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I have been keen to get out on my own for a while and my chance finally came on Saturday 1st October. I chose my hill carefully ensuring it was one where you couldn't really go wrong as the weather reports indicated wet and dreary (not that I was going to let that put me off though!) Even though Ben Lomond is traditionally a busy hill I was banking on the weather putting a lot of 'tourists' off. As it happens I only came across one group so was thankful for that.
After a shaky start that had me adding an hour and a half to the car journey there (thanks for the directions dad!) I got to the car park at 11.15am and set of straight away. Unsurprisingly there were no views for me to begin with but I had expected that. About 45 minutes in I came across a walking group - and I did have a little chuckle when I spotted the numbers on the back of everyone's boots. There must have been about 20 of them I think and I was keen to get past them and back on my own although this did take me a little while as I am not a fast walker.
For some reason known only to the god of 'lesson's learned' I had not brought my walking poles and I had not brought enough water. Usually I take 4 bottles but don't drink more than one - but then usually I also have the kids with me and we go at a slower pace. I also had not brought a map (please don't hate me just yet!) stupidly thinking I had a written guide which would do and I only use my maps to tell me where to go - I forgot I use them often to place myself on the hill and let me know how far I have gone/how far to go. Because of this I am ashamed to say I did actually ask a passing walker who was on his way down how much further it was - the shame I know. He told me he had left the summit about 40 minutes ago and his eyes told me he thought I was never going to make it!
I soldiered on in the rain now discovering that not only was my waterproof coat not waterproof but neither were my waterproof trousers or boots. Still, I got to the summit just over 2 hours after leaving the car and was mighty proud of myself. As predicted I couldn't see anything but the mission for that day was to do a solo walk. Typically abut 20 minutes after leaving the summit the mist cleared and I did have a nice view of the Loch to walk down to. It was surprisingly not very slippy coming down - I had feared I may fall on the water beaten rocks but I was fine and didn't slip once.
I was back at the car just after 3pm and was impressed that I had remembered to bring spare trousers with me - however not so impressed I hadn't thought to bring a spare top. I then managed to lock myself in the back of the car that had the child locks on the door and had to climb through to the front giving the guy in the car next to me a view he hadn't bargained on!
So basically what I learned from my first solo walk was -
- Always take a map regardless of how good you think the written directions are
- Take your walking poles, I bought them for a reason!
- Always take more water than what you think you will need
- Take a full set of spare clothes, no one wants to see you drive home in your underwear (which was also wet)
- But most importantly - I CAN do it myself