WHW with Caer Urfa Coffee - Post the walk

WHW with Caer Urfa Coffee - Post the walk
Thursday 7th June 2012

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Following completion of The Way, we retired to the Camp Nevis campsite.  Susan had come in earlier in the day and booked a pitch.

The problem we had was the weather.  It was raining when Susan and I set up the tent, we had left Anne and David in Fort William.  The weather very soon became wind and rain, the rain we could cope with, my concern was the wind.  I had used all of our pegs and it looked like it would hold, providing it did not get any worse.

When Susan went back to collect Anne and David I tried to light my stove and put some water on.  Earlier in the week I had had problems lighting the stove and here I was and it started acting up again.  About an hour later I had enough boiling water to make us all a hot drink.  David put on his official WHW T-shirt he had waited since his previous attempt of The Way to wear, along with the official certificate.  Previously we had talked about getting someone in a kilt, policeman or just any local to stand and present it to him, obviously taking a photo, but we did not really get the chance with the rain.   

Not to worry we were soon in the bar having a well deserved meal and drink.   We could see the wind rising and whipping up the trees.  So at any minute we were expecting to see our tent fly past.  Returning to our tent it looked OK and the pegs were still holding.

Early hours on Friday 8th June 2012

The wind started blowing harder, you could hear it hitting the trees just before it hit the sides of the tent.  I got up a couple of times to push back in the pegs and check the sides were tight to the frame.  Then one of the roof bars dropped.  I could not reach to try and tie it back in position.  The frame started to buckle and as the wind gusted the tent was collapsing around our heads, we had no choice but to pull it down.  David had decided to go for a shower earlier so was very surprised to see the tent down and packed.

We packed the car using a couple of surf board ties on the roof for the tent and a couple of other things.  The rest of the kit we packed around us before we set off.  Although it was very early in the morning we were providing some marvellous entertainment for all the people who had been disturbed by the wind and were sitting in their cars.  Anyway we got all our stuff in and headed back to Milngavie.  After a break at Tyndrum for breakfast and we made good time in getting back to Milngavie.

The rest of the journey was uneventful and it did not take us long getting back home.

Where will we go next - you will have to wait and see.

I should finish by saying a big thank you to Susan who transported all the kit and booked us into the campsites along The Way.  Everyone acknowledged without Susan's support we could not have completed the walk.

More to follow

Boz North
(If you want information on The Caer Urfa Coffee Company go to their official website under Caer Urfa Coffee Company)