Scotland - Day 3 & 4 - Seana Bhraigh - North West Highlands
The weather forecast for today was very promising, with the Mountain Weather Information Service warning that there was a danger of sunburn in the North West, so our overnighter to bag Anne's final Munro was on. We had a nice chicken curry (courtesy of Anne) on the Friday night and a few (but not too many) drinks, and were all up for an early start and breakfast at 6.30am.
Phil and Anne were very impressed by George's speed and acceleration capabilities on the way there, so we arrived at our start point a bit early. We were soon on the way, up a forest track towards the distant (and not visible) summit of Seana Bhraigh. This was to be Anne's final Munro of the 282, which Phil informed us had "only" taken 25 years. As this would only be our 10th Munro, we were still pretty impressed.
The track soon branched off to the left and uphill quite steeply, and then levelled out across some moorland. There was a grey coloured hill in the distance that we thought was Seana Bhraigh. It was only when we got nearer that we realised that we had to take a massive detour around a huge valley with cliffs either side, and that the grey hill we'd spotted earlier was actually the wrong hill.
The route was fairly easy going for the first 10km or so, along a footpath / track, but all of a sudden the path came to an end and the rest of the way was across rough boggy moorland. It got harder when we realised that the direct route we'd taken took us up to the edge of another big cliff, so we had to take a big detour across a swamp to get down.
We came across a good spot for an overnight stop on the other side of the swamp - fairly flat and sheltered with a good view.
We carried on, and were soon on the final ascent to the summit. It later turned out that what I thought was soon, Claire thought was an eternity as she was feeling quite tired after a very long fortnight at work.
We had the summit to ourselves for 10 minutes or so, and after a few summit selfies and congratulations, Phil produced a bottle of champagne from his rucksack! We shared the champagne and had some scones to soak up the alcohol, and eventually set off back down, with Phil's rucksack 750g lighter.
We filled all our water bottles up from a stream on the way down and were at our overnight stop by about 6pm. Anne produced a homemade chilli from her rucksack which had gradually been defrosting during the day. Our contribution to the meal was boiling some water from the stream to make the Smash out of. A worthy contribution you might say from two first time bivvyers, but when we started eating our chilli and mash we couldn't help noticing that it had a slightly bitter flavour. We all ate it anyway, and after a process of elimination realised that we were probably to blame as a bottle of insect repelling spray had leaked at home and must have gone inside our camping stove. On the plus side, the midges steered well clear of us, as they obviously thought we were taking things seriously.
It was going dark by 8pm so we all got into our bivvy bags for the night. Although I'd been feeling pretty tired beforehand, once I was in my bag I didn't feel like sleeping at all. I think I eventually got off to sleep at about 9pm. I wished I'd brought my Kindle.
This would probably be a good time to explain what bivvy bags are. Bivvy is short for bivouac which, according to dictionary.com means "a military encampment made with tents or improvised shelters, usually without shelter or protection from enemy fire".
In real life, for hikers at least, there is no military aspect and certainly no enemy fire to worry about. Bivvying normally involves roughing it a bit more than in a tent, by sleeping in your sleeping bag inside a bag, which is usually waterproof and windproof, unless you are a real cheapskate, in which case it might be water resistant, or possibly just a wheelie bin bag. Ours are made of breathable waterproof and windproof fabric, in a nice olive green colour. Ideal for evading enemy fire and suchlike.
It takes a bit of getting used to, as it is a bit claustrophobic to start with, as you are all zipped in with only a small vent for air. It is also difficult to sleep on your side in the foetal position without tying yourself up in knots in your sleeping bag. If you are on a slight slope then you may be awoken during the night by your girlfriend insisting that you are about to fall off a cliff when in fact you are miles from it. Apart from all that it is very comfortable and relaxing.
Anyway, despite waking up several times in the night, we were all cocooned in our bags for 12 hours before surfacing for breakfast! We we slightly disappointed not to have woken to a cloud inversion, but at least we still had a view across to the hills of Inverpolly.
We had an instant porridge breakfast followed by a scone, and then started retracing our steps back to the car park.
We managed to avoid the big cliff and the swamp on the way back, and came across a herd of deer on the hillside. They ran off at first, but once they realised how slow we were just stood there watching us and looking cute.
The sun finally made an appearance when we were about half way back, which made for some nice views and a warmer sandwich stop. By the time we got back to the car park, my legs were pretty tired. We had a coffee made in George's cafetière whilst Phil and Anne became quite envious of all Georges mod cons. When it started spotting with rain, Phil and Anne headed for home whilst we headed for the metropolis of Ullapool, where we hoped to find a campsite and possibly a pub and evening meal options.
We both had tepid showers at the campsite, faffed around for a bit and then headed to the pub. After a couple of beers we got ourselves some fish and chips and ate them in the van washed down with a bottle of wine.
Although we enjoyed our bivvy last night, we are looking forward to the relative comfort of George tonight. The forecast for the next few days is not great, and Claire has already informed me that she feels really tired and is not up for a big walk tomorrow. I am hoping to fit a run in between shopping for hip flasks and a non itchy hat.
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Can't put into words how awful the bivvy sounds! Glad you enjoyed it though!
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