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My normal partner, Ponyexpress, (wife) had gone on a church mission trip to Romania for a week, so I had some time to myself
Weather forecast for Scotland was very good, so I thought it was a chance to take my wee tent & go for a bit of “bagging”
I decided to finish with these two , as I alway thought , with the bike and a tent, it would be good to have a night in the wilderness
I could have gone to the bothy to having read it was not in use, trusted the tent. It’s a great cycle in , even with all the gear
Even the rope bridge was ok as I made my way to my campsite by Loch Pattack.
2015-09-09 18.21.02 by
Joan Howard, on Flickr
2015-09-09 19.45.33 by
Joan Howard, on Flickr
It’s a lonely spot, and apart from a couple of guys I had passed coming out it was deserted. As I settled down for the night it was quite eerie, with the strange sounds of the night, no traffic noise
I was awake by about five so got breakfast and a brew and decided I’d get an early start and cycled up to the bothy which was deserted.
2015-09-10 07.42.59 by
Joan Howard, on Flickr
2015-09-10 07.58.32 by
Joan Howard, on Flickr
Cloud base was about 2000 ft so not worth taking any pics, just one at the summit, to prove to myself I got there
Just followed the GPS all the way. But once I left the summit it began to improve as I started to descend
2015-09-10 12.40.24 by
Joan Howard, on Flickr
2015-09-10 10.55.18 by
Joan Howard, on Flickr
2015-09-10 12.49.16 by
Joan Howard, on Flickr
2015-09-10 13.04.37 by
Joan Howard, on Flickr
2015-09-10 12.40.12 by
Joan Howard, on Flickr
Soon climbed up to the second summit of the day & a selfie
2015-09-10 13.20.04 by
Joan Howard, on Flickr
2015-09-10 13.20.24 by
Joan Howard, on Flickr
Then as I came off the second summit I had a quite awesome experience with a hare. As I wandered down the hillside, with very short vegetation a hare popped up in front of me about 3 metres away. He didn’t move and I was a bit shocked he didn’t run off. We just stared at each other & his eye looked just like the glass eye on a large child’s stuffed animal. I realised I was standing almost on top of his burrow
Eventually he decided to move and I watched him lope off down the hillside, I wasn’t alone!
2015-09-10 13.26.15 by
Joan Howard, on Flickr
2015-09-10 13.20.33 by
Joan Howard, on Flickr
Then it was the easy walk out and get back to take the tent down and get back on the bike by the loch. But I now had another memorable experience. At the junction of the track to the bothy an estate vehicle came from the other side of the loch and went towards the bothy direction. About 10 mins later I heard the neighing and snorting of a horse and a big black horse, just like on the Lloyds Bank advert came galloping along from the same direction as the estate vehicle had come
I thought it might come and trample my tent
But thankfully it headed after the estate vehicle, probably going to be fed. Then I I cycled slowly back to civilisation.
