Mountain With Griff Rhys Jones

Central Scotland (1x3)

Ημερομηνία προβολής: Αυγ 12, 2007

The Grampian Mountains; which include Britain's highest, Ben Nevis. Despite its great height, "pretty much anyone" can climb Ben Nevis because of its zigzag footpath; indeed, 100,000 people do every year and Rhys Jones attempts to run to the half-way point. He then drives through Glen Coe in order to gain some insight into how the mountains were "tamed" by George Wade's construction of roads. An island in Loch Leven contains graves of those who died in the Glen Coe Massacre and Rhys Jones visits it. The Caledonian Canal is featured, in particular Neptune's Staircase, a series of eight locks designed by Thomas Telford. Rhys Jones hails Scottish literature (especially Sir Walter Scott's Waverley) as the catalyst for tourism in the region, and the West Highland Line's run over the marshy Rannoch Moor is an example of Victorian engineering innovation. The presenter returns to Ben Nevis, and specifically the unforgiving north face. However, his climb is cut short by rising temperatures that may precipitate an avalanche. Aviemore, near the Cairngorms, is a tourist resort that was blighted by the unreliable weather, and Rhys Jones takes a ride on a dog sled there. On the Cairngorm plateau, he is helped to make a snow hole. Back at Ben Nevis, the presenter has "unfinished business". In rain and bad visibility, Rhys Jones is guided up a scrambling ascent of the ledge route, ending on the summit plateau