Wednesday 19th October
Autumn Walk
This morning we woke to more snow. Ady had got up and the gas bottle had run out while he was making himself a coffee so he’d had to change over to the spare bottle in the snow (the gas bottles are outside the van behind a little door). It was very pretty but bitterly cold. The view was stunning though and we had a steady stream of people pulling up alongside us and jumping out of their cars with their cameras to get snaps of it. At one point two car fulls of people pulled up together and it started snowing again and they all cheered. It felt very festive J
We played some more card games – yes I am well aware of the piss taking potential in my playing games 😉 I certainly would not buy or play any of those long drawn out games though, a five minute card game is definitely my limit for passing time rather than competitive playing. Of course I could well find myself living up here this time next year with cold winter evenings stretching before me and a yen to start playing some game I can’t even pronounce the name of so I probably shouldn’t make wild declarations like that just yet…
We decided we needed to spend the night on lower ground. As beautiful as the mountain view was it was way too cold to do another night there. We were also on reserve long life milk and generally low on food stocks. The kids and I had rice pudding for breakfast laced with cinnamon though which was gorgeously warming. After Popmaster we drove down the hill, pausing for a quick look at the Glengarry view point and heading down to Invergary. We spotted several likely looking laybys for potential overnight spots along the way with the intention of driving til we found a shop and returning to one of them if we had not gone too far past it.
Sure enough we found a shop selling various provisions at not too ridiculous prices so we stocked up with basics like bread and milk and cheese along with some sausages and bacon for dinner tomorrow so we don’t have to find a shop then. Then we double backed on ourselves and returned to a woodland we’d spotted as suitable for a walk and perhaps an overnight parking spot.
We had lunch and I made some pizza dough ready for dinner later then we headed off for a walk. As in so many of the woodlands we have visited there was a choice of walks, colour coded so we selected the moderate walk alongside the river hoping to see salmon or otters. Something must have gone wrong though as although we thought we’d followed the marker for the red walk we didn’t see any more markers at all.
We merrily walked alongside the river for nearly an hour before deciding we must have gone wrong as we couldn’t see a way to cross the river meaning it would not be a circular walk and the walk guideline had said allow an hour for the walk which we assumed returned you to the carpark. We had enjoyed chatting and looking at the trees and the river anyway so decided to walk for five more minutes before just turning round and retracing our steps. Just as we were about to turn around we spotted a bridge across the river so assumed that was the way and it was just poorly marked.
The path seemed to disappear after that and we should have decided almost straight away that it was wrong but we battled on for a bit over some very marshy ground, across a couple of streams and into an area where new homes were being built. By then we’d gone far enough to feel we didn’t want to go back through it all and cross the bridge to go back again although that potentially was the most sensible option. We crossed a field with a load of cows in it and then found a fence with a low enough point to climb over leading back to a proper concrete path. No idea what we’d done wrong but we ended up about half way along the yellow route at that point. It did lead us back to the carpark though.
So an interesting and rather longer and more exciting walk than intended – about 2 hours of fairly fast walking so a good five miles, but at least we all felt we’d properly stretched our legs at last and fully deserved our pizza later J. Back at the van we packed up and headed back to a layby, mostly because we had no phone or internet signal in the woods. Ironically we drove to a layby which did have both but has since lost both, no idea how or why, which is why I am typing this on word and will have to upload it tomorrow,
Once we’d found a parking space, overlooking the loch, Ady walked into the woodland and found somewhere suitable to dig a hole to empty our toilet. He’s been wanting to conquer that aspect of the wild camping adventure, having read about the guidelines for such things in our Wild Camping leaflet so armed with his little spade he dug a hole the required depth and size, away from water etc. and took the loo off to empty it. He returned triumphant. I am so pleased he is able to find pleasure in such things! 😉
I meanwhile got the dinner on and we all played cards and listened to the radio while it cooked. Hot water bottles all round tonight even though it is not actually anywhere near as cold as it was last night so we’re very cosy and snug even if we don’t have internet to play with.