able to be cut out and laminated as an aid but not a substitute for OS maps. Plus sorting out the over 200 photos I took of the route which I plan to use within the main part of the book to help illustrate the route.

Posted in travel books | 1 Comment »

30/04/2011 by admin.

 For the past 10 or so years I have been heavily involved in the making of various items out of wood and leather as a hobby and for clients around the world.

The manuel above contains a collection of Pdf tutorials I created over that time to help answer questions and purly for my own interest. 

It covers subjects such as carving and stamping leather, making whips, armour, long and flat bows, arrows and a variety of ways to make quivers - plus contains numerous tricks of the trade. Can be bought as a book or downloaded.

Posted in Crafty stuff | 1 Comment »