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Published: August 5th 2012
how to sleep in a mini
it takes lots of cushions / thick quilt / blankets / pillows & sleeping bags!No idea why but from a motivational perspective it sounds much more impressive saying exceeded by 10% rather than by 1, despite them being exactly identical. So for those of you keeping count, I am now ahead of my 2012 target of 10 Munros. It will be interesting to see how many more I manage to rack up before mid October….
Before I continue I should clarify for all of you wondering ‘how on earth can you sleep in a mini let alone want to?’…easy if you take into consideration the following:
1. I am only 5ft 4in tall (i.e. short)
2. I am an expert in how to strategically pack a mini (I have had 10 years of practice and the saying “practice makes perfect” definitely applies in this case!)
3. And most importantly the key is to have lots of layers of: cushions / blankets / quilts / pillows / sleeping bags and a dare devil / thrill seeker personality!
So let’s get back to the story…I am a big believer in that things happen for a reason and that someone up there, is looking
second burn crossing
yes this is the one I fell into...it helped cool me down and the new boots were officially christened! out for me and this weekend was just another reminder for me of both J.
The original plan for this weekend was to head up on the Friday night to the Glenshee Ski area and walk up 6 Munros on the Saturday and either return home that evening or early on Sunday morning. The guide book stated that the 6 hills would take 7hrs 15mins, so by my calculations that would take me aprox 10 hours to complete….so a nice really long day walking, to make up for the past couple of weekends!
Due to a later than anticipated finish from work which in turn caused me to miss my bus home, it resulted in a much later departure on Friday night from my flat which meant I arrived well after 1am to my destination. On a positive note, as expected I encountered very little traffic on my journey north, which meant I had the windy country roads all to myself which is brilliant fun even if you are feeling a bit tired!
A couple of signs that someone up there is looking out for me, were:
a)
half way up first hill
looking back towards the parking lay-by where my car is and appreciating the distance already covered, rather steep ascent! While driving I came across a number of rabbits and one deer on the road…this time we all managed to hop / trot / drive away unharmed much to my relief!!! (I had a very unfortunate experience 8 years ago with ‘Bambi’L)
b) Not surprising due to the lateness of my arrival in Glenshee and my questionable navigational skills I parked in the wrong car park (I know my family will find this rather amusing)! However I should point out that this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I found out later that day, so in my opinion this does not count as an error on my part J
So the 2 munros off my to do list were Creag Leacach and Glas Maol both over the Cairnwell Pass across the way from the Glenshee Ski Centre.
Saturday 4 August, was definitely the perfect day for this walk. The sun was out and there was no wind for the first 5 hours, this meant there were brilliant views 360 degrees round….definitely one of the nicest panoramic views I have had from the top of any Scottish mountain! In
first top is just after the 2 small ones
nothing like a gradual way up...just like taking small steps to the top addition there were absolutely lots of mountain hares, in the past I have only seen the occasional one, but this time they were everywhere you turned. All round a brilliant day, with the exception of the midges that were out in force also and the very dark clouds starting to appear just after midday, as the saying goes you can’t have it all…but it felt close enough.
At the beginning of the day I was faced with 2 burn crossings, the first one was nice and easy while the second one gave my new walking boots a real christening when I managed to slip off one of the rocks and ended up in the burn. Great way to cool down, and find out if my boots and trousers were waterproof or not…after a mere 10 mins I was totally dried off J
Next challenge of the day, due to the sunshine and heat, I managed to remove the Avon “skin so softly” cream that is usually great at keeping the midges away from me, as a result I managed to get a couple of bites on my face (ouch!) and the 50 factor sun
top no 2 is all the way along that ridge
at least it does not look too steep from here! cream was not sufficient in preventing me from getting another sun burnt face….the consolation is that now I have the holiday sun kissed look again which is a great antidote to all the rain we have had in July and so far in August.
The next few hours proceeded without any incidents. During the descent from the first hill and on my way to the second one, I realized I had left my ordinance survey map in the car (it never ceases to surprise I am always guaranteed to forget something despite me having so many to do lists), which was not going to be much use to me there.
By the time I had come off the second hill I was already 1.5 hrs behind the recommended time of 3.5 hrs which meant that my initial estimation of 10 hrs for the 6 hills was going to be slightly out by another 1-2 hrs. So taking into consideration I had no map (I needed this to get from hill 3 to hill 4 onwards) and the dark clouds heading my way I made the sensible decision to give the next 4 Munros a
the long road back to the car
the great news is that it is all downhill!!! miss on this occasion. This is where being parked in the wrong car park came in very handy, since I only had to walk 1.25 miles downhill on the main road to get back to the car rather than 3.5 miles uphill! (Note to my family…now who’s got the last laugh?!)
My guide book stated that there was an easy descent to the ski centre from hill 2, which taking my past descent experiences into consideration was definitely the most hair raising & at the same time exhilarating part of the day!
I stupidly (yes I do admit that I can honestly make some stupid choices at times) thought that the easiest way down would be to follow the ski runs only to realize when I got to the end there were only 2 options: head back up the hill or cut across…so I obviously opted for the cut across option….only to find myself having to very awkwardly walk sideways while trying to grip on to the side of the hill since it was much steeper than it looked.
So then I had one of my better ideas (yes I do
the easiest rock scree so far
after Schehallion I never thought I would want to see rocks & stones again, but these are so easy in comparison it is not a hardship at all....and the sun is out you even get my shadow in this photo :-) have these also) and decided the quickest way down would be to slide down the hill on my backside, so a thrill seeking 10 mins later (a nice reminder of my sledging experiences!) I managed to spot a path to my left and after another stream crossing (there is lots of surface water on the hills due to all the rain we have had this summer in Scotland), this time I did not fall in, I managed to re-join the official path on to the ski centre.
After a further 1.5 hr descent I finally made it back to the car just before the heavens opened, what a great way to end the day…and the car got a wash! The drive down the road was surprising quiet, it felt like I had the roads all to myself again but this time there was sunshine so the sunroof was open and the music blaring….absolute bliss! All in all this turned out to be another great day out with the added bonus that now I know which car park I need to head to for the next 4 hills and how to descent to the Ski centre!
almost at the first top
you get a real feel for how much height has been reached from the road & car...no surprise it has taken 3 hr 15 min to reach this point! Until the next adventure thanks for reading
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