Walking and talking

For 17 years a group of friends has met at different locations throughout the UK for an annual walking weekend. While a couple of people have been to every event, some have missed just a few of the occasions and some, like us, are new-comers. Last weekend the location was, for the first time, in Scotland and our snowboarding pals Super Al and Lovely Linda were doing the organisation and guiding.

They could not have chosen a better area for two fabulous days of walking. Based at the Kinlochewe Hotel, some 15 of us walked and talked and talked and lunched and walked and drank and talked and dined and talked and walked in the Torridon area, which surely has to be one of the most magnificent parts of the UK.

If you've never visited the Torridon Mountains then you really should. The mountainscape is jaw-droppingly stunning with huge glacier carved glens and high, rounded summit tops. While there are some seriously challenging routes to be found in this area, not least a fair few strenuous Munros, our two walks, one on the Saturday and another on the Sunday, were reasonably gentle. Nonetheless they afforded hours and hours of fabbie scenic views.

The great thing about a social walking weekend is that everyone has a chance to walk and talk with a different person and at various intervals. Conversations actually get finished (an almost alien concept to people with children who rarely finish a sentence let alone a conversation before the kids butt in) and new subjects can be explored.

It was lovely to catch up again with some of the people we met during our ski hol in France in February and it was great to meet some new folk too. Both Mr Outdoors and I felt honoured to have been invited on such a rewarding and entertaining weekend. Thanks all you guys!