Fun at Loch Lomond

Last night I had a very interesting camping experience with Alan and Collin Gibson. We set out to spend the night in a cave beside Loch Lomond but we left a bit late in the day which made things a bit more complicated. By the time we got to the nearest car park, it was 8 o'clock in the evening and completely dark. It was an overcast night as well so there was very little light. Only the two head-mounted torches that Alan and Collin had brought with them provided any illumination. I watched my step by following their lights along the path.

As time went past, we became a bit uncertain of the path and after a few scouting explorations here and there, we decided to sleep on the beach instead. Now, this posed a small problem as we didn't have any tents. Undaunted, however, Alan managed to create a shelter he called "a bendy" which consists of a small sapling bent over and tied to a secure spot on the ground (a convenient root that protruded above the surface) allowing us a framework to add other coverings to.

We made a fire and settled down for the night enjoying foods ranging from Scottish Cheddar to an obscure Russian beer from the Baltic somewhere. We were having a good laugh and enjoying the whole camping/bivvying experience and decided to turn in for the night just after midnight.

I started off just using my sleeping bag as a pillow because I felt fine in my clothes, not too cold at all. After nodding off for a while like this, I woke up feeling cold and decided to jump into the sleeping bag. No sooner had I done this than the heavens opened and it rained. It got heavier and it got lighter and that cycle pretty much kept repeating ALL NIGHT. Sadly the shelter we had constructed didn't really cover us overhead and, consequently we got seriously rained on. I remember a few distinct landmarks in the night's events:

* The "I'm getting rained on" phase
* The "Now my legs are wet" phase
* The "Oh, my socks are wet too, now" phase
* The "I can't stop shivering" phase
* The "Isn't it morning yet?" phase

Finally at around half past 6, Alan had had enough and we all packed up and left. It was still dark. I still saw no sign of daylight. It was only when we reached the car that it started getting light and the rain stopped too!

Since we were completely drookit, we decided to remove our trousers to minimise the soaking of the seats in the car. I was relieved to also discover that my phone had survived the night in my rucksack, under the in-built rain cover which I had deployed when packing everything up the night before.

As if this wasn't enough drama for one night, we discovered just after driving onto the road that the car had a flat tyre. "One for all and all for one," I said and in no time we had three drowned rats in the boxers changing the wheel of a car at 6:30 in the morning. We must have been a sight.

I finally made it home and put my stuff in the wash along with my week's laundry. I had a much needed shower and then discovered on taking my clothes out of the machine that I had left a Tracker bar (kind of granola cereal bar) in the pocket of my trousers. There were bits of peanut, toffee etc. stuck to ALL of the things that were in the washing machine.

Oh well, it seems I'm not quite as Wild at Heart as I thought I was because most of the night I was wishing it was all over. We did laugh about it, though, which is always good. You need to see the funny side of these adventures.