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Finally, we headed up our 284th and last hill of our munro round. Beinn na Lap. A fairly benign hill, only visited because of it's munro status and the fact it's near Corrour Railway Station. It's got fairly steady slopes and offers some impressive views, but for us, we were going there to become Munro Compleators. Sad, but that's the fact!
We parked up the old Camel on the friday morning at the Pine Trees campsite in Tyndrum. A nice place which looked like it'd just been refurbished and with good showers and toilets. A bit steep at £18.50, but I suppose you only do this once, and we wanted to leave our cache safe for the returning celebrations.
Here's the Camel hiding behind a bush in the area with the 8x6 sheds, sorry I mean 'wigwams'.
It was already getting on as we tucked into a wee rum to get us in the mood.
We packed up a selection of refreshments into the rucksacks. I carried a bottle of Moet Chandon and a pair of Becks, and WJ was left with 8 tins of Becks. Surely this would last until the return to Corrour?
In lovely conditions, it was up the hill to Upper Tyndrum Station for the train. On the platform, we got chatting to a German bloke who apart from never having heard of a 'Munro', he'd never been to Bremen, birthplace of Becks!!!! Wow!!!!! We refrianed from mentioning the war and caught the train.
There were a few walkers on the train, and the ones which weren't going to FW departed at Corrour. We met a couple of lassies from Edinburgh who were fascinated with the prospect of compleating the Munros, but despite much cajouling and beer bribery, they were going to the YH and not up the hill. They walked with us to the foot of the hill and then we left to grunt up the slopes.
Looking down the grassy slopes to Loch Ossian, the YH hiding in the woods.
After many stops for refreshments, we finally reached the summit of our last Munro. WJ done an 'AE Robertson', and I was just chuffed we had done this thing.
The views were stunning and all around we could pick out many of the high tops we'd ventured up together.
Heading back down to Corrour, looking back to Loch Ossian.
Corrour Station as we headed out.
We'd consumed all the beer by now, so in the waiting room on the platform, it was out with the Moet Chandon. Hell! We only had three hours to kill 'til the next train! I'm telling you, champagne from a Nalgene bottle, in a waiting room on a station platform in the middle of nowhere is not just braw, its 'Fair Braw'!!!
After the champagne and to our utter delight, we wandered into the station house to be welcomed by a bar selling Real Ale on draught!!! Sacre Bleu!!!! Another couple of hours in there, then we poured onto the train.
Another cracking journey, and another German. This time, this bloke had been touring Scotland when he cam of his bike just outside Mallaig and wrote it off. He was continuing his trip by rail. We had some great gibbering, then we arrived back in Tyndrum.
We arrived back in the Pine Trees, got washed and showered up then thought about some refreshment. As we poured a wee celebratory, we marveled at how well the campervan kept the midges out when suddenly through the cloud of insects, we spotted two Germans footering about with their tent.
We invited them in and offered them a wee drink. "Yez, Vi nut?" They celebrated with us right into the early hours. The bloke seemed to enjoy thumb lengths of whisky and the young lady got a right good taste for that Sailor Jerry Rum. At the end, they were wasted, and we never even got a chance to mention the war!!
So, it was a great day. A bit sad in a way, and strangely relieving in another. But at the end of the day, the objective was to complete a round of the munros and that is what we done.
Hope you enjoyed that bit.
A short history.
We went up our first munro by accident on 14th June 2004. I say 'by accident' as at that time, we were only interested in bothies and it was on a walk back from Callater Stables to Glas Allt Shiel, and then up and over into Glen Doll, that we took the high route over Lochnagar. We wondered what the crowd was at the cairn, not realising one day that we'd be joining those folk.
We didn't do that many munros in the first year or two as we were far more interested in Long Distance Walks. From 2004, we done the Great Glen Way, The Speyside Way, St Cuthberts Way, and The Southern Upland Way. We done munros in between, but then in the last two years we really went for it and were out most weekends. 80 odd munros a year was the norm and we focussed on compleation from around the 150 mark. It was a long hard way to do things, and for a long time went out in any sorts of weather, including through the winter.
To keep us 'synced' meant trips up together on hills we'd done alone so many were grunted up twice or more. For WJ, that meant much of the Lawers, Ben More and SB, and for me, I went up Mount Keen again (my local munro) and Ben Hope.
We were lucky as hell. We had cracking weather for most of the classics like the Aonach Eagach and much of Torridon. The Cairngorms were like the Bahamas when we done them, spending almost all summer in this, our favourite area in Scotland. We had the best weather you could ask for on Skye, misty on the Inn Pinn and Mic Choinnich, and lovely and clear on the others! There were of course, many miserable days on gloomy hills in **** rain.
Winter was interesting, our trip to Skye on hogmanay being a particularly hairy experience. Ben More and Stob Binnien were done in thigh deep snow in a blizzard, and we were caught in our first white out on Chno Dearg.
Good fun, hard work, enjoyable, and miserable too. It had everything, but I won't be doing another round of Munros and I have vowed never to follow another list of hills again in my life. I'd go back up the quality Munros which in my opinion count into the teens, but there are many which will never see me again. Some are bland, featureless, boggy, have no views.
I suppose you could say this is where Scottish hillwalking really starts.
And for those interested in our round of the Munros.....StatisticsThe Dreaded Drink
We discussed this at length and we reckon to do a round of the munros, we've consumed:
2400 lts of Becks Beir (conservative estimate)
275 ml of Alcohol-Free Becks
12 bottles of Whisky
6 bottles of Wine
300 pints of Real Ale
150 pints of Cider
1 half bottle of Buckfast
1/2 tin of Tennents Lager (shared)
FoodDespite purchasing lorry loads of soup, pasta, and noodles, we seem to have survived on:
600 bags of Haribo Jelly sweeties
200 Snickers
200 Dairy Milk
100 packs of McVities Cheddars
1/2 Energy Gel (shared)
Most Useful KitWithout a doubt, the trusty and most reliable, comfortable, functional, homely, mothering, dream girlfriend, The Camel:
A bottle opener on a retracting elastic tied to the inside of the Camel so you can't lose it.
Bridgedale Socks.
Helly Hansen Prowool.
Dachsteinn Mitts.
Membership of the Caravan Club.
Least Useful i.e. waste of timeA compass.
A First Aid Kit.
An Emergency Bivy
A Tent.
A Scottish Hills Hat.
Membership of the MBA.
RoadkillWe hit a 'big' Red Deer just outside Ullapool. I think it was killed, but it was doubly killed by a truck going in the opposite direction.
We flattened a Badger on the way to Gairich. That really bothered us and we were going to abandon the trip, but decided to continue. It wasn't this one, but I spotted one in a car boot sale which now travels with us as a memorial.
And Finally...Photos that say it all...
