With the unseasonably warm forecast for Thursday 11th to Friday 12th April I decided to get my camping gear out, dust it off, get of my backside and get out there.
Last year was my first wild camping and I intended using this year to get out of my comfort zone progressively more and more which would (hopefully) culminate in wild camping the West Highland Way.
A friend had told me about Bedford Bridge in Glen Tilt so that became my next target for a one / two nighter (I'd decide at some point that night or Friday morning).
Now ... apparently I've got a tendency to rabbit on a bit so I'll TRY to keep this relatively short

Day one:



I arrived at Blair Atholl train station just before 1pm.
For the life of me I couldn't find the start of the path on the west bank of the River Tilt, I ended up finding it by walking through the caravan site.
I quickly found my way blocked by a closed bridge at around NN 87448 66038. So I had to find my way up to the car park marked as the start on the Walkhighlands description.




I had somehow completely missed the fact that there is a shooting range on the west side of the river but thankfully there were no flags flying.
Poor planning that, I felt like my teachers of old: "must do better."








My plan was to follow the Walkhighlands description for the Glen Tilt circuit as far as Gaw's Bridge.
Then, instead of crossing there to return to Blair Atholl, leave it there and keep heading up the glen.
The track on the west side of the river (between just north of the shooting range and Gaw's bridge) turned into something resembling a hill path but didn't provide any real problems.



The going became easier after Gaw's bridge as the road crossed to the west side.
The surfaces remained excellent for the remainder of the day. Even when the "road" ended just south of Bedford Bridge it was still a well constructed path.

At one point I had my head down and "going for it" only to have something catch my attention ahead of me and ... whoosh, a Eurofighter was over my head and swiftly disappearing into the distance before I knew it. The resulting video has about 5 seconds of it's engine noise before that's drowned out by the water beside me.
Made my already great day even better














Bedford Bridge, as it turns out, was a great place to camp. Especially as I had it all to myself.









Although I did start to wonder whether I was alone when I was laid in my sleeping bag and I thought I heard heavy footfalls on the grass then on the wooden slats of the bridge.
My tired brain tried to process it ... "axe weilding serial killer? A lost supermodel? A sheep? A horse? Oooh, a deer? A ... ZZZzzzzzzz ..."

Day two:



By the early light of dawn my brain appears to have settled on "imagined it" and so, having survived the night, I packed up and headed back the way I'd come.
It was a nice enough morning but had decided that I'd just head back instead of finding a spot for a second night under canvas.
Well, nylon, but canvas sounds cooler





I stopped more often on the way back, I was feeling it more today. Not a good sign for the West Highland Way










This time I crossed over Gaw's Bridge and followed the east side of the river as described in the Walkhighlands Glen Tilt circuit route.



I really struggled near the end so if I'm to wild camp the West Highland Way I'm going to need to try something intermediate, perhaps the Minigaig pass with two Corbetts enroute.
We'll see.