Henderson Family Outing: Chamonix - Mt Blanc

The first week in March saw a Henderson Family Outing to Chamonix, France, for a spot of alpine adventuring. As you can see from the happy faces, everyone had a good time. Vast quantities of regional cheese were consumed, fuelling long days on the mountain. Beaucoup de fromage was required for the daring descent of the Vallee Blanche, as the intrepid band negotiated the glacier, starting from a breathless altitude of 3842m.

Emma & Mt Blanc (it's the one directly under the blazing sun).

Neil & Nicole Olivier, his holiday sweetheart.

Laura & Chris in the telecabine on "Minus Twelve Day".

Mr and Mrs Poopoo-Head

They've only gone and got married.

more photos can be found at http://www.flickr.com/groups/chrisandlaura/ If you already have a flickr account I'll add you to the group and you can share any wedding photos you like. If not, you can easily create one by following the links on the flickr home page.

Good News

The Henderson family are very pleased to annouce the engagement of Emma and Michael. This photo was taken at a friend's wedding

where Emma was bridesmaid. They are just back from a romantic break in Paris where the question was popped at the top of the Eiffel Tower!

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And this is Laura and Chris in relaxed mode this summer. They are due to get married in November this year at the lovely setting of Mar Lodge on Deeside. We are all looking forward to the occasion.

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Scottish Summer Sorties

This may look like Emma is about to deliver a fascinating presentation about life as a cutting-edge designer, but it is in fact the high point of her wet weekend, atop Ben Lomond (974m) earlier this afternoon. We saw two huge birds circling the cairn in the mist as we completed our Sunday jaunt. We didn't see much else, what with being in the middle of a cloud. Emma assures me you can see lots of other hills and stuff on a nice day, and sometimes crazy men in vests...


Emma is clearly overjoyed to have rekindled fond childhood memories, I'm clearly concentrating on taking the picture, and Kippen is clearly not keen to be seen. Perhaps she's hiding from the circling birds of prey.

Back to sea level, and here's Emma making friends with a horsey on Saturday beside the beach at Troon. He wasn't very friendly, instead concentrating on his task of advertising tools and timber. Even when the heavens opened after our nice walk on the beach, he didn't budge an inch, or even blink. Mr Horsey gets top marks for dedication to duty in the face of inclement weather and the attention of Emma and the ever-curious Kippen.

So, two rainy dog walks. One by the sea, one up a hill. Here's hoping for many more damp drives home in the glorious Scottish summer of 2007! For those of you whom I haven't met, I'm Michael, and I have the privilege of being Emma's driver, and packed-lunch-carrier.

Silver Boot Ride June 2007

My friend Yvonne and I completed the Silver Boot ride in the first week of June this year. The ride is organised as a competitive team event with rather odd rules. The main rule is that you have to get to a certain place by a certain date and each team is free to work out their own route of whatever length and complexity they wish. We started out with a team of 3 from Spey Bay on the north coast of Moray on 4th June and headed south on the speyside way and then into forestry and hills to get to Aberlour that night. Bill and Rob (Barbara's husband) were crewing for us, i.e. driving the horse trailers with all our stuff to the night's stop. Next day we set out over more forestry roads over Ben Rhinnes and into the estate of Glenfiddich and Glenlivet (think whisky country!) where we passed the old and abandoned Glenfiddich Lodge an old victorian hunting lodge where Queen Victoria used to stay, where we saw huge herds of red deer in the mist - very atmospheric. That day's goal was Tomnavoulin, another distillery town, where we left the horses and had to go to Tomintoul for accomodation for ourselves. We lost one of our team at that point. Barbara had had a riding accident the day before we started and had been gritting her teeth and bearing it, but it got too painful and she had to quit after day 2. She got herself checked out the following Monday at the hospital in Aberdeen and found out that she had 4 broken ribs and a broken shoulder blade! How she managed to ride for 2 days I do not know - she is one tough old bird (69 actually!). Day 3 took us over Cairn Daimh (pronounced Die) and into Tomintoul - a shortish day of only 13 miles and we stayed at the same hotel as the previous night. The horses stayed with a friend who runs a trekking centre in Tomintoul. Day 4 saw us heading due south from Tomintoul down the river Avon and along an old drove road to Inchrory - where an arab sheik has bought the old hunting lodge of Inchrory and done it up as a summer retreat, apparently with gold taps, etc. It is a lovely old house in the middle of nowhere! The track then became a footpath past Loch Builg and over the hill of Culardoch and into Deeside at Braemar, where we stayed the night. The fifth and final day took us through Balmoral Estate, over Lochnagar to Loch Muick and onto another drove road called the Capel Mounth which climbed up and up and then dropped down steeply into Glen Doll and finally to Glen Clova hotel, which was our destination. In all we rode more than 100 miles and climbed over 14,000 feet. There were 11 teams in all and they all finished, the winning team doing 240 miles over 11 days with no crew! I must say I would have hated to do it without our crew (ie Bill and Rob) setting up electric fencing for the horses and bringing our luggage from place to place - a bit like the West Highland Way! I really needed that shower after a long day in the saddle. We enjoyed it so much we are planning our route for 2008, but the venue is on the west coast north of Oban so logistically much more of a challenge!

Hello from Sunny Scarborough

Well this is my maiden blog- and what a great achievement it will be if I can actually manage it! I am even going to try to post a couple of photos of the boys. The first one shows their excitment at finding the Easter eggs left by Easter Bunny and the second shows the result!!

This weekend saw us undertaking a dramatic challenge- requiring strength, determination and stamina. While it didnt probably quite match the efforts of some of the other contributors, it was quite a feat for us... and now we have erected in our back garden a mountain of a trampoline for the kids (all of us!!)

This weekend also brought with it a loss... yes Tommy lost his first baby tooth on Saturday. He has been wobbling it around and trying to ease it out for weeks now, so he was very proud when all his hard work paid off and he is now the proud owner of a gappy smile (not to mention the £1 the tooth fairy left- I think we were done- I am sure the fairy only left us 10p!)

Anyway, I'm not going to ramble on on this first effort- just incase it doesnt work! Best wishes to you all

Jane

xxx

Well Done the Conquering Heroes

Your photo reminded me of our wedding anniversary in September 2003 (our 32nd) when we decided to celebrate the occasion by scaling the very same Aonach Eagach Ridge. We did it the other way round by starting at the Clachaig Inn and climbing Sgorr nam Fiannaidh, Meall Dearg and then Am Bodach. Bill very gallantly ran back down the road to the Clachaig Inn and fetched our car as my legs were a wee bitty wobbly by then. Never was a glass of the strong cider more welcome! I managed at one point to slip off the path and go sliding down a steep slope, managing eventually to grab some heather and come to a welcome stop. It is quite a scary climb and one which I don't feel I have to do again! We kept coming across parties of climbers all roped together with a guide and all going the other way!

Buddies conquer Aonach Eagach

Veteran Paisley Buddies and extreme climbers John and Sheila undertook an audacious traverse of the fearsome Aonach Eagach on Saturday. Without ropes, the intrepid couple inched their way along the 3km knife-edge which overlooks enormous drops on both sides. Maybe not quite a Touching the Void story but scary enough. There are two Munros contained within the ridge and these summits were included in the traverse. Under a hot sun and facing a light breeze the couple, having gained the ridge at Am Bodach, negotiated the infamous Chancellor without incident to secure the first Munro, Meall Dearg. The next stretch, The Pinnacles, presented one or two "moments". At one stage, Sheila, who was leading had to retreat for a lack of handholds (she is quite wee after all). Later, composure completely restored, she saw the only way down a tricky descent leading her future husband to safety. The second Munro, Sgurr nam Fiannaidh, came almost as an anti-climax after so much vertigo inducing activity. Sheila is pictured there with Ben Nevis as a backdrop. A long, long, knee-wrenching descent down the loose scree of the Clachaig Gulley brought the Buddies back to terra firma after a thrilling day on the hill. A shaken John, father of three and also a grandparent was later to be seen in the Clachaig Inn clutching a large glass of Amber Fluid while his fellow climber calmly undertook some maintenance on the terrace as the last of the rays disappeared behind Ballachulish.