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Driving down Saturday morning to my first Walkhighland Meet, I was exciting to finally meet some of the people I have only known from online conversations.I did not really had any expectations, but imagined an excited bunch of ready to go hillwalkers, on my arrival after 9am on Saturday morning.
Reality was slightly different...
Driving down to the bunkhouse, I got out of mu car and was greeted by a lady in her nightdress
who waved wildly and invited me in the hut. Not knowing who she was at the time, I was confused
...surely she was not one of them? Inside it looked like a Anonymous Alcoholic meeting which went pretty wrong the night before.
A great collection of half finished whisky bottles and numerous other alcoholic beverages littered the table. Another lady did the dishes and asked me..'Coffee?' The remaining bunch sat around a table, holding cups of coffee, struggling to eat breakfast (20 min to eat a bowl of cereal is amazing) . After telling everyone my name, I was greeted warmly and some remarked that they remember me from my photo (not sure if it is a good or bad thing:-) I was invited to sit down and while my brain tried to erase the bunch of ready to go hillwalkers,
the door burst open and another confused member looking for his trousers, shoes, keys and various other object stumbled in. My question how he had lost it was answered with...Dont know...must have been somewhere from the pub to the bunkhouse???
I had to dwell a while how someone might have lost his trousers, in November, on a 1 mile walk from the pub...My thoughts were again interrupted when the door to one of the rooms opened again and a human like creature (seen dead people looking more alive) came out, grunting a morning and after visiting the facilities, went straight back to bed, exposing a room of more sleeping creatures
My question how last night was, by my observations a great success, was answered in a conversation of....Great, but X sat on my face, while Y would not leave the bunkhouse, and Z tried to sleep in my bed and woudl not leave. Some female members looked a bit murderous and talked about other members who robbed them off their sleep. But everything was answered by a laugh and comments that it was a night many wont forget.
Incredibly 45min after my arrival, 10 members were ready to climb up Buachaille Etive Beg. I left with the first lot in two cars and having introduced to around 20 people within the first minutes of arrival, I was struggling to remember names, let alone matching them to their online personas. So excuse me, if I will only use a few names in the walk report...although I left some out to spare them of embarassment...we know who you are anyway
Arriving at the car park shortly after setting off the whole of Glencoe was covered in freshly fallen snow and looked lovely. We set off up the hill and within the first 5 minutes the 4 youngest members of my group were discussing already, when it would be time to go back to the pub, During the first hour everyone suffered, but as walking is one of the best (even though most painful) hangover cure known to man (and women) everyone recovered pretty quickly and we made a good time up the hill. We were soon joined by Val, Bod and Ritchy the dog and my group decided to greet them by throwing around 30 snowballs towards their direction (not that anyone managed to hit them in their stage of recovery, but Richy was delighted and started chasing the snowballs.
The snow soon started to thicken and it was a lot more any of us had expected, but the views across the hills were incredible and within 6 hours we completed the round of the 2 hills...not bad considering the state of hangover most of the group was in.
We were all back at the bunkhouse at 4pm and I went back to the campsite to put up my tent ( probably the best idea to get a good night sleep) I met the others around an hour later back in the bunkhouse and all resolutions of ' I will never drink again' were forgotten. Words of sorry were also uttered when many were reminded by the epics of the previous night. The second night was I guess in comparison pretty calm. Mountainstar who was hit my a huge bolder while attempting his climb up the curved ridge, looked pretty bad, but that did not stopped him to join the fun the same night he was hit. Monty was collecting a group of new girlfriends and wives and at the end of the night had everyone singing around the table when he sang his famous songs.
Thank you for everyone who made the day and night such a memorable time and for Nathan who organized everything!
And here are the photos...
![DSC03887.JPG]()
- The start was hard
![DSC03889.JPG]()
- Dramatic views
