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Having walked more than 200 of my munros to date with Neil I was to have a different walking companion for number 220. My lovely wife Nicola would be taking her munro total to 1 and putting aside her ambivalence towards the hills to celebrate with me a special event 28 years previous. For on Saturday the 20th of May 1989 Liverpool beat Everton in the FA cup final - oh yes and we also got married
Having driven up from north Wales on Friday and staying in a nice B&b in Aberfeldy (I thought that suggesting a wild camp might have been pushing it) we arrived at an empty car park at Brae of Foss at 9am.
We set off in light rain and good spirits - after the walk we would be heading to Glasgow to spend the night and have a celebratory meal.
As a relatively novice hill walker (although we did Snowdon together a fortnight ago) Nic was setting the pace. I was happy with this as I was suffering with a dose of man flu - not that anyone would have known this of course as we guys tend to suffer in silence and not look for pity
As we approached the end of the well made path we headed into the mist and the wind strengthened raising the chill factor. The rain was verging on sleet and I felt a bit guilty for dragging Nic up a hill in such miserable conditions, but she kept smiling (mostly).
I guess the boulder fields on the approach to the summit would be awkward for anyone who isn't used to such terrain and slowing down to pick your way through allows the cold to seep in -
especially if you make a schoolboy error and head up the hill without any gloves
Furthermore I was suffering alternate hot flushes and chills as a result of my man flu, but of course I wouldn't mention that
At the summit we paused long enough for a selfie before heading down.
![Celebrating Anniversay on Schiehallion.jpg]()
- Celebrating our wedding anniversary
After about 20 minutes we saw the first other walkers of the day, and indeed a first on any hill as I remember - someone carrying an umbrella!
As we continued down we passed quote a few others heading up - as is often the case some did not look prepared for hillwalking in any weather let alone in poor weather (am I being a bit too much of a grumpy old man to suggest that hillwalking in jeans should be a criminal offence ).
We arrived back at the car at 12.30 wet through, but pleased to have completed our first munro together, it's too soon to establish if there will be another
