Scottish winter bivvy
Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2018 9:24 pm
Well, despite Deidre, I made it this year. No real snow to contend with, instead it was near-freezing rain and sleet. It had all been quite lovely when I set off from home but got dark and dreich near Loch Insh before becoming thoroughly miserable on the way to Newtonmore and the pub. I was a bit behind schedule so didn't bother going via the bothy. Imagine my language when a message from Alasdair informed me that everyone else had gone to the bothy first
DSC_0080 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr
DSC_0079 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr
Three beers, a pork & haggis burger and sweet potato fries later, we soldiered up to the bothy, getting wet and blown about on the way. The fire was on though and we had the place to ourselves - a group of seven.
The wood that Rob & Iona had brought was about finished so we retrieved the coal I'd taken in last week from the cubby hole in the attic. Who knew there was non-burning coal?
P1050367 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr
Rob eventually got it going (a star) and around midnight it was well banked up. Slowly, folk drifted off but it was around 3am before I finally settled into my sleeping bag, most of a bottle of Dalwhinnie having somehow disappeared.....
Cosy night in the bothy and the fire was still red in the morning. Morning was lovely - some fresh snow on the hills and relatively calm. Packing up after a barely-there breakfast, I headed off using the panniers I'd used to take the coal in, though I somehow managed to lose one a couple of miles from the bothy and had to turn back to retrieve it. Head down into what had again become a chilly, wet day I headed for the Loch Insh Boathouse cafe only to discover they'd had a power cut and everything was off. Bugger!
DSC_0086 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr
DSC_0080 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr
DSC_0079 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr
Three beers, a pork & haggis burger and sweet potato fries later, we soldiered up to the bothy, getting wet and blown about on the way. The fire was on though and we had the place to ourselves - a group of seven.
The wood that Rob & Iona had brought was about finished so we retrieved the coal I'd taken in last week from the cubby hole in the attic. Who knew there was non-burning coal?
P1050367 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr
Rob eventually got it going (a star) and around midnight it was well banked up. Slowly, folk drifted off but it was around 3am before I finally settled into my sleeping bag, most of a bottle of Dalwhinnie having somehow disappeared.....
Cosy night in the bothy and the fire was still red in the morning. Morning was lovely - some fresh snow on the hills and relatively calm. Packing up after a barely-there breakfast, I headed off using the panniers I'd used to take the coal in, though I somehow managed to lose one a couple of miles from the bothy and had to turn back to retrieve it. Head down into what had again become a chilly, wet day I headed for the Loch Insh Boathouse cafe only to discover they'd had a power cut and everything was off. Bugger!
DSC_0086 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr