Wet,wet,wet, (and windy).

[rabbie64]

Had been looking forward to this walk. The weather forecast suggested a window of dry calm weather between two bouts of heavy rain,one forecast for the early hours,the other mid to late afternoon. We aimed for the window between the rain showers,arriving off the ferry at 8.00 am and setting off along the road to the start proper of the walk. The rain started before we even got to the start point and didn't let up. Goatfell was completely shrouded in cloud and mist for the whole time. Not content with raining cats and dogs, there was a driving wind blowing from the west,strong enough to knock me off balance a couple of times. After a struggle,we reached the summit about mid-day.There was quite simply nothing to see apart from the cairn and the trig point. It was miserable. We didn't linger. Scrambled down a bit, found some shelter,had a quick bite then on our way. By the time we got to the lower slopes the insult added to injury was the appearance of the sun, and two young guys in t-shirts,jeans and trainers heading up.They looked at us as if we were from another planet and indeed, in full sensible walking gear with waterproofs and rucksacks,looking like drookit rats,so we were. Overall there was more pain than pleasure in this outing but when all was said and done, there was still an adrenalin rush on reaching the summit. To round things off, we just managed to miss the ferry at 1.50 and had to hang around, cold,damp and steaming, waiting for the 3.15 ferry. Not quite the day I had imagined or hoped for. Oh well, maybe next time!