On Saturday morning we had a beautiful ferry crossing back to the mainland, with still waters, hazy sunshine and sightings of dolphins swimming and jumping alongside the boat. We knew from the forecast that we were about to experience all the weathers in one day in classic Scottish style.
Our plans were to head for Glen Coe and take advantage of the inevitable windows of light for some photography fun at our favourite locations. We were going to have to be patient! There is something very comforting about Glen Coe for us both, we cannot put our finger on it, but the place, whatever the conditions seems to put us both immediately at ease. It is definitely one of our happy places.
We drove up and down the valley- dodging the Saturday morning coach parties and indulging ourselves in the stunning scenery. A quick pint in the cracking boots bar at the Clachaig Inn for old times sake and then we decided to hunker down for the night as the rain poured down.
We wild camped out the back of the Kings House hotel on Rhanock moor, an absolutely stunning location with the benefits of full 4G phone signal and all the hospitality facilities at the Kings House if we fancied it. We were really snug in Nelson, watching TV at the same time as a steady stream of sodden walkers headed their way across the moor an further on the West Highland Way.
After yet another blustery and stormy night, we had an early morning wake up call by a roaring stag, obviously finding his voice in the rutting season. We couldn’t see him in the morning mist that blanketed the moor, but he was definitely close.
We had always planned a quite night at the end of Glen Etive, one of our favourite hidden Scottish places. This isolated location is just a brilliant place to get away from everything. In the end, it rained on and off most of the day, but that made no difference as we took our time in simply doing nothing. We indulged in the simple things- forrest walks in the drizzle, reading in the van, hot mugs of tea and an evening fire by the loch side as the stags roared down the glen. Sometimes you cannot put a price on being in the places that you love with the people that you love- you don’t need much more than that in life.
The following day started a little better as we made our way along the 12 mile road out of the Glen. We were disappointed not to get any sightings of deer, as the Glen is normally a banker for that. We soon realised why they were in hiding as we passed a shooting party from the hunting lodge in all their country wear. Good luck to the deer! The river flow had slowed considerably from the day before and we were treated to some of the most stereotypical Scottish landscapes that you could ever get on the ride out. A cheeky bonus at the very top of the Glen was an amazing red overlander truck- more van porn for Richard to dream about!
After a hot shower at the Kings House (the best £1 you could ever spend) and a lazy coffee in their hikers bar, we decided to head for Loch Lomond and again hunker down, whatever the weather before heading home the following day. The wild camping restrictions that normally require permits to camp out had come to an end at the end of September so we knew that we would pretty much have the choice to wild camp where we wanted on the loch side. The main criteria was any spot that wasn’t already waterlogged or was likely to get waterlogged in the next 24 hours. We found a lovely spot, and managed a few minutes on the shores before we needed to take shelter for another day.
All in all, it rained solidly for our last 48 hours of the trip, but it didn’t dampen our spirts as we revelled in the enforced down time and the chance to catch up with ourselves after a very busy trip. The benefits of early retirement became immediately clear, in that we no longer worried about losing days to the weather on our adventures…as we know there will always be plenty more days ahead. We are no longer restricted to holiday times and that freedom is truly liberating.
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