Brilliant ? Not !

I got a bit fed up with our local neck of the woods and thought today would be a good day to walk in an unknown area. Most people get up late on Christmas Day and visit their family in the afternoon. It wouldn't be likely to meet many people when out walking.

A trip to the area of Hoog Buurlo on the Midden-Veluwe with kids and dog was planned.

I made preparations : I searched Google Earth for a conveniant parking spot, I dug up my SatMap and I charged the battery of my photocamera.

After a 45 minutes drive (Holland is a small country) we arrived at the carpark and started walking. Ten minutes into the walk there was the perfect picture postcard moment : imagine a descending, slightly curving path with old beeches at one side, a sheep-filled meadow on the other side and a thatched farmhouse at the end just visible through the trees. The sky was grey and a bit damp but gave the situation the softness it needed. I took out my camera and switched it on.

Nothing happened. Empty battery ? Can't be, I recharged the battery this morning. Wait a minute, what did I do with the battery ? I put it on the table and......forgot to put it back into the camera. Doh ! Stupid is as stupid does.... .

We still had a good 2 hour walk through the woods and across heather with a lot of photo opportunities but I'll have to return sometime for the pictures. In the meanwhile I've nicked some pictures of t'internet.

No-good geartester

I'm really no good as a geartester, at least gear for wet weather. There's been a discussion going on in Blogland, started by Alan Sloman , about the effectiveness of Paramo's Directional system and Nikwax.
Is it weatherproof or can the system fail in certain circumstances ? As always you love it or hate it.
I've been willing to test my Paramo Alta Jacket (the old version) but the weather hasn't been very cooperative. November has been the driest month ever recorded in The Netherlands but after my 'complaints' December has been more on the wet and windy side. A fortnight ago I had a chance for testing but the rain stopped as soon as I reached our local woods.
This morning, as my alarm woke me, there was heavy rain. After breakfast I got ready to bring my kids to school and dressed for rain. I had at least another hour of rain to look forward to . The Paramo Alta, TNF goretex trousers and green wellies were donned. I was ready.
Alas, the rain stopped again. The ground underfoot was very soggy and the wellies were heavily tested. They were waterproof. The Paramo has to wait for another time.
Anyone wanting to do the TGO Challenge with good weather is advised to wait for me. Walk behind me and you don't have to bring your waterproofs with you.  

Driest November ever recorded

Fellow bloggers Alan Sloman , Martin Rye , James Boulter and Andy Walker have been to the Yorkshire Dales where the weather has been a bit on the damp side last weekend. To say the least.
As Alan writes : "The weather forecast, unsurprisingly, was for wall to wall torrential downpours with a healthy dose of stormy buffeting." and "By this time the weather had taken an even more serious turn for the very worserer! It looked like firemen were training their hoses on the windows of the pub."

It's grim up north indeed.

On this side of the Northsea however November 2011 has been the driest november ever recorded with an average rainfall of only 9mm. The waterlevel of the river Rhine is very low at the moment and the Brits are to blame ;-) You're keeping all this stuff to yourselfs.
A year ago we were buried in snow during december but it's 10 dgrs Celsius today and no sign of snow coming. I prefer the 'no-snow-scenario' and just a little bit of rain now and then.
If I want torrential downpours I'll come to Great-Wet-Britain.

May 2006 : An Teallach on Theooutdoors.nl

No tripreport yet but pictures are now available. The plan was to do the Inverlael and Fannichs Munros first but due to very strong winds I had to bail out from both. The date for An Teallach had been set to be able to climb with old friends so some days were filled with unplanned things like visiting the Inverewe Gardens, Gruinard Bay and a drive to the Cairngorms. See : www.theooutdoors.nl  

May 2010 visit to Skye

I've added a new story to my website. It's about my visit to Scotland with my oldest son, 11 at the time.
Most of our holiday together was spent on Skye (Coire Lagan, Sgurr na Banachdaich, The Old Man of Storr and Quiraing).

You can read it on www.theooutdoors.nl .

New website : theooutdoors.nl

In the past I've had my pictures hosted by Fotopic.net but they went out of business. Hundreds of pictures of Scotland, Lake district and The Netherlands couldn't be viewed anymore.
Also my TGO Challenge 2007 story was lost. Luckily I still had it on an external hard disk so I was able to rewrite it and put it on a new personal website : www.theooutdoors.nl .

My Challenge story has now been written but having visited Scotland and the ELD since 1995 there's a gigantic task to be done. New chapters will be added in the future but don't hold your breath.
Just have a look at my website now and then.

Autumn colours 2 and 3

It's exceptionally warm and dry for the time of year and not that many wind. The leaves are nevertheless falling rapidly at the moment. The first three pictures are taken a week ago, the last three today.

Oak leaves



All together now... 

Spanderswoud

Bantam

Schaep en Burgh

Alas, not my driveway (Schaep en Burgh) 

The Spanderswoud, Bantam and Schaep en Burgh are former estates between Bussum and 's Graveland. They are now owned by Natuurmonumenten en Goois Natuur Reservaat.