Page 34 of The Christmas Highland Lodge

Once I’d finished everything I wanted to do on social media for the time being, I rang Andrew and Dominic Clark and told them I would be emailing over a list of the colour schemes we had agreed on with the Styleses for each of the cabins, together with an itinerary of what new furnishings I was suggesting should go in each of them. I also said I would email them details of the Christmas decorations (mostly all end-of-line products) that I could obtain from Christmas Crackers, to decorate each of the cabins in time for the festive season. These consisted of woodland animals made out of Christmas pine cones, ceramic tree ornaments, spare tinsel and an eclectic mix of baubles and strings of fairy lights. That was one of the benefits of working in a Christmas shop!

By the time I’d done all that, my eyes and head felt like they were beginning to fry, but it was a very satisfying and rewarding sensation, nonetheless.

I scooped the printed leaflets out of my printer tray, before popping my phone in my bag. I was about to close up my laptop, when I found myself sinking down at the kitchen table again.

My fingers danced over the keys, as I typed ‘Rock Solid Ramblings’ into the search engine. I had sworn I wasn’t going to do this, but my curiosity got the better of me.

An all-singing, all-dancing website appeared, complete with a rolling banner of colour photographs, featuring moody mountains and snow topped peaks.

There were also a couple of photographs of Blake atop mountains, wearing sturdy climbing gear and a helmet. He was all beard and flashy amber sunglasses.

Further down the page, there was a bio of him:

Blake Dempster’s home is where nature and the mountains are.

From rugged peaks to sparkling ice, Blake, who is from Fife in Scotland, learnt from an early age that the outdoors was his real family.

Now thirty-seven years old, Blake is a professional mountaineer, who since qualifying as a mountain leader and rock-climbing instructor ten years ago, has acquired the Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor Qualification (MCI) which is the highest qualification a climber can hold for summer mountaineering in the UK.

He belongs to the British Mountaineering Council (BMC) the Mountaineering Instructor Association (MIA) and the Association of Mountaineering Instructors (AMI).

Blake has conquered a variety of challenging, international peaks including K2, Kilimanjaro and Denali, but he says his most rewarding pastime is taking novice climbers to the likes of Cat Bells in the Lake District, when people who don’t believe they can commit to or even attempt such a climb, reach the top and witness the beauty of the likes of Skiddaw and Derwentwater from the majestic peaks.

Blake writes for several mountaineering publications, has written two novels about his climbing experiences and has hosted his own TV show on Discovery Channel, Dempster’s Nature Revealed, which drew wide critical acclaim amongst the mountaineering and rambling fraternity.

Now he has started a new chapter by unveiling his own exclusive hiking and rambling business in the picturesque Scottish Highland town of Craig Brae.

Rock Solid Ramblings provides a safe, informative and reassuring service for those who want to push themselves harder or for those who wish to enjoy a more relaxed ramble in gentler terrain.

Blake will accompany you on your chosen route or suggest an alternative he feels would be more suitable, based on your capability and previous climbing experience.

For further information and to discuss the climbing and rambling packages available, please compete the form below or telephone Blake on the following numbers…

I scanned the bio again.

That was odd.

Why was Blake not presenting his TV show now?

To come to somewhere quiet and out of the way like Craig Brae and set up your own business… It just seemed a rather strange choice of venue for someone whose career had appeared to be taking off on TV. Maybe he had upset someone in the television world and had decided to diversify. That wasn’t hard to imagine!

From what I had seen of Blake Dempster’s ‘charm’, him upsetting someone in television and therefore having to abandon his TV series was not an outlandish possibility.

I recalled again his opposition to my Christmas plans for the cabins and the way he sat during the meeting, looking churlish. Good grief. Working alongside Darth Vader would be preferable.

I scrolled again through some of the photographs on the Rock Solid Ramblings website and then clicked off it.

I relocated my search engine and typed in ‘Blake Dempster’. The screen rippled, before producing links to his now defunct TV show. There were a few questions from irritated members of the public on an appreciation website about his show, asking why it had suddenly been removed from the schedules. Nobody seemed to know, until further down the comment feed, someone had remarked that Blake had decided to quit TV ‘for personal reasons and his agent had refused to elaborate on the subject.

There were a few other pictures of his two published novels as well and the same images of him, all snow-encrusted beard and wraparound sunglasses, that he had on his website.

With regard to any personal information, it was scarce. In response to a couple of questions about his private life, his agent had responded with a terse, ‘Blake is very protective of his privacy and does not give interviews.’

My eyebrows arched as I exited the page and switched off my laptop.

I locked up the flat and jumped in the car to go and visit Mum and Orla at Christmas Crackers. We could place some of the leaflets on the counter and pop a couple in the shop window. I didn’t want to get too ahead of myself as there was a terrifying amount still to do, but things looked like they might be starting to come together.

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