Many thanks to all of you who emailed me regarding the recent Natural World programme on BBC 2 that featured businessman Paul Lister’s plans to reintroduce wolves and bears etc to the Scottish Highlands.

Unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to see the programme but from what many of you tell me it was something of a “hymn to Paul Lister”. Interesting enough one senior BBC producer telephoned me to say the programme makers had ridden roughshod over the BBC’s own producer guidelines, in that they didn’t give equal opportunities to the supporters of the plans and to those who opposed them. Indeed, from what I gather, only a couple of us got the chance to make a few comments.

Later on in the year the BBC are also broadcasting a 6-part series on Lister and his plans, so look out for that. From what I’m told there is a fairer treatment to those who oppose the electric fence scheme (Lister plans to keep the wolves, bears etc in an enormous fenced-in area of about 35-50,000 acres. The fence will be 3m tall, electrified, with no access points. Walkers, he says, should be prepared to make this small access sacrifice so he can charge people £50 a day for the privilege of a Land Rover tour).

It’s probably only fair to point out at this stage that I think Lister is doing some great work at Alladale. His woodland regeneration scheme is great; he is trying to keep deer numbers down and I congratulate him for all of that but if the reintroduction of wolves is dependent on him creating an enormous zoo to keep them enclosed then many of us will fight any fence proposals that come along. And I should also point out that no official planning proposal has been made yet regarding a fence. Be assured as soon as a planning proposal is made you’ll read about it on this website.

Meanwhile, if you can find the time this summer, visit Alladale and see for yourselves the kind of mountain landscapes Lister is suggesting walkers should be banned from. It includes the Corbett of Carn Ban and the approaches to that lovely Munro, Seana Braigh.

Sometimes it’s good to stop and smell the coffee, so to speak.

I took my old campervan down Glen Etive last weekend, essentially with the intention of climbing a couple of the Etive hills but by the time I got away from home on Friday it was getting on a bit late to climb a hill, even with the brighter nights.

So instead of rushing up a hill in the gathering gloom I drove down to the old pier at the head of Glen Etive, (above) had a wander up towards Etive’s Slabs (for old times sake), brewed some coffee in the van and lingered by the old pier as the sun went down. It was marvellous. By the time I drove up the glen again and looked for somewhere to stop for the night some stags were settling in close to the road, a skein of greylag geese flew up the glen above me and I knew why this place meant so much to the ancient Celtic princess Deirdre, Deirdre of the Sorrows.

Her lover Naoise and his brothers, the Sons of Uisneach, had built a bower for her high on the side of Ben Starav. According to the old tales she loved this place with a passion and was heartbroken when she eventually had to return to Ulster.

That understanding of Deirdre’s passion for Etive was enforced the next day when I climbed the Corbett of Beinn Mhic Chasgaig on a brilliant day of sunshine and blue skies. What a tremendous hill this is, surrounded as it is by some of the great Munros of the area - Buachaille Etive Mor and Beag, Creise, Meall a’ Bhuiridh, Stob Ghabhar, the Blackmount hills and away in the distance Beinn Starav.

The view from the summit of Mhic Chasgaig across Rannoch Moor (below) was breathtaking. I’ve climbed this hill once before, in the days when the bridge across the River Etive was like a fortification with barbed wire enforcements. Now, thanks to the Land Reform Act, the gate is open, giving way to the superb route that takes you behind the hill into a deep-cut glen that the SMC describes as of “Himalayan character.” I would agree, it’s a tremendous way to climb the hill, much better than the way I’ve climbed it before - directly up the south nose from the glen.

And, despite the glorious weather, I didn’t see another person all day.

After a marvellous ten days trekking in Morocco and climbing Toubkal, the highest mountain in North Africa, in perfect winter conditions, it was back to the reality of a British spring with snow causing chaos at Gatwick airport. My flight from Marrakech was delayed by five hours (it was 37 degrees C in Marrakech and minus two in Gatwick) and I missed my connection to Scotland. After standing in an almost stationary queue for BA Customer Services I eventually gave in, caught the Gatwick Express to central London and came home on the sleeper. Thank God for trains!

I must admit that in the past couple of years I’ve found flying to be a most stressful and unpleasant mode of transport and I’ve cut down the number of flights I use. I’d love to claim that I’ll stop flying completely because of environmental reasons but the truth is that I now simply loathe the experience of waiting in long queues, one after the other - check-in, security, immigration, passport control etc. The actual flight is usually fine, it’s just all the other crap that goes with it these days.

However, I had a grand group of trekkers on Toubkal, made a lot of new friends in Morocco, and despite the grimness of the travel it was good to realise again that the mountains never let you down. Hope you enjoy the photograph of me being patriotic on the summit of Toubkal, and for those of you who don’t know the mountain, the image below gives an idea of the rugged granduer of Morocco’s High Atlas.

Hope to get a podcast about our ascent of Toubkal up on the site later this week.