Galloway forest Sept 2013 (pic heavy)

[leedsbrew]

So last weekend my brothers and I set out for a long wekend walking and hanging in the Galloway Forest Park. this was to be a weekend of bonding and time together away from it all.

We had decided to start the trip by walking up The Merrick, which to those who don't know is the highest peak in the lowlands at 2766ft.

The aim of the trip was to to do some walking, some fishing and have our forst go at hammocking. We have all been into camping from a very early age but this was to be the first time wild camping for more tha just one night.

We started the trip from near Loch Trool at the Bruces Stone car park. This 1st part of the trip was on the main walkers route, up untill we reached the summit at which point we were planning on coming 'off path' and heading into the 'wild' Only iPhone pics im affraid as couldn't warrent taking the DSLR.

My pack! The first thing to note is the fact that it is too heavy and far too much stuff in there! More on this later!

Myself and my brother Liam at the start of the Merrick Trail

the first bit was nice and easy through some woods

clearing the woods we came across Culsharg bothy

the two brothers

Myself and Allan

Heading on we managed to get to a point called Benyellary which is marked by a cairn to the right of the path. Next we went along the narrower connecting ridge known as the Neive of the Spit. This is where the weather started to turn

We stopped here for a bite to eat and some rehydration. true to form, and the old saying "if you dont like the weather in Scottland just wait 10 minutes"

Ten minuted later and it was wall to wall panoramic views!


Anyway I must get on with some work!

More to follow tonight!


cheers


Neil

 

[ADz-1983]

Looks great bud, hope you enjoyed it. Look forward to more pics

Thnx for sharing.

Adam.

 

[Will_]

Lovely countryside - hope to make it up to Galloway myself one day. Thanks for taking the time to post pics and do a write up.

 

[Shewie]

Nice pics Neil

But we have to have words about that axe on your pack

 

[Teepee]

Cracking pics mate, the colours look so vivid.

Remind me never to walk behind you

 

[copper_head]

Great pics, looking forward to the rest of your write up

 

[leedsbrew]

Nice pics Neil

But we have to have words about that axe on your pack

Ha ha! No need! It fell off on the walk back on Monday! Lol

It was all I had at the time and ran out of funds prior to the trip! Lol

I'm wanting to save for a GB SFA! Although my brothers lap lander type saw came in bloody useful so may just get one of those in the mean time!

 

[Druss]

Nice pics mate. Looks like a cracking place to go. Looking forward to seeing the rest.

 

[Barn Owl]

Nice pics, we were in the Back hill o' the bush bothy on Friday night over Dungeon hill.

 

[leedsbrew]

Nice pics, we were in the Back hill o' the bush bothy on Friday night over Dungeon hill.

Ha ha! Well as you'll see soon (when I get the other pics up, we were in the woods just to the right of that bothy! Lol

 

[Badger74]

Nice sounding trip.

Did you leave the car in the car park. I'm always worried about leaving the car, so it puts me off driving to these places.

 

[leedsbrew]

Nice sounding trip.

Did you leave the car in the car park. I'm always worried about leaving the car, so it puts me off driving to these places.

Yeah we left it all weekend no probs. The Bruce's stone car park is pretty remote so not many people about, i think of that as a good thing as anyone there is probably there for the same reasons I am! There is the lock trool visitors centre car park a bit closer to Newton Stewart that has people around! I think it was about £3 a day!

 

[leedsbrew]

The weather turned again! This was a view of the merrick! Lol

Then, true to form, it went again! The trig point at the summit of the Merrick

Next was down to Loch Enoch and then on to the woods we planned on hanging in!

The view ten mins before this would have been cloud cloud cloud so we were very lucky!

Loch Enoch

Once we got down to Enoch we had a bit of a break. What a wonderful place! Crystal clear water and bandy banks and little beaches!

 

[leedsbrew]

One thing we noticed was that the terrain off path was VERY hard going! Especially with a big pack on! Tussocks of grass sometimes knee high.

More pics and a general 'thoughts on 1st trip' post to come! If work doesn't keep getting in the way! Lol

 

[jim.b]

Great pictures mate, its certainly stunning around there for sure, I like to spend as much time up there as I can. What was the midges like? They're not usually as bad as the highland midges but still travel around in clouds lol! Also you can get a pass from the forest park offices in Newton Stuart which covers you for up to a fortnight at any of the Galloway forest car parks for £12 so it works out cheaper if your away for more than four nights.

 

[leedsbrew]

It's truly beautiful in a very bleak, rugged way! It was a pleasure to be surrounded by it!

The midge were almost non existent! A bit on the Saturday evening but a wipe of SSMR and a spray of deet and no bother!

 

[leedsbrew]

It was a long walk down to the camp and took a bit longer than we thought, so it was hammocks and tarps up in quick order, fire and a bit of dinner before lazing about by the embers before bed!

The next morning I was up and about for a stroke before lighting the mornings fire! We were camped just inside the tree line on the right of this picture, just left of the dead tree! What a view! The water in front of us is called the round loch of dungeon and the hill on the right is dungeon hill iirc!

Couple if shots of the hammocks! We were all sporting TW covered end green hornets and DD 3x3 tarps. This pic was taken on the 1st morning! The little metal tent pegs hadn't faired too well over night so we went about making some larger wooden ones. I think the main problem was the earth being so soft as it was mostly rotten pine needles so not much for the pegs to hold on too!

So after a breakfast of bacon beans and more bacon it was back up dungeon hill, but without the packs this time to do a spot of fishing in loch Enoch

We had spent the morning filling up the water bottles from RLoD via a millbank, chloritabs and the neutralising tablets! It was still a little green but drinkable after treatment!

We found that the water in Enoch and a few of the higher lochs was crystal clear and didn't need the millbank.

We also spent a bit of time fishing the round loch but after nothing doing we resided to track back to Enoch.

 

[freddybamboo]

Fantastic stuff. Had in your resignation and just concentrate on uploading more pics and a write up! ;-)

 

[GordonM]

Very nice trip and after action review, Neil. Thanks for sharing your trip.

 

[leedsbrew]

So the last lot of photos.

[video=youtube;qfLlTRDAIvI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfLlTRDAIvI[/video]
A little video showing us fishing at Loch Enoch. The wind was tremendous but I still enjoyed every second of hte fishing, even if we did all come away empty handed

once back down from Loch Enoch we got a fire lit and talked about the trip so far! By the time tea was on were had lost the light

I'd brought a couple of vac pac 'stew packs' that I had made following a few posts in the 'simple fireside recipes' thread, most notably Copper-heads gumbo recipe.

This was without doubt the best meal I had all wekend.

Chorizo
half a big onion
1 carrot
1/2 sweet potato
sprinkle of italian herbs
1 bay leaf
1 x veg stock cube
1/2 tsp chili powder

By the time i came to open it the salt from the chorizo and stock cube had drawn out liquid from the veg and rehydrated the herbs. It smelt and tasted awesome! Boiled in the sweedish mess tin over the fire for 20 mins with a touch of water added then added a sachet of uncle ben's partially cooked rice. mmmmmm

Not a lot more photos untill the walk back (which took 6 hours) and tbh there have been enough shots of hill sides already!

We did find a patch of wild blueberries on the walk back next to loch valley. They were amazing!

We saw this fella and a host of other forgs and toads of all shapes and sizes! I've never seen as many.

A quick group shot after boulder hopping down loch valley, which was a lot of fun with a 75L pack on! Again the water here was amazingly clear.

And finally back at the Bruce's stone car park!

A fantastic trip, and one that I have learnt a lot from. I'm going to collect my thoughts on it and post a bit of a summary of my learning points, things I feel went well and those that I want to improve on for next time.


cheers

Neil