Having a nice new set of Garvie border pipes to collect from Nigel Richard in Pathhead, what better way to start my Saturday than a quick trip up Ben Vorlich on the way? Which is what I’d meant to do till my wee walk slyly morphed into a Vorlich/Stuc a’ Chroin/Vorlich run, with the return over Vorlich included to 1. get the best run back down the main path when the peak was pretty well on/in the way anyway and 2. even up my somewhat meagre Vorlich/Stuc ascent count at three apiece! But not to worry when you can do the lot in three-and-a-half hours and still be down by lunchtime…
So what can I say about the new pipes apart from beautiful, fun and full of exciting possibilities, with (being quality borders) the chromatic scale you can’t get on smallpipes augmented by my additional high B/C/C# keys and the lovely alto drone I got Nigel to make after he nearly talked me into a baritone instead being just what I wanted all the time? Not that I’m going to abandon my (also lovely) smallpipes, but good times ahead! :-)
