free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
I arrived in Aviemore on Saturday night, just in time for the post-walk curry. Well, I did walk from the train station so it still counts
.
In the Royal Tandoori Monty was in fine form serenading Stretch with an impromptu ‘American Pie’ (very good, Monty, bring your guitar next time
). Dooterbang and Mags were enjoying the holiday atmosphere in deep, deep snow so much they decided to have some ice cream for pudding
.
In the Winking Owl, some of the Walk Highlanders went downstairs for a wee dance, erm a moonwalk
. A bunch of guys on a stag night were outside having a snowball fight...the stag was wearing a dress
.
One of our party was so p*ssed he decided to call it in a night and walk back to the bunkhouse on his own. Turns out he had popped into the 24-hour garage shop en route and managed to treat himself to a Boost chocolate bar, a packet of Doritos, a Cornish pastie, and the latest copy of ‘Take a Break’ magazine!!!
We only found this out next morning, when it was conveyed to us that another forum member - equally p*ssed and sharing a dorm with him – had got it into his head in the middle of the night that the plastic bag full of half-eaten and un-read goodies was actually his, and started arguing over it!!!
Huh, they don’t make real men like they used to
(see last trip report for details of two blokes having a hair-pulling fight in Glencoe last month...I rest my case
)...
http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=10021Talking of real men, Dooterbang, the German porn star walked into the bunkhouse kitchen, turned on the light and interrupted
two girls. Interrupted what exactly we don’t know. There was a copy of the Kama Sutra
on the kitchen bookshelf (there was, honest), but neither of the girls appeared to be wearing night vision glasses. The rest of us trailed in behind him, just in time to hear one of the girls saying to him, ‘Oh, ooh, I’ve seen some of your movies
’. Me too, Dooterbang, your German is very good
.
I was the last person to bed in my dorm. I couldn’t turn the light on at 3am, so there wasn’t much point in trying to find my pyjamas. ‘It’s too cold to sleep in my underwear,’ I thought, so I slept in my jeans. Er, just as well...woke in the morning to find I was sharing a dorm with two women and two blokes!!!
‘What are you doing today?’ One of the women asked me.
‘Oh, I’m going shopping,’ I replied confidently. ‘My mate thinks we’re doing a walk but with the heavy snow, I’m pretty sure that won’t be happening.’
The four of them were doing a half-marathon in Inverness (the two women were Dooterbang’s fans from the night before).
In the kitchen at breakfast everyone was saying their goodbyes and heading home
, except for me and Mountainstar. I walked in as Mountainstar was talking with Malky_C.
‘Oh yes, we are doing Meall of Bhuachaille, aren’t we, Janet?’
‘
’
That
£%&**!!** do-gooder
*%£$!! way, way, way toooooo helpful Malky_C ended up shovelling then pushing Mountainstar’s car out of the snow-packed parking bay to make absolutely sure we got on our way to enjoy (
) our walk (just kidding Malky-C, thanks for your help).
Mountainstar and I only managed to get about half way up Meall of Bhuachaille in thigh-deep snow in the end, but it was brilliant fun trying – lots of crawling, shuffling, sinking, and er, snow-swimming
. Mountainstar will be posting the video at some point, once he gets home from the rest of his Scotland trip
.
- Mountainstar in Ryvoan Bothy
- Mountainstar snow deep
- Mountainstar a few steps further along
Last night we had a couple of drinks in the Cairngorm Hotel and read some of the WH posts via internet access on Mountainstar’s phone, and then we joined the four Inverness half-marathon runners in the Old Bridge Inn. ‘How are your nipples?’ I said to one of the blokes
.
‘Have you been working on your chat up lines, Janet?’ Mountainstar asked
.
‘Huh’.
(The guy had actually borrowed two plasters from me in the morning to put on his pre-run nipples).
It turned out the two party girls weren’t a couple after all, and they did indeed fancy Dooterbang
. Think he missed the boat though
...they were last seen sharing cocktails and phone numbers with the Old Bridge Inn bar man.
Terrific weekend
.