Tag Archives: camping

Oban

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14°C heavy showers.

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Moved to escape the worst showers. They were really torrential in Fort William. As I write, I am sitting in my steamed up car looking upwind at a brighter sky. Supper is out there cooking on the stove.
There remains one full day before the long drive back home. How best to use it remains a pressing question. And as always on these trips, it all depends on the weather.
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This morning, we encountered two pigs rooting in the adjacent aspen wood. They have cleared the undergrowth except the bracken. It was funny watching them eat brambles. I couldn’t resist tweaking his nose. It’s hard and leathery- all the better for rooting with.
This evening, a different campsite has highland cattle to watch over us. They seem very calm but mildly curious.

Rhinog afternoon.

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22°C-ish,clearing but rain evening.
Climbed Rhinog Fawr 724m alt (according to my phone GPS app). There were a few groups of people on the summit, mainly those who had taken the same route as I.
We all agreed that Wales was very quiet compared to usual for an end of July weekend. Anyway, after a very slow start that saw us leave at 11.30, the day just got better starting with sunshine on that summit.
Now I’m lying in the tent in the pouring rain on this, the last night before we go home.

Gwynant morning.

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-3°C, clear, calm.

Coldest morning that I have ever woken to in a tent. The water bladder is a slush-puppy inside and the tap is frozen. I cleared it but it’s glazed over again now. However, it’s a dazzling beautiful morning and I am comfortable in my quilted coat and ski salopettes. It’s dangerous on the upper slopes of Snowdon, so probably best to walk on the Molwynion just south of here. The ground should be less marshy between snow fields.image

Getting dark

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22°C, cleared by lunchtime

It’s dark earlier here. Much darker and sudden. It goes with that heart sinking realisation that a holiday is over. The sun touches down in Scotland at something like 21.10, here it’s half an hour earlier at least. How deflating. What would it be like to live up there in Scotland?

I asked some locals during my camping trip where folks fit screens on their windows to keep the midges out. Their answer was “to be fair, there are not many time you can open your windows in Scotland”. Perhaps the late evening are compensation for the much darker winters. But so what, they have the mountains & glens. I’m still intoxicated by all of that. Is there any way I could do just a year up there to see whether I could do it.

I have been hiking with Rosie in the Highlandsagain. There is a lifetime of holidays in those hills. Such holidays cost barely any more than living here- camping is costs about £5 per night and other needs would cost the same down here. I drove back on Friday thinking over what it is that is so beguiling.

Rannoch Moor in the scotch mist

The bleak Rannoch Moor was thick with Scotch mist. Mountains I knew faintly loomed out of the mist, sometimes with skirts of lacy ragged clouds. There are few roads across that strange landscape- the A82 was straight, but distorted by harsh winters of ice and lengthy snow cover. Tall reflective posts marks the road’s edges- presumably sometimes it’s the only way to know where the road ends and the moor begins.
I stopped a few times to take photos and take in the atmosphere. Soft drizzle penetrates clothes and camera. A few minutes pass and the midges gather, some to cloud around others to bite. They seems to prefer eyelids and neck. You have to move around to evade them, stand still and these slow flying insects catch up with you easily.

As if the landscape is a conscious entity, it draws you in with a spell and wants to swallow you up. It was so hard to tear myself away on Friday.

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Wild camp

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19°C, light cloud with a SW breeze.

There is a great upland route near Glen Finnon. It’s a horseshoe of peaks that includes two Munroes, a long undulating ridge and magnificent views of glens, mountains including Ben Nevis, and views out to sea of the isles of Eeig &  Rum. I could find no proper campsite near the route’s start so I chose a spot for a wild-camp. It was fairly near the road on a col that looked deserted except for a trainline that carried a steam-train twice a day.

With a site selected, I put up the tent rather later than usual after cooking & eating supper first. Discretion is the rule here, put up the tent at sunset & take it down as soon as you can after sunrise. I bedded down at about 10pm and read for a while. The ground was a ripe breeding ground for midges and some got into the tent & bugged me while I lay there reading my book. Some of those midges are still there, adding punctuation to the story.
Later in the night, probably about 2am I was woke suddenly to an animal sound. A loud deep sound that was quite percussive. Despite choosing a spot out of view for humans, it wasn’t so hidden from deer.
I’m still naive about deer, I lay there heart thumping when the sound came again. A sudden burst of air somewhere between a grunt & a snort. Clearly the sound came from a big pair of lungs. My fear cortex ran overtime & I could picture a scene where a herd was making its way along old tracks that they have used for decades. All it would take is a slight disturbance and they would gallop in the dark in fright. There I lay, in a tent made of light thin fabric and only a summer weight sleeping bag for protection. Deer hooves are sharp, they use them for defence. These thoughts occupied the front of my mind. Strangely in all of this, Rosie my trusty dog wasn’t too bothered.
I decided to take the situation onto my own hands and got out of the tent with a torch. Good, they weren’t in immediate sight, so I scanned the horizon and hillsides with the beam. The stars shone brilliantly, the midges bit my bare legs but only one pair of eyes shone back in the darkness. After a short moment, even they were gone. Relief, they have fled. I stole a moment to look up at the filigree milky way and Cygnus blazing brightly overhead while the midges finished their meal.

I did eventually settle back to sleep though woke once more to pee. This time, peace, I could enjoy the image of a thin cresent moon next to the fixed brilliance of Venus as a morning star. There was another planet nearby but I don’t know what it was (probably Jupiter).
A big day lay ahead, a very long walk was the reason to camp in such a place so I grabbed more sleep.

The day went on from there as planned.

This time last year…

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10°C, rain

This time last year I camped in the Rhinogydd range. This year it’s unlikely that I will camp during this Easter break. A week of rain, sun and heavy showers is forecast. This morning I took Rosie to the local woods for a run and it was gorgeous, the rain didn’t matter. In practice, the rain brought out all those smells that subliminally speak of spring. The problem arises when you are cooking on a stove outside your tent. Rain gets through to your skin and it becomes very difficult to keep warm. Campsites that offer log burners are best at these times. I can but dream of Llyn Gwynant.

Plans aren’t working out. The original idea included a visit to Betwys-y-Coed to get some new hiking gear. My hiking coat is, strictly speaking, a size too small (but then most of my clothes are a bit too small). I knew it at the time but it was in a sale and I had no idea how much I would come to use it. If I knew, I would have paid the extra and got something that fitted well and was probably a better, more breathable fabric. Goretex is the one to look for. Last week I tried on a few coats in Cotswold, the outdoor shop. Berghaus is still the best one, only because the cut is long and so fits my proportions better.

Mynydd Mawr again

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24°C, Sun

Very hot in the mountains this time. This time we could see from the summits, the vistas were vast and far ranging. Some have said it is possible to see Ireland from these peaks.  Thought sceptical at first, I conceded, though still await that view myself. Two litres of water is simply not enough for days like this, I’d need a 3 litre water pack but that’s quite a weight, and there is no water on the peaks, the rock is very dry, there are no springs and no ponds.

Camper’s tip: to conserve gas when cooking rice or pasta- boil as normal for 10′ then switch it off and let stand for a while, then put the gas back on to re-heat. Much of the cooking, especially with whole-grain, is re-hydration, so some standing time is as good as continuous heat.