I don’t know why, but I like watching strong men throw heavy things around.  Possibly it’s because my own upper body strength is not at all impressive.  Whatever it is, seeing someone toss a giant caber or a hammer is fun.

Provided that the sun isn’t trying to destroy you…

As you can see above, the weather was absolutely beautiful.  There was barely a cloud in the sky.  I never thought I’d say this, but clouds are great – especially if you’re sitting outside for hours on end.  So much sunscreen was applied…  At least the stands we sat in weren’t metal and were easy to sit on.

After the parade (and breakfast) we arrived too late for the Braemar Stone, but we made it in time for the Weight For Distance.  This involves swinging around a heavy weight and chucking it as far as you can.

He looks a bit like Thor there, throwing that hammer.

There was also the Scottish Hammer Throw, which took place further away from us.  Thank goodness for zoom lenses, eh?

This event took a bit of set-up.  They all wear shoes with big blades at the toes, so they can dig into the ground and stabilize themselves.  Because it was such a warm day, the ground was crumbling a lot, making it harder to dig in.

The last event was the Weight for Height, which was closer and had less set-up.  Basically, you throw a heavy ball up, get it over the bar and then run away before it falls on your head (Disclaimer: you don’t actually run, and nobody got hit in the head during this event).

This picture makes it look easy, but it’s not.  Also, the bar gets higher and higher.

It’s usually the last event (those guys are probably so tired by the time they get here), but it was a good way to end the day.  One of them tried for the world record, but sadly he missed it.  It was fun to watch, though.

Just not as fun as my favourite event – THE CABER TOSS!

Seriously – it’s so exciting when the caber turns over.  And when you see it and it looks like it might turn over and everyone’s waiting to see what it will do… and then it doesn’t and everyone groans or it does and everyone cheers.

Good times…

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[More info about these events can be found here.]