Travel Blog Posts
Heights of Madness
Published: November 11th 2009Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » Inverness-shire » Inverness
November 11th 2009
Heights of Madness, a book based on this travel blog has now been published by Metro Books. It can be purchased from Amazon by following the link url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heights-Madness-Jonny-Muir/dp/1844546640/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257973941&sr=8-1 here Or for information about the trip - a 92-day, 5,000-mile cycling and walking journey between the highest points in 92 UK counties - please use the link here ... read more
92 counties. 92 peaks. 92 days.
Published: August 16th 2006Europe » United Kingdom » England » Worcestershire » Bromsgrove
August 16th 2006
On Saturday I climbed through the mist and the slanting rain to the 1,344 metre summit of Ben Nevis, my 92nd and final mountain. The summit is the coldest place in Britain with a mean temperature of 0.3C and is scaled by 100,000 people a year. If the tourist track to the top is a motorway then the summit is a service station, the highest picnic area in Britain. After so many lonely summits it was odd to be surrounded by dozens of people. Ben Nevis may be the biggest but it's certainly not the baddest. Yet the people who walk up reminded me of watching the London Marathon - folk who are totally unprepared for the challenge. Bodies lay strewn either side of the path gasping for air asking if they were nearly there. Somehow ... read more
Just four to go.......
Published: August 8th 2006Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » Caithness County » ThursoAugust 8th 2006
Much cycling, extraordinary Scottish scenery and getting lost on mountain tops have been the themes of the last week. I headed north west from Inverness to Ullapool then north to Durness, Britain's most north-westerly mainland village. John Lennon went on holiday there and the villagers have built a little memorial garden for him. The climb to Ben More Assynt, Sutherland's county top, was harrowing. The mist engulfed me and I wandered blindly around in the dark. It's easy to become disorrientated in these conditions, but when you are 1,000 metres up in the clouds, without a map and knowing that one clumsy foot step will result in falling off a cliff, it's quite daunting. A little fear is healthy, but I was on the wrong side of frightened, half of me just wanted to get off ... read more
Ben Macdui
Published: August 3rd 2006Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » Inverness-shire » InvernessAugust 3rd 2006
At 1,309 metres above sea level Ben Macdui is the second highest mountain in the UK and situated in the centre of the Cairngorms it is remote. The Cairngorms National Park contains the largest mountain and arctic area in Britain, is twice as big as the Lake District and boasts 52 summits over 900 metres. My plan was to walk into the Cairngorms, camp overnight among the hills, and climb the mountain the next day. So I set off around 5pm, cycled three miles along a track before leaving my bike. After an hour of evening walking the rain started. It became so heavy that I knew I had to get the tent up straight away. But I was too slow...water had already leaked across the floor of the tent, my sleeping bag was wet and ... read more
Midges, ferries and cycle lanes
Published: July 28th 2006Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » Stirlingshire » Stirling
July 28th 2006
Let me start by stressing that I have used no artificial products, sun-in, lemon juice - anything - on my hair, as some people are suggesting. It is merely the fact that a healthy outdoor lifestyle and hours of sunshine beating down on my head has blonded my hair. So I went to Northern Ireland. I booked myself on the 4.15am ferry from Cairnryan to Larne. I slept overnight in the ferry terminal and ending up bedding down on the floor of the children's soft play area. The room was sweltering and swarming with sodding midges and every other flying insect under the sun. So I had to have a sleeping bag over me even though I was losing pints of water in sweat. Every now and then I had to unpeel myself from the floor. ... read more
July 16th 2006
I was playing a bizarre game of Scrabble in a hostel in Norfolk with a guy from Northern Ireland, a woman from Northampton and a South African. None of them had ever played before and despite me repeating the rules countless times they thought they could they could spell words backwards and count the extra scores every time a new word was added. The Irishman's first word was whore and he attempted to put wog down as his second. But he did come up with one useful suggestion after I told him about my trip. "Why don't you go to Northern Ireland?" he said. So that's exactly what I'm doing. Cycling to Stranraer on Tuesday then I'll board a ferry to either Larne or Belfast, climb to the highest points in each of the province's six ... read more
15 minutes of fame
Published: July 9th 2006Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » Lanarkshire » Airdrie
July 9th 2006
I'm currently encamped in Airdrie, between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Yesterday I did the short walk to Scotland's lowest county top, Cairnpapple Hill, and had to pay £3 for the privilege. The hill is owned by Historic Scotland as it's one of the best known prehistoric sites on the mainland, with evidence of human activity dating back 5,500 years. Ancient Britons built a henge up there, but out of wood not stone, and it was a burial site. Weather is unhelpful and blustery, praying it brightens up before I take on the highest mountains. Below is the copy of an article in the Sunday Herald from July 9, 2006. (www.sundayherald.com/56638) My thanks go out to Fiona Russell for this. Jonny Muir cycled across the Scottish border on Wednesday. Nothing remarkable in that you might think, except that ... read more
Risking life and limb
Published: July 6th 2006Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » Midlothian » Edinburgh
July 6th 2006
On July 5 after almost 2,500 miles in the saddle I crossed Carter Bar, the border pass into Scotland. Set more than 400 metres high in the hills it is the most spectacular way to arrive in Scotland. The last few days have been the most challenging yet most exhilarating. My route took me north-west through the Yorkshire dales to the Lake District where I climbed three of the most famous mountains in England, The Old Man of Coniston, Scafell Pike and Helvellyn. Though problems arose when I came to climb Mickle Fell, Yorkshire. No road goes within four miles of the summit and the top is not only private land but also an active Ministry of Defence firing zone. Unfortunately for me the red flag was flying meaning I couldn't step foot on the mountain. ... read more
June 23rd 2006
Take a look at http://www.hill-bagging.co.uk/jonnymuir/CountyTopsEW.php - this shows what hills/mountains I have climbed and when. And http://www.hill-bagging.co.uk/jonnymuir/CountyTopsSC.php to show what's coming up. Click on the map to the right and it shows the random route I've had to take. It's not about facts and figures but so far 2,141 miles or 3,440 km and 47 hills and mountains. The River Trent marks the western border of Nottinghamshire with Lincolnshire. And in a small village called Newton-on-Trent there's a toll bridge over the river. Cars stop and drivers pay a man in a kiosk a few pence so they can cross. Then the attendant presses a button to raise a metal barrier. A sign instructed me that cyclists cross for free. I approached the barrier and thought there was room for me to squeeze through on the ... read more
June 19th 2006
Today I should reach the halfway milestone - 43 hills out of 86 - and 2,000 miles. But I'm trapped in King's Lynn for now as bike needs emergency surgery. To complete the 86 in 86 days I should finish on Ben Nevis on Monday August 7. East Anglia is pretty ... but as dull as the ditch water which runs through the Fens. Still got another day to get out of this flat desolate part of the world. and escape into the Peak District. So on Saturday I thought I'd try and crack out a 100-mile day. The roads are pancake flat and I had to cover the distance eventually, so why not do it in one day? Initially I felt like Armstrong on acid - breezing through the lanes, Ullrich hanging on to my ... read more
Tot: 0.094s; Tpl: 0.003s; cc: 16; qc: 95; dbt: 0.0652s; 1; s:notus w:www (50.28.61.183); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.8mb
