Seventy-five

I am seventy-five today. There was a time when seventy-five would have seemed ancient but the NHS, heeding good advice on nutrition and other lifestyle options, still finding a few adventures, and being a bit wicked in enjoying some treats, like alcohol, which we are told may not be good for us, have enabled my generation to remain healthy beyond our years. We are very fortunate.

One thing Gill and I have worked hard on is our physical fitness. We walk every day, whatever the weather, a minimum of a mile or so. Today, in search of a lochan, we walked 6.8 miles and over 350m up and down hill.

The plan had been to do a much shorter circular walk through the Ben Bhraggie forestry but the memory that, somewhere above the forestry fence, there was a lochan which needed visiting, took us though this gate....

....and out onto the glorious open-ness of Scotland's hills.

I could have cheated and found the lochan's location on my mobile but instead we just followed the sign to "Glenview Point"....

....walking steadily higher and higher on a rough track until it ended abruptly at....

....a sign which, in case we didn't appreciate it, informed us that what lay in front of us was a view.

It was a good view, a typical Scottish Highland view on a dreich day with a cutting wind and wet rain, a view which lacked a lochan but a view which, we quickly realised....

....could be improved considerably by leaving the track and walking a further fifty metres up to the hill's summit - but from which we still couldn't see the lochan.

Never mind, the lochan will still be there another day, which can't be said for the bottle of St Emilion we have warming by the hob.