I was stripped down to my boxer shorts and with my bare hands was clawing great clods of mud out from under the wheel arch. Occasionally I would take a rest from cleaning and lie down in the shallow water to cool myself off. Even with the help of a second tow truck it had taken us nearly an hour to free an old Landcruiser that had got stuck on the way into Imbak Canyon. All three vehicles were now parked in the middle of the Imbak River to receive a much needed wash. By way of taking a holiday from Maliau Basin I had decided...

First published in The Scottish Mountaineer magazine in October 2003 ***** ‘That was blatant exhibitionism!’ scolded Ali. She was right of course. We were driving back through Rothiemurchus forest, retelling our heroic deeds and glorying in the evening sunlight through the trees. After all we had just climbed Hellfire Corner and needed to get our story straight before returning to the bunkhouse. ‘It was definitely VS' we agreed ‘A good traditional Scottish VS’ moreover!“The broad open snowfield of Coire Raibeirt...

As we were tucking into our dinner last night we were rudely interrupted by an extraordinarily loud crash. It scared the life out of Eda who immediately leapt into Jamil’s arms, thus confirming a point of gossip that Andy and I had been debating for some days. We continued munching our steamed fish for a few more moments before Andy voiced what I had been thinking. ‘That sounded like it came from the region of our hammocks’. Having managed to let go of Eda, Jamil rushed off to investigate and returned slightly animated...