Sunday 5th August 2007: Just when you thought you were getting to grips with Gaelic pronunciation

Because the forecast promised "poor" with about 69% probability of precipitation, rather than doing what I really wanted to do walking wise, I did a "reserve" Munro. Cameron McNeish in the bible for Munro baggers opens the section on Ben Chonzie with the question "Can this hill lay claim to the dullest Munro in the land?" He goes on to describe it as an isolated lump, and it is. The drive there is beautiful and I think the walk in (I came from Invergeldie) is rather attractive. But then I'm easily pleased: it's green, it's going up, and it's in Scotland. It's an easy walk in and up as there is a bulldozed track a good part of the way up. Then there are lots of cairns: none of which could you think are on the top. The real top has a cairn shaped like a shelter. And it was as I was finishing off my cup of tea that I heard scrunching over the rocky approach. Another walker, local, who used this as a training walk when the weather was too bad to do "the real thing" further afield.
Gaelic pronunciation is hard at the best of times. Ben Chonzie is pronounced Ben-y-hone. Work that out.