Hi friends, I realise I have been MIA for the past week, so sorry about that! Dance studios were allowed to reopen (yay) on the 31st August, so I'm now back to teaching almost every day. It is SO GOOD to be back, but there is also so much to do! Anyway, I had nothing to write for Food and Fitness last week because Renee cooked me literally every meal (she's good) and the only fitness I did was running around being a fairy with my wee dance classes. I thought I'd do a wee post this week about our recent hillwalking adventures! Throughout August, Renee and I decided we'd like to start tackling the Marylins of Scotland! We've climbed 5 so far, and we're trying to bag another one each time we have a day off. If you're unsure, Marylins are hills that are at least 150m, but not classed as Monroes. (So basically the smaller hills). Arthur's Seat (251m) ~A classic touristy first hill walk, but PACKED with people~ The first hill we climbed was Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh. We just did this during a day out and with a picnic. I had done it before, but Renee was really keen as it's obviously a tourist point of Scotland! Overall, it took us just over an hour for the whole walk. It was a hot and sunny day, which made it harder than it was. The sun was right above our heads and there were also a LOT of people along the path. I liked the start of the ascent because there was lots to see and lots of little side paths to explore. Once we got further up though, I didn't enjoy that you could see how steep the hill was. I much prefer when you just keep walking and have no idea of how difficult your next section is. This bit felt like it went on forever and the people really started to annoy me (classic). When we got to the top, the views were amazing, but again it's just always so busy you never spend too much time up there. We started to walk down the other side, then had our picnic in a little nook of the hill. During the descent, I discovered I am not very good at walking down hills... I can't count how many times I slid on the stones and fell on my bum! Once we got further down, there was a really nice little valley section, which brought us back to the path we started on. We then sat in Holyrood gardens for a couple of hours before returning home. It was a nice day out, but I'd recommend not climbing this one on a hot day.
Lendrick Hill (456m) ~This was a really funny day and a story we now tell all the time!~ We parked the car in a little parking area at the bottom of the hill, and set off up a forest road. There wasn't a verified route for this one, so we were just following a map. After going the wrong way and almost getting stuck in a forest, we carried on. We started playing the alphabet game to give us something to focus on while we were walking up. We realised at this point that the map told us to veer to the right, going directly up a muddy track through the middle of the trees. This was the steepest track we have climbed so far, and it was really slippery from the mud. We continued to play the alphabet game to stop us from panicking about the sharp drop and mud below us. We stopped a couple of times to catch our breath on the way up, and the view through the trees was beautiful! Once we reached flat ground again, the walk to the top was easy! There was a little section of hilly ground and heather, and then a quick and steep climb to the summit! The views from the top were 360, and we hadn't seen any other people at all along the way! This was a really great moment, and we spent some time at the top taking pictures and admiring the view. We decided that we could not go down the same way as we had come up, because we'd definitely just slide down the mud track... So we found a route that some other walkers had done previously. It suggested following the tiny track alongside the fence until you reached the bottom, easy!! (Not...) It was alright at the start, we were walking and eating our lunch at the same time, so that distracted us from the uneven, boggy ground below us. We were in great spirits and we chatted and laughed for the next little section. As we were descending, I noticed that there was a massive patch of ferns ahead of us. I knew there would be no way around the ferns, but kept quiet for the moment. Once we reached the patch, we discovered the ferns were round 6 ft tall, and we had no option but to go through them! We pushed through all the bushes and did our best not to get hit in the face by branches. Renee stopped suddenly in front of me, as she noticed there was a large section of 6ft nettles ahead... She then said the words 'Sophy, we're going to have to climb the fence...' Now, this fence was higher than the ferns so must've been at least 7ft, it was made of thin wire, and did not look very stable. I thought about what Renee had said and responded with 'No, we can't because there's ferns and nettles on the other side too!.' But then she said 'No, I mean we will have to climb along the fence sideways... Like crabs...' So thats what we did! Climbed to the top section of the fence, and sidestepped along. It was unstable, and we almost fell backwards lots of times. If anyone could've seen this ordeal, it definitely would've been comical. I was singing the alphabet under my breath to keep myself calm, and Renee was hysterically giggling. At some point, we realised the fence wasn't strong enough to hold us anymore and we'd have to jump down. I jumped/fell down first, scraping the back of my knee on a big nettle, then Renee jumped down and got her foot stuck in the fence. Once we had dealt with that, we started laughing and realised this would be a funny story. We survived the rest of the dodgy descent, and emerged from the forest soggy and scratched but still smiling! This walk took us an hour and 25 minutes, and I would recommend doing this on a dry day, and finding a different route for descent... We are loving exploring random areas of Scotland, and climbing the Marylins along the way! So far we have learned: Higher hills don't necessary mean more difficult. Sometimes the lowest hills have the hardest routes!; I have to be really up for the walk, otherwise it will end in tears...; and games along the way definitely help!
Get in touch if you have any funny hill stories, or if you'd like anymore info about the walks we've done! Hope you're all having a great September so far! Love Sophy x
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