How did I reach 833 Marilyns without coming across, or even hearing about, 'chanting'? The main reason was that I had never been to a 600th celebration with five members of Marhof. I missed Pete Milne's 600th in Shetland because I had other hills to climb (CW: you were driven up two of them!) This omission was finally rectified when I attended Charles Everett and Dee Lacy's inauguration on Cruachan Charna during the Strontian weekend. After Strontian and a glorious week's walking in Ardgour, we went island hopping to Eigg, Rum and Canna. We completed all the Marilyns and I did the full Rum Cuillin traverse with a friend. On Canna we saw a golden eagle and two sea eagles whilst doing the hill.
The year's bag included completion of the island Corbetts, which made us very good CalMac customers. In April, Dee and I visited Islay and Jura, where we managed about half the Marilyns. In May, after a week in the Ullapool area, we sailed to Stornoway for a week on Harris. We did Clisham and a Graham on North Harris, but then, as the cloud was low for the rest of the week, we mopped up South Harris.
