The Sunday route was a drive north, towards Boat of Garten, then onto Grantown on Spey, then down to Balmoral. The weather was very pleasant, and as we pulled off the A9 onto the A95, the road ran by the River Spey on a glorious sunny afternoon. What followed, once we went south from Grantown, was an amazing drive, which in my view, of all the drives I’ve been on, is just short of the Cook Highway from Cairns to Port Douglas and on to Daintree and Cape Tribulation, and a little way short of the Great Ocean Road. But it was still a bit special. Up and down, hairpins, great scenery, lovely crisp air. A pity I could not take many pictures.

Jake's Mates

Between Lynmore and Bridge of Brown is a little layby… and the views were great…

A pity about the pylon

Mountains

A Memorial - Apologies, I can't remember what for

More mountains

Bored with the mountains, yet?

The Last Of The Mountains... For Now

These are all the beloved’s pictures… I was too busy driving and speaking to the brother at the time.

Next, on to the Queen’s residence in Summer!

I’ve been a bit quiet on here recently, I know. With the Ashes in full flow now I’ve been concentrating the blogging on the cricket and little else, so time to redress the balance and speak about other things.

Nice to see my WindyBricks colleagues wish me a happy birthday. Some of them harbour grudges that warp through time, others make unsubstantiated remarks about me, but let them be. The vast majority of the chaps and chap-esses there are top people, so there’s no need to be resentful or perpetuate the hate any longer. I can’t imagine what drives some of them.

I’ve been following the Tour de France, while sipping from my cafetiere of course, and so far it has been a bit of a phony war as the organisers effectively wasted two mountain stages by giving the cyclists long distances to the finish after them. Hence the iconic Col du Tourmalet climb, where I remember a great stage with LeMond, Delgado and Indurain (on the way to Luz Ardiden) in 1990, is just a footnote in this tour as the main men kept their powder dry for the Alps and the last-but-one day climb up Mont Ventoux. The buzz is, of course, around the Astana team containing the young champion Alberto Contador and the seven time winner Lance Armstrong (who, it will come to the surprise of no-one, I can’t abide). Contador laid down a marker on Andorra Arcalis by jumping from the pack and taking time out of the rest of the top runners, including Armstrong. There then followed a session of media rounds where Armstrong claimed he could have caught him but it wasn’t the right thing to do, and he’s clearly miffed that the “team leader” actually acted like one. Armstrong would surprise me intensely if he works at all for Contador from here on in. He’s got too competitive a streak, he’s too ruthless, he’s too savvy and he’s too egotistical to just come back to ride the tour “for his cancer charity.” Armstrong is there to win, and if Contador’s ambition has to be suppressed, so be it. After all, what better way to hamstring your greatest rival and the man you’ll fear most, by making him, in some way, worry about you in your own team? Contador showed some balls by making his early statement, and I am very much in his camp. He sacrificed defending his crown last year by joining Astana, and his team repays him by bringing in Armstrong to stuff things up. Contador must be seething.

Also in the tour, while Mark Cavendish is getting lots of plaudits for winning three stages, and he clearly is unstoppable in a fair sprint. However, quietly posting the best ride in the overall standings by a Brit since Robert Millar is Bradley Wiggins, who surprised everyone, and possibly himself, by keeping up with the big climbers on the Arcalis. In the coverage on ITV4, the pictures of him thumping the team van with sheer joy and pride at his performance was one of the best things I’ve seen in a while. This bloke, while not unknown, has three Olympic gold medals under his belt, and yet is hardly mentioned at all by anyone. Ask a person in a street to name a British Olympic pursuit champion, and they’ll probably name Chris Boardman. Wiggins has personality, ability and strength. The only conceivable reason he isn’t a megastar here is that we’ve become complacent about gold medals. Here’s hoping Wiggins continues his great form and gets his desired top 20 finish.

Other football, and what, precisely, are Manchester City doing? BBC Sport listed them this morning – Tevez, Robinho, Caicedo, Bellamy, Benjani, Bojinov, Roque Santa Cruz and Evans (yes, Evans) – and now Adebayor is taking a medical. Has someone told this mob you can probably play three of them, maximum, at one time, and knowing his attitude, Bellamy knows he will be one of them! This is ridiculous. Manchester City may have a very entertaining team, but their pursuit of John Terry makes the whole thing even more of a joke. I know it is funny watching Chelsea in the position of disbelieving host to a cash mad predator, but what is this all about. At a time when the economy is diving more emphatically than Greg Louganis, Manchester City are spending like sailors on shore leave. It is utterly classless, but then again, what does anyone expect with the Premier League these days?

It is a cracking weekend of sport, with the Tour de France heating up, the Lord’s test and the Open golf championship. Add to that Boston will be trying to keep their three game lead over the Yankees as they head off on a six game road trip after the All Star Break (and if Boston get to the World Series they’ll have home advantage after the American League won again last night). Lots to watch, see and do.

Hope this message finds my readers well and in positive spirits. Talking of spirits, I have not touched alcohol for 8 days and the intention is to make it to 31 (British Beer Festival). Here’s hoping I do it!

Courtesy of the esteemed Sir Peter (reviewing photos for Adelaide updates and came across them) is this

Dem Kangaroos

Picture taken near Margaret River, Western Australia in December 2006.

And further pictures from our sojourn to Scotland…

Bleak On The Moor...

More on the Moor

Looking Back Towards Glencoe

The falls at Killin, a village at the western end of Loch Tay, certainly entertained our dog. You’ll see pictures of that in due course at another place. Here are some of the scenery pics…

Killin Falls - Part 1

Looking Towards The Narrow Bridge

Again Towards the Bridge

Looking Back Up The Tay...

More looking West...

As always, the beloved had her pictures…and of course, they are called the Falls of Dochart

Looking Down On The Falls

Now We Know Their Name

From The Bridge...

And one from the phone…

We've Seen This View Before

Once we’d left Fort William, we headed south and south east to the road through Glen Coe and up to Rannoch Moor. The following are some pictures of the spectacular, beautiful scenery we encountered…

Looking West From Glencoe Visitors Centre

Looking North East at Ballachulish

Looking East at Cloud Covered Mountains

Another View Of Cloudy Tops Of Mountains

As you can tell, the weather on this day was a bit dank and drizzly, but in some ways it seemed to make the place more atmospheric. We left the visitors centre, and set off up the road. We drove into the National Trust centre for a bite to eat, and then set off up the road towards Crianlarich. The road became amazing as we continued up through a mighty valley..(well by UK standards).

Looking Eastwards and Upwards

Clouds Are Gathering

Looking Down Glencoe

Waterfalls In The Mist

More Waterfall...

Drizzle, Mist, Greenery, Waterfalls...Beautiful

The next instalment will have Rannoch Moor on it, and then onto Killin Falls… The beloved took some pictures too, and some are attached below too…

This Boat Has Seen Better Days....

Cold Up Top....

And one last one from the camera on the phone…

The Valley Road

I can assure anyone who reads this that I will never ever touch a drop of this stuff again, as long as I live.

It is pure evil…

Pure Evil

Via another blog I read a lot, The Devil’s Kitchen, I came across this stunning picture from the volcanism blog

http://volcanism.wordpress.com/2009/06/19/stunning-sarychev-peak-picture-from-the-nasa-earth-observatory/

Absolutely bloody amazing.

I have a lot of likes / interests, but up there with the top of my ambitions is to visit a proper volcano. Sure, I’ve been to Mount Teide in Tenerife, the old Fire Mountain in Lanzarote, but how cool would it be to see that picture in the flesh, or to see Mount St Helens, Krakatau, Tambora, or any one of the Central or South American volcanoes. I’d love to.

I picked this book up – http://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Volcano-Stanley-Williams/dp/034911367X - in a book shop in Derbyshire last year, and it was captivating. I’ve read Simon Winchester’s tome on Krakatau, which a volcanologist student I once knew described as a load of old rubbish, but was an enjoyable read nonetheless. And I have this site – http://www.volcano.si.edu/ - bookmarked on the favourites.

This blog will certainly be linked in due course. Fantastic picture.

On the dashboard to my blog some other sites occasionally pop up. WordPress has some sort of gizmo whereby a post on this or another blog I might occasion to write is automatically added on to another blog somewhere in the wordpress empire.

This was in my linkback folder…

http://morealtitude.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/safety-beach-sunset/

To put it mildly, I’m dead envious of these pictures of a sunset. I’ve taken a couple of decent ones, but quite often I have to trick them up a bit. But these are beautiful.

Not a bad blog either, it has to be said.

A couple of weeks ago London got hit by storms. We also had a rainbow. Some photos….

Rainbow Up Above

Twice As Nice

Sunshine In The Storm

Gloomy Clouds Through My Pruned Trees

We set out on the Saturday morning from Newtonmore, taking the road over the mountains en route to Fort William. The mission was to see Britain’s highest mountain.

Loch Laggan Looking East

The Dam At Loch Laggan

On the way over to Fort William, we stopped off at the north side of Ben Nevis where we saw a number of thrillseekers riding their mountain bikes down the course below…

I Love Speed...

Around the other side of Ben Nevis and we couldn’t see the top. We bumped into a number of people doing the three peaks in a day challenge (Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon) and waited for their colleagues to come down. Meanwhile we took these pictures…

Sign Post To The High Point

Take Me To The River

Ben Nevis Is Over There Somewhere

The Lush Green Hills

The next instalment will contain pictures of Glen Coe, which is where we went after Ben Nevis.

Also, I’ll be sure to let you see the Ben Nevis fridge magnet….