I spend much of my time in really wild places. Places that most outdoorsy folk would never ever go. I go to lots of places but my favourites are really wild remote lochs inbetten or far away from the high hills that munrobaggers ruin, way off the beaten track far from roads so most fisherman won't make it in and in places often too bleak even for sheep to survive in.
So where exactly? That would be telling but think of some of the wildest bleakest moors of Sutherland, Rannoch and some of the very remote sea lochs in Scotland. Now the problem I have is this, every survivial and outdoor book ever written states "stay dry" and that makes perfect sense, we are safer and comfier if we are dry but it's simply not possible to have dry feet and legs in these places so how do people cope?
If I walk along the shores of a remote loch, often the shoreline is the safest place to walk. Further away from theshore and it's floating bog, huge peat hags or a combo on a steep rocky slope interspersed with small and not so small burns and rivers that turn into torrents after even a small shower. My point is that the only way across is by wading through these watercourses and often they are too deep and too fast to wade so often the only way is to walk into the loch and around the mouth. It's impossible to stay dry and the only way forward is to dress in wets and sleep in dries like jungle trekkers. This to me is like dancing with the devil and it makes crossing or visiting these very special places extremely dangerous and impassable for much of the year. In the summer you are unlikely to get hypothermia (not impossibly just unlikley) if you are prepared but in spring, autumn and winter its a dead cert if you walk in those conditions ( unless it's hard frosta nd you can tentatively cross).
How or do other people here visit these places? I can't imagine many do purely on the basis of lack of footprints and other evidence I'd find if folk did. As far as I'm aware this other than the remote islands is the remotest wild land we have left in the uk and maybe by being so difficult to cross is it's saving grace. I love it.
So where exactly? That would be telling but think of some of the wildest bleakest moors of Sutherland, Rannoch and some of the very remote sea lochs in Scotland. Now the problem I have is this, every survivial and outdoor book ever written states "stay dry" and that makes perfect sense, we are safer and comfier if we are dry but it's simply not possible to have dry feet and legs in these places so how do people cope?
If I walk along the shores of a remote loch, often the shoreline is the safest place to walk. Further away from theshore and it's floating bog, huge peat hags or a combo on a steep rocky slope interspersed with small and not so small burns and rivers that turn into torrents after even a small shower. My point is that the only way across is by wading through these watercourses and often they are too deep and too fast to wade so often the only way is to walk into the loch and around the mouth. It's impossible to stay dry and the only way forward is to dress in wets and sleep in dries like jungle trekkers. This to me is like dancing with the devil and it makes crossing or visiting these very special places extremely dangerous and impassable for much of the year. In the summer you are unlikely to get hypothermia (not impossibly just unlikley) if you are prepared but in spring, autumn and winter its a dead cert if you walk in those conditions ( unless it's hard frosta nd you can tentatively cross).
How or do other people here visit these places? I can't imagine many do purely on the basis of lack of footprints and other evidence I'd find if folk did. As far as I'm aware this other than the remote islands is the remotest wild land we have left in the uk and maybe by being so difficult to cross is it's saving grace. I love it.