Glen Tanar again at last

Gail finally ran out of excuses.

I'd been itching to return to Glen Tanar, one of my favourite places, for ages, but all summer my dear owner kept thinking up reasons not to go:

"It's a popular destination and will be too busy and the car park full."

"The weather's too hot/cold/windy/wet/foggy."

"My favourite path is closed off due to a male capercaillie 'displaying and holding his ground'"

"You're getting a bit old for such a long walk Bertie."

Well as you can imagine, it was the last statement that really got my goat!

I've been feeling exceptionally lively this week, and I'm pleased to say that Gail noticed (I think it was my bouncing out of bed before 6 a.m. three days in a row).

Come Sunday, the weather was pleasantly mild (around 15ºC) with a refreshing breeze and light cloud, but no rain was forecast. The Glen Tanar Estate website said the paths were all now open, and I reminded Gail that our favourite walk starts at the estate entrance and not the main car park, and this part of Glen Tanar is never busy. And of course I could still walk ten miles, if allowed plenty of time for my pee stops.

And I did. Walk ten miles that is. And we both had a splendid day out together. As you can see from the pictures below.

PS from Gail: Shortly after Bertie's TCC diagnosis last September, a kind friend consoled me by saying "what you have to remember Gail, is that Bertie doesn't know he's got cancer". Seeing him happily scampering around the beautiful Caledonian pine woods of Glen Tanar yesterday, I remembered her comment and felt thankful. 

The right kind of everything in Glen Tanar

I was a bit miffed to hear that Gail had gone gallivanting off to London for a couple of days with Flat George (click here if you really want to read about that).

So anyway, to make up, she took me for a long and perfect Sunday walk in Glen Tanar.


We had the right kind of snow (freshly fallen, and just enough to make everything look beautiful but not so much as to impede my customary bounciness)

It was just the right temperature, an invigorating 1 degree C and, for once, no wind.


We went at the right time of day, so the sun was high enough in the sky to peep out from behind the hills every now and then.

Glen Tanar has the right kind of trees (native Caledonian pine forest, not just boring plantation conifers).


We encountered the right amount of traffic on the forest tracks (i.e. none)


There was just the right amount of water for the stream to look its most pretty.

And, best of all, Gail remembered to bring along the right number of bribes so there weren't any rows about her making me do all this ridiculous posing....

A Simply Splendid Sunday Stroll in Sometimes Sunny Scotland

Actually it wasn't a stroll at all it was a VERY LONG WALK with Gail and her friends Kate and Henry.

And I had SO much work to do. For instance, waking Henry from his post-lunchtime nap.

Meanwhile, I am learning fast about this posing business.

But I have no idea what Kate thought was so funny at this particular moment.

It was a lovely walk, but also VERY LONG.

And I was very happy when, eventually, we got back to Kate and Henry's cottage.

PS From Gail: Bertie has not been weighed lately, but I can report with confidence that he is now far too heavy to carry comfortably in my arms for the last two miles of a seven mile hike....