17/11/2011 by admin.

The Moray Book is finally published quite a few months eariler then expected. As discussed in eariler post this book about two long distance hikes within Moray, Scotland. It contains maps, loads of photos plus loads of infomation about the routes and Morays history, not forgetting details about the superb landscape the walks take you through - from pristine beaches, fertile lowlands, rivers jumping with salmon to high breas full of illicit whisky lore and finally onto some of the highest mountains in the UK.

Not avaliable from amazon yet - it is from my publisher here, or look on my book web page here and click on the ‘Moray way’ icon for more details.

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29/07/2011 by admin.

I feel I can safely saw without any reservation that taking a bike from tomintoul to Ben Macdui is only for the insanly fit and determined of hikers/cyclist. I got as far as the shelter by the ford of avon and bunked out around to the green loch - apart from the rain and winds and low cloud of the day ( just above the waters of avon loch) my enthusiam was pretty well drained after dragging the bike just from the lodge - but went back a few days later and finished the route from the ski centre including a recce around loch avon to finally determine the state of theose paths and left a report with photos here 

And while we’ll at it, here’s a link to a report and photos of a walk I did last year to devils point from the sugar bowl car park.

Paul

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24/06/2011 by admin.

I think that moray is quite unusual - unusual that is for the difference in landscape it offers within its modern boundaries for such a small county. From the clear cold waters of the firth right upto the second highest mountain within the UK - namely Ben Macdui within that wonderous plateau of the Cairngorms containing 5 of the first 6 Munros (if you include the Angels peak or Sgor an Lochain Uaine).

For that reason and the fact that I think the Cairngorms are unmissable, I decided to make a route of my own starting from the coast, via Elgin (the capital of moray, which others walks also tended to miss) leading to the speyside way from ballindalloch to Tomintoul, then using tracks to loch avon and up onto the plateau and round to Ben Macdui.

I am still in the walking out stage of this walk/cycle, just waiting for the height of miggy season to finish it off, plus still running around various places doing research to ensure I find something of interest about everywhere the routes passby.

As much as I’d love to spend the nice weather we’re having stuck behind a computer or in libraries, the wife has recently got me working outdoors where I finally managed to finish off the decking - have’nt made any in years but I think I made pretty good use of the gardens slope in this one and now she wants adirondack chairs - they should be fun to make!

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04/05/2011 by admin.

It seems that it is even easier to get hold of my craft and hiking book now that they are listed on amazon - here’s the links;

Leather and craft manual

Six mountain hikes from around the world

cheers

Paul

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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.

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12/04/2011 by admin.

Welcome to paul blog. This is my first blog but will be writing more soon.

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