Saturday, 27 June 2015

A Week in Scotland

Smoked salmon and cream cheese for lunch
I don't think Scotland should ever be allowed to leave the UK, I enjoy visiting it too much! If you ever feel that there are too many people in London and you need to get away from it, just visit Scotland. The mountains, the wild camping, the wilderness, the no people. It is really such a great place to visit. True the weather kind of sucks, and it's cold and wet a lot of the time, and when it isn't, there are thousands of midges. But the times when the clouds lift just enough to see the tops of the peaks is really something special. And being able to stand on the top of a mountain and not see any signs of humans; no roads, no villages, no paths, that is so good after Bank underground station. I'm not sure where else in the UK something like that is possible.
Heading for the base of those mountains - I love these glacial valleys
We spent 2 days camping in the Cairngorms, I love the Cairngorms, the wide, glacial valleys, the complete isolation, the mountains. It's really great having this so close to us. Flights leave Aberdeen from City airport and then it's about 90 minutes drive to the entry point to the park. I definitely have to get back there more. There are way too many places to visit in just this country, let alone Europe! Our first day was a pretty long one, along a path for most of the way. Then right at the end we headed up this valley, with an elevation gain of a couple hundred metres. Which was a bit tough coming at the end of an 18km walk. We camped by the shores of a mountain tarn. A beautiful spot, it was just a bit of a shame it was so incredibly windy that night. I've never had it so windy, at some points I was a little worried the tent was going to be torn apart. But everything held together nicely. 
Slowly approaching, we turn left at the base of the peak
It was our first trip in our new tent, and I have to say, after this one, bring on the camping. We spent way too much on it, it's Swedish, and it's just so well designed. After many trips in slightly crappy tents, I don't think I'm going to need another one. It's big, it has this massive vestibule, so even if it's pouring with rain, you can make dinner and not get wet. And then there's heaps of space for your bags and boots and everything. So the actual tent just has you and your clothes. It's so luxurious, but still light. I think there are going to be some fun times had with this. 
Our beautiful campsite on the second night
After a rather sleepless night we decided we had to get lower for the next evening, preferably with some trees, always a bit of an ask in the Cairngorms. We had to ford the river Dee, which was actually quite wide. I got a bit worried about wet boots, but really, it wasn't that cold. Then we had the best campsite I have ever walked to, it was amazing. In amongst a little pine forest, flat, grassy patch of ground, with no stones. Right next to a flowing river and views out over snow capped mountains. So good. That really was a perfect campsite. I hope I visit that one again.

I wasn't expecting so much snow on the peaks, it was the last weekend in May, which I thought would have been late enough in spring that everything would have melted. But as the ranger told me, the Cairngorms are the only sub-arctic region in the UK, and they were really arcticing it up. I'm not so experienced in snow, especially when it's on really steep slopes, and since the avalanche forecasts only stopped being issued a fortnight before we visited. With one of the last forecast being for a high likelihood of avalanche, that freaked me out a bit. Aaah poor Scotland, such a short window to visit, it's either covered in snow, or when it's warm enough that it melts, it's covered in midge. Perhaps autumn is the time to pay another visit. 

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