Got back last night from a very enjoyable three days on the west coast of Scotland so thought I’d let you guys know what we got up to.
My camera got soaked during the walk in on day one so no piccies at all I’m afraid, they say a picture tells a thousand words so I think I’ve just about made up for it
Tuesday was an early start in an attempt to give us a little more time to setup camp etc when we eventually got to our destination for night one. I picked up my mate at 6 a.m. and we set off across the Dales to reach the M6 before the morning rush hour. Progress was steady although the weather was deteriorating the further north we got, by the time we were on the M74 heading towards Glasgow we were officially in monsoon mode. The matrix signs on the motorway had now changed from “Don’t drive tired“ to “HEAVY RAIN AND FLOODING, PLEASE DRIVE CAREFULLY.”
By this point we’d passed the point of no return and thought we’d soldier on northwards in the hope that maybe the weather would break for us. No such luck.
At around 13:30 we had reached Ardgartan tourist information office and this was to be our safe parking spot for the duration of our stay. We thought we’d sit in the car for about ten minutes finishing off any munchies we had left from the journey up and waited in the hope that the rain would pass. After twenty minutes it didn’t look like passing so we got out and got togged up for the walk in.
The route we’d selected was to be steady going mainly on FC tracks with a few cross country shortcuts thrown in for good measure. Due to the weather though it turned out to be a bit of a head down trudge with the occasional stop for me to make a soggy rollup and check our position on the map. A couple of hours later we were roughly in the area we’d spotted for a possible camp and so we dropped our packs and had a bit of a reccy about the place. We found a nice little ledge next to the loch which appeared fairly well drained despite the torrential downpour and set about rigging the tarps up.
I was experimenting with my tarp setup this time and used some freshly cut birch poles to hoist up the sides to give myself a bit more room under my 3x3. I usually take my guys straight down to the ground but thought it would be good to have a bit more room under the shelter for this trip.
Once the roof was up I began unpacking the rest of my gear and found to my horror that my camera had become completely waterlogged during the walk in. Each time I turned it on I got a “File Error” message and couldn’t do anything with it, hence no piccies at all to show for our troubles.
After I gave my mate a hand setting up, he’s still learning, we went about getting a good stock of firewood in for the night. We couldn’t believe how wet everything was, even under the thick pine bows the usual standing dead stuff was completed soaked through to the core. We managed to get a good pile back at the camp and I cracked on with splitting and sorting the wood into different thicknesses. I’m so glad I decided to repack my Cegga at the last minute as I’d taken it out the night before in an attempt to shave a few ounces off the pack weight. Getting the fire to actually establish itself was a lot harder than I’ve ever had before, due to everything being so wet so much energy was being lost through drying out that hardly any heat was being emitted. After probably about an hour we had a decent burn going with sticks around thumb thickness so we started to create a pyramid firelay with some good size arm thick logs. These would dry out nicely throughout the night and so spirits we’re lifted despite the downright miserable weather.
Food for me was a simple pasta and sauce jobby which only required some boiling water followed by bannock and coffee, for Mick however he had other plans. Out came 1lb of mince, two onions, two potatoes and various herbs and spice powders. Sounds good you might say but he only had one small mess tin without a lid or anyway of suspending it. Once he’d plopped the mince in that was his mess tin full and he then set about trying to fry this up on the embers. I`m not sure how long he persevered for but I heard a lot of effing and blinding before he binned the lot and pulled out some super noodles.
We were both totally exhausted, Mick was soaked through to the skin and so we turned in for an early night about 10 o’clock. I rocked off to sleep easily listening to the distant roar of stags rutting on the other side of the loch up on Craggan Hill.
Wednesday I was up and about by 7 o’clock and was pleased to find the sun was out and the sky looked clear. I gave the fire a little nudge and started on breakfast. It was bannock again with coffee for me which went down a treat. I’d decided to premix the bannock mix at home this time and carried it in small ziplock bags. A little cold water was added in the bag and I was able to form the dough without getting it caked all over me. I flipped it out onto a sheet of foil and tossed it on the embers. Lovely jubbly.
Mick was still snoring his head off so I went for a little bimble along the rocky beach to see what I could find. The larder was certainly open and I gathered a good billy can full of mussels, cockles, limpets and winkles. By the time I’d got back Mick was stirring and was laid in his hammock with a cig in his mouth.
Whilst Mick was sorting out his porridge I had a little taster of the shellfish bearing in mind that the rest were to be saved for our lunch. Cooked in the embers they were lovely although I wasn`t too keen on the texture of the limpets even after pulling off the guts
By 09:30 we were packed up, tidied round and ready for the long(ish) walk round to camp two. We had to back track a little to find one of the FC tracks which would eventually lead us to our route onwards and upwards.
The sun was out and spirits were high as we marched through the vast forest, the distant hum of chainsaws reminded us that we weren’t alone in this place. We downed packs at one point as we’d picked up some fresh deer tracks and thought we’d investigate. We managed to follow the tracks in the mud for a good 100yds before they took a sharp right and up into the thick cover of some huge old gorse bushes. They were easy to pick out in the moss but we lost them again after that.
After a couple of hours we found ourselves on the shores of Loch Goil and what a beautiful place it is too. We found a nice little beachy area and knocked up a small fire with the bracken I`d been drying in my pockets and some driftwood that was lying about and had dried in the morning sun. A couple of minutes later we were tucking into our shellfish lunch, washed down with wild cherry and cinnamon fruit infusion. We took another ten minutes out just to sit and admire the views whilst I boiled up some more water for drinking, rolled a few ciggies and then we were off again.
We reached camp two by 3 o’clock, rigged up the tarps and hammocks and just laid back and chilled for an hour. Firewood was aplenty and reasonably dry too, so it was looking like a much more civilised night ahead.
We had a bit of a go at hand line fishing in the nearby river but nothing was doing so we went back to camp and dug out the JD. Evening meal for both of us was to be salami kebabs with mushroom and pepper rice followed by banoffee pie (well done Mick for sneaking that out) and coffees. Then it was back onto the proper stuff, a few games of cards and another early night, all this fresh air was clearly getting the better of us.
Thursday we had a sleep in because the walk back to the car was only a couple of hours. Bannock and coffee again for breakfast a quick tidy round and we were on our way again. The beginning of the walk back was a little more ascending than we had first thought but the views were immense and it was good to be able to look down on the whole route we had followed for the last few days. After the first climb it was a steady trundle back down to the car park.
This was the first multi nighter I’d done for myself for a long time and so it was useful to see what kit I really used and what I could’ve left behind.
Kit List:
Sabre 75L
Snugpak Elite 4
Thermarest prolite ¾
DD 3x3 tarp
Nomad hammock
Goretex DPM bivvy bag
Ventile Kestrel smock
Buffalo Special 6 shirt
Fleece pullover
Ullfrotte 200g & 400g base layers
Craghoppers merino base layer
3 pairs of spare socks
Goretex boot liners
Knife, saw and axe
2 billy cans
Hobo stove
1 litre of fresh water
1 x Morrisons chick & mush pasta & sauce
1 x Morrisons mush & pepper rice
1 x salami
3 x bannock mix
4 x tracker bars
1 bag dried cranberries
1 bag of chocolate raisins
1 deck of cards
Plenty of spare paracord
Map
Compass
A big thank you to Grooveski and w00dsmoke and a few others on here for the help in planning the trip and also some of the guys from SOTP (although they don`t know it).
Any regrets ?
Yes, I wish I’d better prepared my mate and made sure he emphasised keeping his stuff dry. He had a pretty miserable time of it and his moaning put a bit of a downer on the trip.
One of us should have carried a stove as a back up, more for Mick really as all my cooking was quick and easily done over a fire.
Would I do it again ?
Absolutely, just need to choose my travel partners more carefully.
If anyone’s interested in the route drop me a PM and I`ll give you the details
My camera got soaked during the walk in on day one so no piccies at all I’m afraid, they say a picture tells a thousand words so I think I’ve just about made up for it
Tuesday was an early start in an attempt to give us a little more time to setup camp etc when we eventually got to our destination for night one. I picked up my mate at 6 a.m. and we set off across the Dales to reach the M6 before the morning rush hour. Progress was steady although the weather was deteriorating the further north we got, by the time we were on the M74 heading towards Glasgow we were officially in monsoon mode. The matrix signs on the motorway had now changed from “Don’t drive tired“ to “HEAVY RAIN AND FLOODING, PLEASE DRIVE CAREFULLY.”
By this point we’d passed the point of no return and thought we’d soldier on northwards in the hope that maybe the weather would break for us. No such luck.
At around 13:30 we had reached Ardgartan tourist information office and this was to be our safe parking spot for the duration of our stay. We thought we’d sit in the car for about ten minutes finishing off any munchies we had left from the journey up and waited in the hope that the rain would pass. After twenty minutes it didn’t look like passing so we got out and got togged up for the walk in.
The route we’d selected was to be steady going mainly on FC tracks with a few cross country shortcuts thrown in for good measure. Due to the weather though it turned out to be a bit of a head down trudge with the occasional stop for me to make a soggy rollup and check our position on the map. A couple of hours later we were roughly in the area we’d spotted for a possible camp and so we dropped our packs and had a bit of a reccy about the place. We found a nice little ledge next to the loch which appeared fairly well drained despite the torrential downpour and set about rigging the tarps up.
I was experimenting with my tarp setup this time and used some freshly cut birch poles to hoist up the sides to give myself a bit more room under my 3x3. I usually take my guys straight down to the ground but thought it would be good to have a bit more room under the shelter for this trip.
Once the roof was up I began unpacking the rest of my gear and found to my horror that my camera had become completely waterlogged during the walk in. Each time I turned it on I got a “File Error” message and couldn’t do anything with it, hence no piccies at all to show for our troubles.
After I gave my mate a hand setting up, he’s still learning, we went about getting a good stock of firewood in for the night. We couldn’t believe how wet everything was, even under the thick pine bows the usual standing dead stuff was completed soaked through to the core. We managed to get a good pile back at the camp and I cracked on with splitting and sorting the wood into different thicknesses. I’m so glad I decided to repack my Cegga at the last minute as I’d taken it out the night before in an attempt to shave a few ounces off the pack weight. Getting the fire to actually establish itself was a lot harder than I’ve ever had before, due to everything being so wet so much energy was being lost through drying out that hardly any heat was being emitted. After probably about an hour we had a decent burn going with sticks around thumb thickness so we started to create a pyramid firelay with some good size arm thick logs. These would dry out nicely throughout the night and so spirits we’re lifted despite the downright miserable weather.
Food for me was a simple pasta and sauce jobby which only required some boiling water followed by bannock and coffee, for Mick however he had other plans. Out came 1lb of mince, two onions, two potatoes and various herbs and spice powders. Sounds good you might say but he only had one small mess tin without a lid or anyway of suspending it. Once he’d plopped the mince in that was his mess tin full and he then set about trying to fry this up on the embers. I`m not sure how long he persevered for but I heard a lot of effing and blinding before he binned the lot and pulled out some super noodles.
We were both totally exhausted, Mick was soaked through to the skin and so we turned in for an early night about 10 o’clock. I rocked off to sleep easily listening to the distant roar of stags rutting on the other side of the loch up on Craggan Hill.
Wednesday I was up and about by 7 o’clock and was pleased to find the sun was out and the sky looked clear. I gave the fire a little nudge and started on breakfast. It was bannock again with coffee for me which went down a treat. I’d decided to premix the bannock mix at home this time and carried it in small ziplock bags. A little cold water was added in the bag and I was able to form the dough without getting it caked all over me. I flipped it out onto a sheet of foil and tossed it on the embers. Lovely jubbly.
Mick was still snoring his head off so I went for a little bimble along the rocky beach to see what I could find. The larder was certainly open and I gathered a good billy can full of mussels, cockles, limpets and winkles. By the time I’d got back Mick was stirring and was laid in his hammock with a cig in his mouth.
Whilst Mick was sorting out his porridge I had a little taster of the shellfish bearing in mind that the rest were to be saved for our lunch. Cooked in the embers they were lovely although I wasn`t too keen on the texture of the limpets even after pulling off the guts
By 09:30 we were packed up, tidied round and ready for the long(ish) walk round to camp two. We had to back track a little to find one of the FC tracks which would eventually lead us to our route onwards and upwards.
The sun was out and spirits were high as we marched through the vast forest, the distant hum of chainsaws reminded us that we weren’t alone in this place. We downed packs at one point as we’d picked up some fresh deer tracks and thought we’d investigate. We managed to follow the tracks in the mud for a good 100yds before they took a sharp right and up into the thick cover of some huge old gorse bushes. They were easy to pick out in the moss but we lost them again after that.
After a couple of hours we found ourselves on the shores of Loch Goil and what a beautiful place it is too. We found a nice little beachy area and knocked up a small fire with the bracken I`d been drying in my pockets and some driftwood that was lying about and had dried in the morning sun. A couple of minutes later we were tucking into our shellfish lunch, washed down with wild cherry and cinnamon fruit infusion. We took another ten minutes out just to sit and admire the views whilst I boiled up some more water for drinking, rolled a few ciggies and then we were off again.
We reached camp two by 3 o’clock, rigged up the tarps and hammocks and just laid back and chilled for an hour. Firewood was aplenty and reasonably dry too, so it was looking like a much more civilised night ahead.
We had a bit of a go at hand line fishing in the nearby river but nothing was doing so we went back to camp and dug out the JD. Evening meal for both of us was to be salami kebabs with mushroom and pepper rice followed by banoffee pie (well done Mick for sneaking that out) and coffees. Then it was back onto the proper stuff, a few games of cards and another early night, all this fresh air was clearly getting the better of us.
Thursday we had a sleep in because the walk back to the car was only a couple of hours. Bannock and coffee again for breakfast a quick tidy round and we were on our way again. The beginning of the walk back was a little more ascending than we had first thought but the views were immense and it was good to be able to look down on the whole route we had followed for the last few days. After the first climb it was a steady trundle back down to the car park.
This was the first multi nighter I’d done for myself for a long time and so it was useful to see what kit I really used and what I could’ve left behind.
Kit List:
Sabre 75L
Snugpak Elite 4
Thermarest prolite ¾
DD 3x3 tarp
Nomad hammock
Goretex DPM bivvy bag
Ventile Kestrel smock
Buffalo Special 6 shirt
Fleece pullover
Ullfrotte 200g & 400g base layers
Craghoppers merino base layer
3 pairs of spare socks
Goretex boot liners
Knife, saw and axe
2 billy cans
Hobo stove
1 litre of fresh water
1 x Morrisons chick & mush pasta & sauce
1 x Morrisons mush & pepper rice
1 x salami
3 x bannock mix
4 x tracker bars
1 bag dried cranberries
1 bag of chocolate raisins
1 deck of cards
Plenty of spare paracord
Map
Compass
A big thank you to Grooveski and w00dsmoke and a few others on here for the help in planning the trip and also some of the guys from SOTP (although they don`t know it).
Any regrets ?
Yes, I wish I’d better prepared my mate and made sure he emphasised keeping his stuff dry. He had a pretty miserable time of it and his moaning put a bit of a downer on the trip.
One of us should have carried a stove as a back up, more for Mick really as all my cooking was quick and easily done over a fire.
Would I do it again ?
Absolutely, just need to choose my travel partners more carefully.
If anyone’s interested in the route drop me a PM and I`ll give you the details
