Firstly, let me just say that I've reduced the size of the pics in this thread to 640x480 to suit the forum but on my PC they show up massive (1020x700ish). Apologies if they're huge on your monitor too but I can't figure out how to sort it.
Very late on friday night myself and Twoflower arrived back home from a weeks wild camping in Scotland. To say that the 6 days we were away for didn't quite go to plan would be a massive understatement
The idea was to head for the Glen Affric area and spend a week walking on the mountains and around Loch Affric. We would stop each night next to the Loch or one of the many streams so we could safely have a camp fire, set up our hammocks and have a bloody good time of it.
We planned well, buying an ordnance survey map of the area and studying it a good few weeks before setting off. We also looked at pictures online of the area we would be heading to so we could get an idea of the ground and the area we would be walking through.
We knew the weather would be wet - that's pretty much part and parcel of travelling in Scotland - and we made sure we had good solid waterproofs and gaitors. We packed lightweight dehydrated food as we knew that finding water in Scotland wouldn't be a problem.
We set off early saturday morning and planned to arrive at Glen Affric for about 6.00pm(ish). That would give us an hour and a half to walk a mile or so from the car and set up before we started to lose the light - plenty of time.
However, several delays on the journey north found us driving through Glasgow after dark - not the cleverest thing for a couple of lost southerners to do at the best of times, but made all the worse by the fact that by this time we were supposed to be 150 miles further north, swinging about in our hammocks.
We eventually stopped off just north of Loch Lomond having found no where suitable to pitch for the night, and slept in the car.
After this minor set-back we were up early and driving before the sun rose. After travelling a good few miles we stopped off for a brew at the side of the road. We were sitting there sipping our coffee quite happily when we spotted deer at the bottom of the hill. Two of them noticed us and to our surprise started heading up the slope straight for us!
At one point one of them got so close that I decided to put the camera away and move round the other side of the car. He looked quite annoyed that I wasn't giving him any of the chocolate that I was eating. Every time I broke a bit off and put it in my mouth he came a step closer!
Eventually he got the message and wandered off and we set off for Glen Affric.
We got there, shouldered our packs and walked for a couple of hours only to find that the area was totally unsuitable for hammock camping. The trees that we could access were too small and weak for hammocks and the ground was heather and bogland so we couldn't even use the hammock and underblanket as an improvised mattress and kip on the floor.
We got to a highish point and looked at the rest of the area and it all appeared to be similar. After a bit of discussion we decided to leave the area and head off somewhere else.
This wasn't a problem. We would simply have a bit of a tour around the Highlands and camp whenever we found somewhere suitable - that's the beauty of Scotland, you can freely camp wherever you like for one night without having to request permission from the landowner. That's right isn't it? Everyone knows that.
It's not quite that simple.
We drove for what seemed like ages, heading to every bit of woodland we could find on the map yet almost every single forest we found was unsuitable. Alot of what we found was very young Spruce or Scots Pine, and so tightly packed together that the forest was virtually impenetrable. The few forests we did find that were suitable were Forestry Commission land. This turned out to be our biggest problem because unbeknownst to us The Forestry Commission hates everyone.
Technically you can camp on their land but they make it very difficult for you to do so. 6-foot high barbed wire fences around most of their forests and signs every where saying:
- NO OVERNIGHT PARKING
- NO CAMPING
- NO OPEN FIRES
and the best bit...
- FORESTRY COMMISSION WELCOMES WALKERS
Really? Could've fooled me.
We did eventually find a good spot though. A pine woodland with good sized trees and plaenty of places to sling a hammock and tarp. It wasn't ideal as it was quite close to the road but we were losing the light and needed to set up quick and it was the best place we'd seen so far. There was also alot of moss and old pine on the ground so a fire was out of the question.
Twoflower was woken by deer walking through at night which sadly I missed.
This is us waking up the next morning.
Twoflower
Me
Remember kids, smoking is neither big nor clever, in fact it's downright dangerous.
The next morning we packed up and set off again, heading for every bit of woodland on the map.
1. Forestry Commission
2. Forestry Commission
3. Young spruce
4. Forestry Commission
5. Not even woodland, just some small, thinly planted shrubs.
6. Forestry Commission.
We found ourselves on the shores of Loch Ness. There were some good trees and the possibility of a safe fire by the water but the wind blowing in across the loch would have meant an extremely cold night so we looked for something more suitable.
Our journey did offer some good photo opportunities though...
The view across Loch Ness
I can't quite remember where this was as we saw so many different places that day but I think it's quite a good shot none the less. EDIT: I've just been reliably informed by my partner in grime Mr Twoflower that it's the view across Glen Garry and Loch Garry.
We eventually found a good spot next to a river - good trees, water for boiling, safe spot for a fire, nice and sheltered. We thought our luck was in until we looked around and noticed that the trees were all old dying Beech. Every bloody one of them. We didn't fancy kipping under dying beech trees especially after the rain and wind we'd had so we were once again forced to move off and head for the next few forests on the map...
Forestry Commission
Forestry Commission
Young tightly planted spruce
Forestry Commission
And so it went on until we lost the light again and prepared for another night in the car.
The 4th day was more of the same until the late afternon when things started to pick up.
We found this lovely little island in the River Loy with good trees and planty of water around. Fire also wasn't a problem - we de-turfed a fire area and placed the turf to one side. When we were done we would clear the fire away away replace the turf.
We set up camp, had something to eat and relaxed back in our hammocks, sheltered from the incessant rain and ready for a good nights sleep.
At about 10 at night I woke up with a cold spot under my shoulder.
''Hmmm'' I thought. ''My under blanket has slipped down, I'd better sort that out''
I flicked the torch on, looked down and noticed a puddle in my hammock.
In the rush to set up camp I'd neglected to tie rain run-offs to my hammock straps and the rain was running straight down them and pooling inside my hammock.
S. ''Twoflower, are you awake?''
T. ''Well I wasn't but...''
S. ''Mate, I'm getting soaked here. I've got to sort my kit out''
T. ''Alright, get some heat going from that fire and we'll sort you out''
So we started to stoke the fire up and get my kit ready for drying out.
But then Twoflower started eyeing the river up and looking a bit concerned.
''Back in a minute'' he said.
A minute later he came back looking even more concerned.
''You should come and have a look at something'' he said.
We went over to the stream running left of the island which we'd easily stepped across only 2 hours earlier to access our camp site.
Only now it was a raging 20-foot wide river. And it was still raining which meant it would only get higher.
What followed was a serious contender for the world record of 'fastest ever time in which it's taken 2 guys to break camp'.
We had a quick look at the river, figured the best way to cross and went for it; packs shouldered so they could be discarded easily if we went under.
The water was flowing quite fast and was thigh deep but we turned to face the flow, took it steady and made it across without problems.
We walked back to the car, got out of the wet kit, turned the heaters on full blast and prepared for (yet another) night in the car.
In the morning we went back to the river to find it had dropped back down to the level it was when we found it. We were seriously annoyed that we'd broken camp and crossed at night only for it to drop again in the morning.
We made the (slightly questionable) decision to set back up and spend another night on the island, knowing that it couldn't rain any more than it had last night and the water level would be ok for crossing so long as we studied the best place to cross, planned and were prepared.
We studied the whole area, both sides of the river and sorted ourselves out. We noticed that there was quite alot of driftwood on the neighbouring island and if we could get to it then we would have a good firewood supply. At the moment it was too deep to cross but it was worth bearing in mind.
Our camp
We set up again and had a very good, relaxing day. That is apart from a slight incident involving me cutting myself on the tip of my thumb right down to the nail while splitting firewood. There was nowhere suitable for splitting with an axe so I had to resort to battoning my knife to split the wood. Not a problem usually - I've done it plenty of times without any trouble. Everything was wet; the wood, the knife, my hands and the knife had hit a knot in the wood. I tried to twist the knife to carry on the split but the wood split right where I didn't expect it. My hand, which was holding the wood where it shouldn't have been, slipped off and into the knife blade and this was the result...
All credit to Twoflower though who had his first aid kit handy and managed to get a bandage, sterilise the cut and strap me up in under a minute of me cutting myself.
The night, however, went without a problem. Plenty of rain but I'd learnt my lesson with the tapes and remembered my tie-offs this time
This is the view from the left side of my hammock in the morning. Nice gentle breeze rustling through the trees and the river babbling away next to me. Total peace.
Just what I needed after the few days I'd been through.
However...
If I looked right from my hammock I was greeted by this...
A pair of stinking socks drying over the fire and what appears to be the drummer from The Fratellis tugging away on a roll-up.
A nice brew in the morning sorted me right out though.
And when we went down to the river we noticed the water level had dropped right down. The island was no longer an island.
Which meant...
The water level was low enough for me to wade across to the neighbouring island with axe and saw in tow on the hunt for firewood
We had another very relaxing day involving lots of brew, lots of eating, reading, identifying local trees and a little bit of cursing when a huge heron flew past me 10 feet away and I didn't have the camera handy
We even had time to knock up a simple bannock:
The weather was so bad that we adopted the old rainforest discipline of having 2 sets of clothes - 1 dry and 1 wet.
The weather took a major turn for the worse that evening and we were greeted by a very friendly local farmer who, despite his jokes, seemed quite concerned with where we were pitched. We looked at the weather on the hills around our area and remembered from looking at the map that most of the streams on those hills flowed straight into our river. It was absolutley lashing down on the hills and we took that to mean the river would be rising again, big time. We had previously noticed old drift wood and flood damage on the island which would indicate the river does occasionally rise to the point where the island floods. We didn't want to be camped there on one of those occasions so we decided to play it safe and packed up.
I couldn't face the idea of spending another night in the car so we headed off toward Fort William where we found a nice hostel in which to spend the night.
A shower, a couple of pints of Kronenbourg and a nice comfy bed where just the right way to end the week.
Well, thank you if you've managed to keep reading this far (I've just gone back through this post and realised just how much I've written ) but at the beginning I said it was a learning experience. So what did I learn?
1. However much you plan, things may go wrong. Be adaptable and prepared to change your plan.
2. Always pack a tent in the back of the car just in case. If we'd had a tent then the week would have panned out very differently.
3. Scotland is generally unsuitable for hammock camping.
4. Flash-floods can happen at any time, particularly in the rainy season.
5. However confident you are with a knife, you can never learn too much about knife safety.
6. Always, always keep your first aid kit handy. I stupidly threw mine in the bottom of my pack that morning (the first time I've ever done that - it's usually right at the top) and at the rate I was bleeding I would've lost enough blood to make me ill before I found it and got myself sorted out.
7. The Forestry Commission hates you. You don't know it yet but trust me, they do.
-Switch-
Very late on friday night myself and Twoflower arrived back home from a weeks wild camping in Scotland. To say that the 6 days we were away for didn't quite go to plan would be a massive understatement
The idea was to head for the Glen Affric area and spend a week walking on the mountains and around Loch Affric. We would stop each night next to the Loch or one of the many streams so we could safely have a camp fire, set up our hammocks and have a bloody good time of it.
We planned well, buying an ordnance survey map of the area and studying it a good few weeks before setting off. We also looked at pictures online of the area we would be heading to so we could get an idea of the ground and the area we would be walking through.
We knew the weather would be wet - that's pretty much part and parcel of travelling in Scotland - and we made sure we had good solid waterproofs and gaitors. We packed lightweight dehydrated food as we knew that finding water in Scotland wouldn't be a problem.
We set off early saturday morning and planned to arrive at Glen Affric for about 6.00pm(ish). That would give us an hour and a half to walk a mile or so from the car and set up before we started to lose the light - plenty of time.
However, several delays on the journey north found us driving through Glasgow after dark - not the cleverest thing for a couple of lost southerners to do at the best of times, but made all the worse by the fact that by this time we were supposed to be 150 miles further north, swinging about in our hammocks.
We eventually stopped off just north of Loch Lomond having found no where suitable to pitch for the night, and slept in the car.
After this minor set-back we were up early and driving before the sun rose. After travelling a good few miles we stopped off for a brew at the side of the road. We were sitting there sipping our coffee quite happily when we spotted deer at the bottom of the hill. Two of them noticed us and to our surprise started heading up the slope straight for us!
At one point one of them got so close that I decided to put the camera away and move round the other side of the car. He looked quite annoyed that I wasn't giving him any of the chocolate that I was eating. Every time I broke a bit off and put it in my mouth he came a step closer!
Eventually he got the message and wandered off and we set off for Glen Affric.
We got there, shouldered our packs and walked for a couple of hours only to find that the area was totally unsuitable for hammock camping. The trees that we could access were too small and weak for hammocks and the ground was heather and bogland so we couldn't even use the hammock and underblanket as an improvised mattress and kip on the floor.
We got to a highish point and looked at the rest of the area and it all appeared to be similar. After a bit of discussion we decided to leave the area and head off somewhere else.
This wasn't a problem. We would simply have a bit of a tour around the Highlands and camp whenever we found somewhere suitable - that's the beauty of Scotland, you can freely camp wherever you like for one night without having to request permission from the landowner. That's right isn't it? Everyone knows that.
It's not quite that simple.
We drove for what seemed like ages, heading to every bit of woodland we could find on the map yet almost every single forest we found was unsuitable. Alot of what we found was very young Spruce or Scots Pine, and so tightly packed together that the forest was virtually impenetrable. The few forests we did find that were suitable were Forestry Commission land. This turned out to be our biggest problem because unbeknownst to us The Forestry Commission hates everyone.
Technically you can camp on their land but they make it very difficult for you to do so. 6-foot high barbed wire fences around most of their forests and signs every where saying:
- NO OVERNIGHT PARKING
- NO CAMPING
- NO OPEN FIRES
and the best bit...
- FORESTRY COMMISSION WELCOMES WALKERS
Really? Could've fooled me.
We did eventually find a good spot though. A pine woodland with good sized trees and plaenty of places to sling a hammock and tarp. It wasn't ideal as it was quite close to the road but we were losing the light and needed to set up quick and it was the best place we'd seen so far. There was also alot of moss and old pine on the ground so a fire was out of the question.
Twoflower was woken by deer walking through at night which sadly I missed.
This is us waking up the next morning.
Twoflower
Me
Remember kids, smoking is neither big nor clever, in fact it's downright dangerous.
The next morning we packed up and set off again, heading for every bit of woodland on the map.
1. Forestry Commission
2. Forestry Commission
3. Young spruce
4. Forestry Commission
5. Not even woodland, just some small, thinly planted shrubs.
6. Forestry Commission.
We found ourselves on the shores of Loch Ness. There were some good trees and the possibility of a safe fire by the water but the wind blowing in across the loch would have meant an extremely cold night so we looked for something more suitable.
Our journey did offer some good photo opportunities though...
The view across Loch Ness
I can't quite remember where this was as we saw so many different places that day but I think it's quite a good shot none the less. EDIT: I've just been reliably informed by my partner in grime Mr Twoflower that it's the view across Glen Garry and Loch Garry.
We eventually found a good spot next to a river - good trees, water for boiling, safe spot for a fire, nice and sheltered. We thought our luck was in until we looked around and noticed that the trees were all old dying Beech. Every bloody one of them. We didn't fancy kipping under dying beech trees especially after the rain and wind we'd had so we were once again forced to move off and head for the next few forests on the map...
Forestry Commission
Forestry Commission
Young tightly planted spruce
Forestry Commission
And so it went on until we lost the light again and prepared for another night in the car.
The 4th day was more of the same until the late afternon when things started to pick up.
We found this lovely little island in the River Loy with good trees and planty of water around. Fire also wasn't a problem - we de-turfed a fire area and placed the turf to one side. When we were done we would clear the fire away away replace the turf.
We set up camp, had something to eat and relaxed back in our hammocks, sheltered from the incessant rain and ready for a good nights sleep.
At about 10 at night I woke up with a cold spot under my shoulder.
''Hmmm'' I thought. ''My under blanket has slipped down, I'd better sort that out''
I flicked the torch on, looked down and noticed a puddle in my hammock.
In the rush to set up camp I'd neglected to tie rain run-offs to my hammock straps and the rain was running straight down them and pooling inside my hammock.
S. ''Twoflower, are you awake?''
T. ''Well I wasn't but...''
S. ''Mate, I'm getting soaked here. I've got to sort my kit out''
T. ''Alright, get some heat going from that fire and we'll sort you out''
So we started to stoke the fire up and get my kit ready for drying out.
But then Twoflower started eyeing the river up and looking a bit concerned.
''Back in a minute'' he said.
A minute later he came back looking even more concerned.
''You should come and have a look at something'' he said.
We went over to the stream running left of the island which we'd easily stepped across only 2 hours earlier to access our camp site.
Only now it was a raging 20-foot wide river. And it was still raining which meant it would only get higher.
What followed was a serious contender for the world record of 'fastest ever time in which it's taken 2 guys to break camp'.
We had a quick look at the river, figured the best way to cross and went for it; packs shouldered so they could be discarded easily if we went under.
The water was flowing quite fast and was thigh deep but we turned to face the flow, took it steady and made it across without problems.
We walked back to the car, got out of the wet kit, turned the heaters on full blast and prepared for (yet another) night in the car.
In the morning we went back to the river to find it had dropped back down to the level it was when we found it. We were seriously annoyed that we'd broken camp and crossed at night only for it to drop again in the morning.
We made the (slightly questionable) decision to set back up and spend another night on the island, knowing that it couldn't rain any more than it had last night and the water level would be ok for crossing so long as we studied the best place to cross, planned and were prepared.
We studied the whole area, both sides of the river and sorted ourselves out. We noticed that there was quite alot of driftwood on the neighbouring island and if we could get to it then we would have a good firewood supply. At the moment it was too deep to cross but it was worth bearing in mind.
Our camp
We set up again and had a very good, relaxing day. That is apart from a slight incident involving me cutting myself on the tip of my thumb right down to the nail while splitting firewood. There was nowhere suitable for splitting with an axe so I had to resort to battoning my knife to split the wood. Not a problem usually - I've done it plenty of times without any trouble. Everything was wet; the wood, the knife, my hands and the knife had hit a knot in the wood. I tried to twist the knife to carry on the split but the wood split right where I didn't expect it. My hand, which was holding the wood where it shouldn't have been, slipped off and into the knife blade and this was the result...
All credit to Twoflower though who had his first aid kit handy and managed to get a bandage, sterilise the cut and strap me up in under a minute of me cutting myself.
The night, however, went without a problem. Plenty of rain but I'd learnt my lesson with the tapes and remembered my tie-offs this time
This is the view from the left side of my hammock in the morning. Nice gentle breeze rustling through the trees and the river babbling away next to me. Total peace.
Just what I needed after the few days I'd been through.
However...
If I looked right from my hammock I was greeted by this...
A pair of stinking socks drying over the fire and what appears to be the drummer from The Fratellis tugging away on a roll-up.
A nice brew in the morning sorted me right out though.
And when we went down to the river we noticed the water level had dropped right down. The island was no longer an island.
Which meant...
The water level was low enough for me to wade across to the neighbouring island with axe and saw in tow on the hunt for firewood
We had another very relaxing day involving lots of brew, lots of eating, reading, identifying local trees and a little bit of cursing when a huge heron flew past me 10 feet away and I didn't have the camera handy
We even had time to knock up a simple bannock:
The weather was so bad that we adopted the old rainforest discipline of having 2 sets of clothes - 1 dry and 1 wet.
The weather took a major turn for the worse that evening and we were greeted by a very friendly local farmer who, despite his jokes, seemed quite concerned with where we were pitched. We looked at the weather on the hills around our area and remembered from looking at the map that most of the streams on those hills flowed straight into our river. It was absolutley lashing down on the hills and we took that to mean the river would be rising again, big time. We had previously noticed old drift wood and flood damage on the island which would indicate the river does occasionally rise to the point where the island floods. We didn't want to be camped there on one of those occasions so we decided to play it safe and packed up.
I couldn't face the idea of spending another night in the car so we headed off toward Fort William where we found a nice hostel in which to spend the night.
A shower, a couple of pints of Kronenbourg and a nice comfy bed where just the right way to end the week.
Well, thank you if you've managed to keep reading this far (I've just gone back through this post and realised just how much I've written ) but at the beginning I said it was a learning experience. So what did I learn?
1. However much you plan, things may go wrong. Be adaptable and prepared to change your plan.
2. Always pack a tent in the back of the car just in case. If we'd had a tent then the week would have panned out very differently.
3. Scotland is generally unsuitable for hammock camping.
4. Flash-floods can happen at any time, particularly in the rainy season.
5. However confident you are with a knife, you can never learn too much about knife safety.
6. Always, always keep your first aid kit handy. I stupidly threw mine in the bottom of my pack that morning (the first time I've ever done that - it's usually right at the top) and at the rate I was bleeding I would've lost enough blood to make me ill before I found it and got myself sorted out.
7. The Forestry Commission hates you. You don't know it yet but trust me, they do.
-Switch-
