Are still going strong. The only way is up
us to touch base with each other after a busy week.” Manuel, who enjoys the route planning, adds: “It’s wonderful to be able to switch off and to be surrounded by nature and the peace and quiet of the mountains.
“Scotland is so beautiful and we have seen places that we might never have been to if we were not walking Munros.” The couple have learned to be supportive of each other and to be tolerant of differences.
Lesley says: “My husband is a faster walker and I was worried I would slow him down.
“But it works out well because he can go ahead to check the route and I can keep up better in the downhills due to Manuel having a dodgy knee.
“I am also fearful of heights but Manuel has helped me to manage my worries and I have more confidence now. “Doing the Munros together is definitely a benefit to our relationship.”
ELAINE & KENNY’S STORY A joint passion for hill walking has become a family affair for Elaine and Kenny Veitch and their twin sons Calum and Lewis from Newton Mearns.
Teacher Elaine, 45, and quantity surveyor Kenny, 46, met in 2000 and married in 2003.
Elaine says: “Kenny and I first clicked on a Glasgow night out because we discovered we both liked hill walking.
“Our second date was climbing a mountain in Stirlingshire. “Then we decided to tick off all our Munros together. We wiped the slate clean of any Munros we had previously walked and, before the boys came along, we had done 70 Munros.”
Now, as a family, they have walked 80 Munros together.
Elaine says: “We had to wait a few years for the boys to be able to walk hills themselves and we built up with easier routes locally and in the Lake District. “But they were keen and as soon as they were able we started on the Munros.
“They did their first, Ben Lomond, when they were six.
“There is no holding them back now and at 13 they are fitter and faster than us.”
Elaine admits she is surprised that more couples – and families – do not walk together.
She says: “I rarely see couples walking the Munros as it’s usually men and women in groups or on their own.
“Yet we love spending time together outdoors. It’s wonderful to be away from modern technology and the fast pace of life at work and home.
“We chat a lot and immerse ourselves in the views.
“The boys learn about wildlife and how to navigate by map and compass.
“They think it’s a cool hobby, and it is, isn’t it?”