Hi, Just back from a busy week up north. With ash cloud spreading over Europe, the A9 and Cal Mac do have their advantages at times! First stop was Balloan Farm for a good social catch up with the MacQueen clan which took place over two days. On Monday night I visited Iain and Maureen MacPherson for the first of my Israel 2011 trip reunions and relived some of the highlights over a pleasant dinner. Tuesday was spent mostly at Balloan which meant a four mile run ...

Hi, As I wrote a fairly lengthy and descriptive blog about the Highland Cross on this site last year I won't repeat myself so refer you back to 2009 for any technical details about the race. Nevertheless it involves covering Scotland from coast to coast, with 20 miles running cross country followed by a 30 mile cycle. And all for some good causes! This year I was in a team with Ishbel from last years shenanigans plus my old workmate Andy Cowell from Englandsvil...

Hi, At the beginning of June, I set foot on the Outer Hebrides for the first time in 22 years, accompanying my companion Charlie on a six day tour which covered the whole of the Western Isles from the Butt of Ness down to Barra and Vatersay. All in all the return journey to Glasgow covered 836 miles. We visited Lewis, Harris, Scalpay, Berneray, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist, Eriskay, Barra and Vatersay. This includes four islands I had not visited before p...

Hi, As most of you will be aware, The Highland Cross is described as: a 50-mile duathlon (20 miles on foot, 30 miles on bike) traversing the spectacular Scottish Highlands coast to coast, west to east from Kintail through Glen Affric and Strathglass to Beauly. Having hopefully completed enough training to take me through the event (which included borrowing a bike as I don't own one myself), I headed north on June 19th, with over £1100 worth of sponsorship ple...