TGOC 2019 Day 12 - Tue 21st Loch Clova Hotel to Tarfside
A day in which I almost manage to stick with the team!
ALMOST 🙄
But sadly the lack of faith of the youngsters 🤷♂️
What ya gonna do 🤔
So, it was morning.
Breakfast was consumed , and meal thefts probably forgiven.. 🤔🤔🤔
Na, probably not.
I gave in and agreed to Loch Brandy route...
What could go wrong???
A New team set off to Tarfside
Me, Carl, Sally and Laura....
I had no real idea who these people were.
Carl said they were OK...
They seemed like the right stuff.
Even with the Cullen Skink incident from the night before...
So, it was up to Brandy that we popped.
The weather was looking good at the start.
The route not arduous.
The company great...
What more could you want?
It had started well.
Not many people about.
We got to Brandy in good time.
Had a stop for a snack.
It was NOT the warmest of days.
AND this wasn't the colder of the stops.
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| Happy Campers 😁 |
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| The route up to Green Hill on the right. Christ it drags on. |
And chatting away we headed over Green Hill and then onwards to White Hill and Muckle Cairn.
The weather was NOT getting any warmer or better.
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| Since we didn't even climb over this, you have to ask why sit on it? BUT somethings have to be done. A makeshift chair over an electric fence (possibly, who is going to check?) What could possibly go wrong 🤔 |
An interesting stop in the bloody cold, that involved a lot of attempts at lighting stoves.
and it WAS COLD...
By the time we eventually headed off, I had bloody cold fingers.
I mean like really cold.
YES! Putting gloves on earlier would have been sensible.
If only I ever factored sensible in 🤔.
Sally (cos she is well 'ard init), gave me the hand warmer that she had got from Carl.
I am not hard enough to say, "no you keep it", so I grabbed it.
Later on this self same hand warmer will feature again.
Look out for it!
Now, it was either slightly earlier, or maybe just after this, that I had a conversation with Sally, about how easy it would be to bury a body up here, and no one would know.
I think I suggested it would be easier to chop it up first.
Nothing disturbing in that conversation at all right? 😮😂😂
I had a pretty good (vague)idea of the route across to Burnt Hill, and headed off across non existent track via some bits that may or may not have been a bit boggy.
Look! I knew where I was going.
Unfortunately nobody else did.
Trust was not high on the agenda.
So, there is this bloke that says it's this way that we don't know.
And the phone App Map says it is down there.
These young people with their technology 🤷♂️😂
Look, I'll admit, it did look a bit dodgy, but trust me (which they didn't), there really was a track about ½km (ish) further on.
"So, are you heading down to Inchgrundle then?"
"Yes!"
"Well, I'm going this way... I'll see you at Tarfside when you get there"
And with that sadly, we parted with a sorrowful wave.
I went right and up.
My team went left and down.
It could have been soooooo beautiful if only 🙄
But off they went, and with a tear in my eye, I headed of ALONE, again! 😥😥
Up over the hilly bit, and down the other side.
Look it may have been a Km.
I saw people in the distance.
One group seemed to be meandering aimlessly.
AND, there was the track.....
Well, of course there was...
And here is a map, to show how close we were so lost from the other track too. 🤷♂️
NO, I know there is NO track on the map alright.
BUT!!!!
Look, it was a track of sorts.
AND in the right direction.
AND, yes, I admit a bit (quite a long bit) further on it did return to a bit of bog navigation.
BUT... It was the right way.
And it would end up on Burnt Hill and beyond on a BLEEDING GREAT TRACK.
It just needs FAITH!
Yes, that last shortish bit was boggy.
But you could pick your way through it.
I stopped in here somewhere to take off layers.
Walking the rest in just the base layer top (well, ok, and trousers and stuff 🙄)
Just before the main track, I caught up with Martin and Sue.
They then popped straight on to go to the top (been there, didn't need to), and I turned right along the LRT towards Cairn Caidloch
I was making cracking time.
The weather was good (so far).
At some point as I headed down, in the warmth it dawned on me that my pocket was actually quite hot. I don't mean like HOT HOT , but more abnormally warm.
Hmmmm... YES, you have guessed correctly!
That is where I had put that HAND WARMER from much much earlier.
My pocket was no lonmger the best place.
I put in into the rucksack mesh pocket.
I dropped down eventually to the farm and then to the road briefly before climbing a gate and heading over to Tarfside via a track below Hill of Rowan.
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| Please someone tell me. WHY rusty barbed wire needs to be wrapped along the TOP of the gate ??? |
Now, strictly speaking the track does not go this way.
OK, it doesn't.
But having missed it, I went across the field, and then via some rather rough ground and a bit more bog to get the the main Tarfside track.
This was the only slight navigational error.
Maps eh... Sometimes they are worth a look 🤷♂️🙆♂️
Along this path, I saw two Challengers.
Walking.
I had music on.
BUT... I was sure I recognised that green pack.
AND... That other man.
Wearing ?????? TIGHTS!
Could it be...
Was my original abandoned team briefly ahead?
Had they survived the rising rivers and storms of the night before?
Would we ever walk as a team again?
Hmmmmm...
They were NOWHERE near AS PRETTY as my new team. (Let's not include Carl in that)
The new team that had lost faith after just 3 hours of day 1 🙄🤷♂️🤷♀️
So, very briefly re-united, we walked to Tarfside, and to St Drostans to get errr..
Bacon roll and Tea
It would have been rude not to after the effort.
No sign of the new A team..
Had they rushed there?
OR
Where they quite a long way back, having gone the LONG WAY round?
Of course!
I sat and chatted for quite a bit.
Al and Phil went somewhere.
Maybe to put up tents.
I waited a bit longer...
It started to look like rain.
Better put the tent up.
Better get to the field to put the tent up.
I headed off.
Found a spot.
Stuck up the tent.
Carl was later on near by.
Gerry was near by.
Look, in that field EVERYONE is near by!
The A team members would not all arrive.
Carl arrived at some point.
His tent was near mine.
I could live with that.
The girls had blagged a room in St Drostans. 🤷♂️
What are they like ehhhh...
Anyone would think that we had had the last Cullen bloody Skink, and I had left them up a hill.
Oh well...
Tomorrow was another day.
I might manage a short distance in company.
But that is another story for another day.
It was an evening of errrr...
Drinking in the Masons.
Of course it was....
Cider that tasted of pop, and you didn't notice how bloody many.
There could have been whisky.
They had a hog roast thing.
It seemed like a good idea to eat at least something else.
Sally and Laura made an appearance a bit later.
Nik and Lyn and Carl and Tim, Russ, Matty, Lindsay, Mick, Pieman .... and ...
Look, bloody everyone was there...
At some point eventually everyone attempted to get back to their tents or their rooms or....
Storming night.
It would rain again by morning..
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| Scarp 2 - Carl and My Notch in the distance at the back |
And then we would walk again!
Probably EAST!
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