Cameron McNeish heads for the borderlands of Annandale to climb Hart Fell where the wizard Merlin is said to have roamed.

 

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Join Cameron McNeish on an ascent of Lochnagar, the mountain that has inspired poets, artists, Kings and Queens.

 

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Join Cameron for a mountain walk around the three Munros of Creag Meagaidh – Stob Poite Coire Ardair, Carn Liath and Creag Meagaidh itself. In the course of the walk Cameron discusses the regeneration of the Coire Ardair woodlands, and some of the history of winter climbing on Creag Meagaidh.

 

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Cameron McNeish takes a walk around the Northern Corries of the Cairngorms as an introduction to the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland. En route he discusses the landscape, the history, the wildlife and the legends of this Arctic landscape

 

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An expedition to eastern Turkey to climb the fabled Mount Ararat, in search of Noah’s Ark

 

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Cameron weanders down Glen Etive and climbs a wintry Beinn Mhic Chasgaig

 

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Cameron describes an ascent of Toubkal, the highest mountain in North Africa, in winter conditions

 

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After a big dump of snow on the Scottish hills Cameron digs out his snowshoes

 

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I see Europe’s biggest windfarm is to be built alongside the M74 between Moffat and Abington. It’s an area I know quite well for its walking potential - no Munros, no Corbetts, just nice quiet rolling hills. I took part in a protest march a couple of years ago along with David Bellamy and the local folk were nice people who just didn’t want to see this kind of mass industrialisation on their fells.

I must admit to a sense of defeatism when these projects go ahead. I, like many others, was greatly encouraged by the SNP’s suggestion that windfarms would be built offshore if they came into power. Now Alex Salmond is making great play that Scotland is going to be the green powerhouse of Europe. I’m old and ugly enough to realise that you simply can’t trust the vast majority of politicians and its no small wonder the public at large is sick and tired of lies and spin.

However, it’s been suggested by some commentators that the SNP’s policy might be to allow such developments in the central belt, closer to the major conurbations and, where possible, alongside motorways like the M74. I could probably live with that but I’m writing to Alex Salmond again to press him and his government to do all they can to keep the truly wild lands wild. There are still far too many planning applications in place for wild parts of the highlands and islands and we simply have to keep these areas free from such development or else we risk losing our vital tourism trade, not to mention some of the most awe inspiring scenery in Europe.

I apologise for the negative-sounding tone of this diary entry but I can’t help think that we are all being fleeced by the current passion for wind power. We are all paying sky-high prices for energy while the energy production sector is coining it in.

I also apologise for not having the videos and podcasts in place yet. I just need a few hours of spare time to concentrate on the job, in between getting out on the hill. It’s all about priorities…

Apologies for being “off air” over the past couple of weeks. The site was hacked a few weeks ago and we had a number of problems because of that so we’ve been increasing the security aspect of the site. I noticed in the media that Nigella Lawson suffered much the same kind of attack on her website and it would seem that hackers are attacking “soft”, popular websites and using the domain names for their criminal activities. 

Thankfully hackers haven’t been able to stop me getting out on the hills. Had a wet and windy weekend in Glen Roy and Ardverikie last weekend and yesterday I spent a great day on Stob a’ Choin above Inverlochlairig in the Trossachs. Also busy researching for a new trail I’m working on in the North of Scotland - Gina and I will be walking it in its entirety next week and the following week we’ll be filming much of it for a television programme for later in the year.

And talking about television programmes - it looks as though The Adventure Show with the TGO Challenge film will be shown on BBC Scotland (Sky Channel 990) on Sunday 3rd August at 7pm. These broadcast dates sometimes change at the last minute so I’ll keep you in the loop should I hear of any changes. And for anyone who misses the broadcast the great news is that there will also be an hour-long DVD on this Challenge available in a couple of months time.

Now, despite the sun shining outside I’ve got to spend much of the next few days uploading all the podcasts and videos back onto the site. Ho-hum… but at least I can look forward to hiking the trails of the north next week.