As promised here is Part Two:
CAMP ORCHY !
After a brief stop at The Green Welly in order to change into our bushy clothes we headed up the road (In a snow flurry) to the pine forest at The Bridge Of Orchy. We walked up to the top of the camp where Paul & Ryan's Clan were set up, said our hello's & then went off to find suitable camping spots a bit lower down. Surprisingly I managed to get set-up with the minimal of assistance before feng-shuing the hell out of my camp area.
Meanwhile Matt, John & Elliot got on with sorting out their homes from home.
However, it soon became apparent that having not slept for over 24 hours that things were starting to go downhill for me & I basically had " Hit the wall " !
I was feeling very tired, hungry, thirsty & mentally drained all of a sudden & Matt recognised this straight away despite the fact that he too had been awake for the same length of time as me & he had driven the Landy all the way.
On his advice (Again) I made up some porridge, had a drink & hit the sack. It was only around 19:00 hrs but the forest was dark & I was done for !
We awoke to a decent accumulation of snow & set-off on a nice long walk to take in the scenery, get some pictures for you lot & to warm ourselves up. These walks became a daily & sometimes twice daily part of our camp routine (No not that kind of CAMP Bill !
) & I really enjoyed them.
As has been mentioned the days at Orchy flew by & we kept ourselves busy whilst Elliot sourced & chopped wood for Scotland, England, Ireland & Wales (Well done lad for looking after your Dad too !)
. It was great to finally encounter Mark Wilson as he & I seem to get on really well in the banter stakes on the forum & he was just the same in the flesh except for being a bit bigger & uglier than I had imagined !
He brought with him a tidy stash of local fayre & some much needed cow juice but sadly due to work commitments he could only stay with us for a short time !
Matt & I decided to see him off the premises to make sure that he had indeed " Buggered Off Home " !
. Mark opened the boot of his car to stow away his day-pack & we couldn't help noticing his pink tricycle which he apparently uses to get to his destination when his non 4x4 vehicle lets him down. Each to his own buddy but I would have steered clear of the luminous pink paint-job if it was me ! (Just sayin ye ken
).
Our last night in the forest was a fairly eventful one for me at least as I lost several hours more sleep due to the high winds that caused the trees to knock against one another & there was a lot of creaking & groaning going on but I think that was Matt
. I put my head-torch on & went to do a perimeter check before going back to bed. In the morning I was ticked off by John & Elliot for blinding them as they tried to sleep. Sorry guys but I was a tad concerned that something was going to fall on me & I admit that I should have used the less intrusive red setting. Lesson learned !
We awoke early in order to commence packing away in preparation for the next stage of our adventure & also because I am notoriously slow at breaking camp. We then assembled in the parking area before we set off for pastures new !
Follow us in the next exciting installment: AVIEMORE OR BUST !
