In the hills

I've been up in the hills a bit recently, 3 times in the last week in fact (62.5km and 2400m of ascent) but it never gets old because it is never the same.

On Wednesday I met a friend at the bottom of the hill, say hi to Bill the Bactrian

Wednesday was a really funny weather day. We never saw the sun, it was windy but it was 28c all day until about 4pm when the temperature began to drop and I went out for a run.

The climb was, well upwards, and took about 30-minutes but what greeted me when I got out of the trees and reached the views was - unexpected to say the least. Not only had the wind picked up to gale force proportions but UB had disappeared.

I was not looking forward to descending into the sandstorm, but by the time I got down it had gone and things were calm. All through the 40 minute jog back to the apartment there was a very occasional drop of rain, until I walked into the apartment grounds. Then the skies opened. I'd been out 3 hours missed the sandstorm, missed the rain and got home without incident. Result.

I did the same route on Friday with Sarah. The rain had changed everything.

Trees had suddenly gone green and flowers were everywhere.

And UB was back - go back and look at the sandstorm picture - these two were taken from similar positions.

A lovely jog hike without the sense of impending doom that had dogged Wednesday.

Saturday I did a different route.

She danced down the trail spooking the foal a bit - would we see her later at the Scotch House?

We went over the top of the hill and started dropping down the other side towards a monastery but the trail became a little indistinct.

team inov-8 roclite

Gavin couldn't find anyone who would ship to Mongolia that stocked his size

We finished the trip out with a beer in the Irish Castle - except the beer was bad and there was a children's party on so we headed for the Scotch House - where there was Scottish country dancing. Seriously! And of course the boys all sat and drank while the girls were pressed into taking part.