Now that i am back in the UK for the foreseeable future, and that fact is rather daunting, i will endeavour to have as many adventures as possible! And for your lucky selves, write about them on here.
First big trip i have done since returning from India was a 3 week jaunt up to London. The trip had two distinct halves, with the first part seeing me visit the North West Coast, and mix hiking with a bit of sightseeing with a visiting friend. After 2 weeks of that, i spent a week doing some more challenging hiking in the Cairngorms with dad.
As well as the usual photos, random anecdotes and bad spelling, i will also be doing some kit reviews, as i have found them helpful myself when buying products, and had a couple of new products along for the first time.
I guess ill get them out of the way now then!
First up is the tent that was bought for the trip. I have a fantastic
1 man tent, which of course, for this trip wouldn't suffice, so a new one needed to be bought. Trying to avoid spending so much money was key, and led me to the
Karrimor X Lite x2t. Not only was it £70 at the time, but seemed to be a great little tent- under 2.5kg and big enough for two people to sleep in. And it was! Its certainly cosy with 2 people, but is perfectly usable, and there were no real issues with condensation. It also managed to survive the 60 mph winds that Scotland decided would be fun. Not much else to say really, it works!
(a tent with a view. Point of Sleat on Skye)
(Can you see it? Stealth tent if you fancy to do some wild camping outside of Scotland)
Next up is the backpack that dad used, the
Karrimor X Lite 45 plus 10. Another bargain from the Sportsdirect.com sale, not somewhere i would normally go for hiking experiment, but for these prices, one cant go wrong! Its an amazingly light bag, comfortable and sturdy, and somewhat water resistant, as it uses waterproof zips. Not the prettiest of bags, it did the job just fine.
(My Osprey on the left, wit the Karrimor on the right...both completely full)
Last up, was some of the food i took along for the trip. Doing my best to keep weight down, while keeping calories high, i tried a few new ideas for camping food. Breakfast consisted of porridge, with dried milk,
cocoa and macca root powder mix, as well as a handful of a home made trail mix, heavy on the
goji berries to prevent scurvy! but also with mixed fruit and nuts and some
Cocoa nibs, as i have had chocolate melt before, and this avoids that. A luxury breakfast indeed! Lunch was a granola bar, and dinner was cous-cous with a packet of a soup. It turned out not to be enough calories, but was enough to keep us going, and the Creative Nature products made breakfast a treat.
(the view from Ben Macdui)
Right, all that is over.. let the trip commence!
Pauna and i took the sleeper train up from London to Fort William, a rather civilised way of doing it, and a heck of a lot more comfortable than my trip back home on the Megabus (but also 3 times as expensive). First port of call was Glen Nevis, and of course its prime attraction Ben Nevis, which is the tallest mountain in the UK. As is often the case in Scotland however, the weather wasn't great, which was a shame as the area is beautiful! The climb is nothing too difficult, with a well maintained trail, and no real way to get lost, but as we couldn't see anything from half way up, it wasn't the best days climbing.
(a stormy look up Glen Nevis)
(a cold Pauna)
(the view)
We next headed over to Skye, via the trainline made famous by the Harry Potter films, this one infact. Once on Skye, it was time to finally break out the tent and let the adventure really start! Walking down to the Point of Sleat really highlighted the peace and quiet of rural Scotland, and we found a lovely sandy beach on which to camp for the night.
(Look at that water!)
A (very) refreshing skinny dip in the sea later, and it was time to experience the infamous midges for which Skye has such a reputation, and the annoying little biting flies certainly lived up to the hype- horrible little things.
(at the end of the trail, the local farmer making a bit of cash on the side!)
The idea for the next few days was to get to Elgol, and hike across the Island, in the shadow of the Cullen mountains, and therefore getting a taste for the place without doing anything toooo challenging. Plans changed quite early on though, as rural Scotland is still a very devout Christian area, and public transport doesn't run on Sundays! Its quaint things like this that help to add to the charm of the place, until you actually need to use a service that is taken for granted in the rest of the UK. The Cullens are amazingly beautiful though, steeply rising in the centre of Skye to form a serrated barrier.
(dont want to climb that today!)
(mountain hut- an amazing location!)
(yep, if you like getting your feet wet)
Thankfully we didn't have to climb any, as the weather was rather grey and stormy, which only made them seem even more imposing and scary. River crossings (shoes off affairs), rock climbing and the only lift we managed to get hitch-hiking the entire time followed over the next 2 days, as part of some fantastic walking, seeing us get back to the main road, eventually ending up in Uig, and thence to the Outer Hebrides, an area of the UK i never thought i would ever get to visit! There was so much of Skye i didn't see, and will have to go back for, including actually climbing some of the munroes, but Harris and Lewis beckoned, with the promise of the best beaches in the UK, some ancient history and hopefully some better weather.
(window in a very old church in north Lewis)
The weather was actually worse, with some incredibly strong winds making walking (and camping) really rather dangerous, and infact after the first night, we had to check into a guest-house. The weather also made the beaches - which do have amazing golden sand - not particularly inviting, but nice to know they exist, once global warming has made Scotland more comfortable!
(a pile of peat waiting for winter to come along)
(an unfortunate whale at Port of Nis)
3 days of driving around seeing Harris Tweed shops, ancient standing stones and forts, dead whales, almost no wildlife or trees and plenty of peat was enough to get a good impression of the Islands, and once again, more time will be needed to fully explore them.
(Callinish standing stones- much older than Stonehenge)
(some of the many abandoned farm houses)
(designer Harris Tweed)
(stones again)
(a splash of colour in the bleakness)
(lonely farm house on Lewis)
(so much golden sand!)
I was itching for some more hiking (sorry Pauna), so after getting back to the mainland, and down to Inverness, we headed off to start The Great Glen Way, a 5 day, 80mile walk from Inverness to Fort William. While being pretty flat, and following easy trails, it was a nice walk along the whole length of Loch Ness, although Pauna's feet didn't really enjoy it.
(a white water kayak competition)
(arrrrhhhh, not the lambs! Too dangerous!)
All of this provided a good warm up for what was to come, namely the Cairngorms, and having to made sure my dad made it around ok - Pauna was a much easier hiking companion to travel with! First day was a relatively easy climb up Cairngorm itself, and while it didn't rain, the wind was just incredable. It was almost impossible to stand on the top.
(the path to the top of Cairngorm)
(Dad sheltering from the wind)
(The wind!)
The main attraction, and the hardest thing i did all day came the following day though. The Lairig Ghru, is a high mountain pass, linking the northern areas of Cairngorm National Park with the south, and it is supposed to be very beautiful. We managed to do it in some just shockingly bad weather, and saw very little, but the Corrour bothy (mountain hut) was a VERY welcome sight at the end of the day. It meant we could get inside and start to dry off, and not have to worry about putting up the tent in the wind and rain.
And from that point on, the weather was amazing, it was almost as if the gods felt sorry for the drenching they gave us! Sunny days, minimal wind, and no more rain for the rest of the trip!
(having a fun day hiking)
(next morning though, lovely day!)
(Devil's peak- didn't get to climb it due to the weather)
(rather dramatic- the Corrour bothy looking tiny)
(beautiful place)
Dad was really struggling, so i left him for the day, as i climbed a few of the tallest mountains in the UK, in an afternoon! The beauty of not having to carry a full pack! So Ben Macdui, Carn a Mhaim and Derry Cairngorm were all conquered while dad rested for the afternoon down by Derry Lodge, a now unused former royal hunting lodge.
After all the excitement of mountains, the next two days of pretty flat walking was a bit of an anti-climax, especially as i had to carry dad's bag for one of the days, as well as my own, due to his feet hurting, but the scenery was still very beautiful, and the weather continued to be nice!
(more abandoned houses)
(some nice waterfalls though)
A well earnt bed-and-breakfast in Blair Atholl and my first haggis meal (overrated but not bad) saw the trip wind down, and an afternoon in Perth before a 10 hour night bus back to London capped off an exhausting but eye-opening trip for me around Scotland. I will most certainly be back, i have rather a lot more of it to see! However i think next time it will be by myself, or at least with experienced walkers. Thanks Pauna and dad for putting up with me, and the camping food, and i hope you enjoyed it.
