The weekend of the two halves……….
The drive up was wet and then gave way to sleet and high winds so interesting driving and of course we had to stop off for our fish and chips….yes I know it’s expensive but it is also good!!!!
Murray and I were in the van on Friday night and the high winds and rain battered us the whole night but we were warm and cosy so we could complain as I think some of the others had an uncomfortably cold night in the hut.
The group split into two and the boys went away to help Miles who wanted to go up Buachaille Etive Beg and bag the one Munro that he hadn't got. The wind was howling and they all had to really dig deep to get themselves ready to even go out in the howling wind and rain. They left around 830 and were back before lunch and obviously bored as by the time that we came back there was a hive of industry in the kitchen with lots of chopping of the veg for the dinner which was a huge help to Dorota.
Murray, Dorota and I decided to walk up to Blackwater Reservoir from Kinlochleven. The weather was awful – it was wet and wild and miserable and I think everyone in the group really had to dig deep to leave the fire in the hut.
Thankfully Murray was in charge of direction and map reading as Dorota and I had other ideas which invariably were wrong! The first water crossing wasn’t too bad you could jump over it but they started to get bigger and wider and wilder and after about 2 ½ hours of them getting worse and our feet getting wetter we decided that we had to go back the way we came. Much to Dorota’s horror as river crossings are her very very least favourite thing. But we decided that time was against us and when we surveyed the waterfalls at the other side that we would have to cross we agreed that as we didn’t have some handy blow up kayaks it was turnaround time.
Not before we found a potential hut location!!!! It was most certainly a habitation at some point but it is a bit of a dooer-upper!!
The way back was a bit quicker as we were all so wet that the motto of the day was ‘Fuck it???’ and then waded through.
We also had a timeline to get back and sorted for the Rugby. Murray tracked down a pub in Ballachulish that we piled in too. This was the second part of the day of two half's with our English climbing friend’s vs our Scottish Climbing friends. Turned out the pub also had quite a few English fans and it made for a hilarious back and forth of singing and chanting. The game was nail bitingly close but happily Scotland brought home the result.
Dinner was prepared by Dorota and was absolutely delicious, don’t think anyone spoke for the 1st 10 mins as it was wolfed down and then I think seconds were requested by everyone. Well done Dorota – I need the recipe J
Sunday brought the snow but it wasn’t a windy night. There were a few stragglers late to bed on Saturday night…yes I was one of them!!! However Loic and Murray decided that it would be poor show to leave any wine or whisky left in any of the bottles. When I woke up in the morning I discovered that my beloved had knocked my shoe out of the door getting into the campervan and it was now full of snow…. My only pair of dry shoes! So I had to borrow one of his to get to the toilet.
The weekend was great to meet new faces with everyone having an adventure and great banter. Loved it !!!
