Camping Trip No.1
When - 15th and 16 May 2004
Where - Braes, Isle of Skye, Scotland
Who - Andy Smith, John Siwek and James Smith
Account by John Siwek
On the 15th - 16th of May Andy, James and Me (John) planned a camping trip. It took a few weeks to get everything planned, who was to take what, where we were going to go and when we were going to go. Most importantly and difficultly we had to persuade our parents to let us go, being 13 at the time. But finally we had everything arranged.
We met at the Co-op on Saturday morning at around 12:00. My parents picked us up and drove us back to my house. We had lunch and made final checks then set off around 2 o’clock. It was very tiring as all of us had taken way too much. Along with that we shared the carrying of James three-man tent which is in no way lightweight. The journey that would normally take around 40 minutes took almost 2 hours. We can blame that on the fact we were pausing every 100 metres or so.
Arriving at the campsite, an old fallen down wall circle or it might have been a house at one point but what ever it was, there was enough room in it for the tent. A small tributary burn of the River Varragill called Lòn na h-Airigh tickled past the spot. James’ three-man tent is not the easiest of tents to put up. It has annoying collapsible poles that had a habit of collapsing when you are trying to put them through the slots. Andy and I were mainly just prating around and not really helping with the tent. This got James really quite irritated with us. Although as far as I saw it he was taking it much too seriously, but understandably the tent was a lot of hassle.
Once it was up we decided where we were going to sleep and set out the sleeping mats and bags. Next we ate a dry, cold dinner of bread, chocolate, energy bars and the like. I was not allowed to take the gas stove for some reason I have forgotten.
For evening entertainment we went for a walk. A mile or so away was a forest then the main road and beside that was the river and on the other side another forest. First we walked though the first forest following a track that Andy and I had made on a previous walk weeks before. When we reached the river Andy and I managed to find a place to cross but James was unable to cross for some reason, either he was scared of the water or he didn’t want to get a little wet. Either way we walked along the river while James was on the other side. We shouted over to him to help him across. But still he didn’t get across. Then I remember about the stone bridge a few hundred metres up river. By the time we all got their, my voice had become very hoarse with calling to James and I had started to sound a bit like Louis Armstrong (a difficult feat).
We decided to walk up into the other forest. I can’t remember if it was decided or if I said that’s what we would do. Walking halfway up the path I had the great idea of walking through the forest. This is something that is definitely not best of ideas but something that would be repeated many times on other camping trips. Andy and James had a lot of trouble walking in between trees, getting stabbed by rouge twigs and stuff. I on the other hand merely dodged and ducked between them. After we escaped the woods we found Andy had been stabbed in the eye and was not best pleased. So we walked back to the bridge.
The bridge itself was being worked on and their was still the scaffolding and boards under it. We thought it might be quite interesting down there. Walking down along it was not as scary as I had first thought, in fact the builders had made it quite safe. There was a nice little network of levels and ladders. Making sure nobody was there we came up from there back to the road.
We walked along the road close to where we had come from. But when it was my turn to climb over the fence as I was lifting up my leg it suddenly went into the wrong position and it seized up or something. Now that is very painful but is worse when you have the threat of barbed wire under a delicate part of anatomy and nowhere to fall but bog. So I just stayed in the same place until it died down. Andy and James however just laughed a bit until I explained. Along the way we started to muck around a bit and I tried the kind of leap that you start on the ground and jump straight to your feet. When I tried this my leg did the same thing. More excruciating pain enough to make my eyes water. James still laughed and said to Andy, “Let’s go” and just walked off leaving me. Andy walked a little way and then came back and helped me up but my leg did it again. So I just lay down to let to came down enough to let me walk. James finally came back and we set off again back to camp.
It was almost dark by the time we reached it. We then got ready for bed. James was still annoying me a bit, although for the rest of the evening Andy and I listened to the Eurovision song contest. Turkey won.
I seem to remember going to sleep with everyone in a row but when I woke up Andy was stretched along the side, I was lying diagonally across the tent and James was in a small ball in the corner. We rose and had another dry, cold breakfast and phoned our parents to say we had survived the night and not been eaten by wolves, bears, sheep or grouse. I was still in a mood with James and walked off as he single handily took down the tent.
We got everything together around ten-eleven-ish and set off again. We weren’t that tired waking up at nine-ish. It was a relatively good camping trip. Not bad weather, not bad campsite and not too midge. We arrived back at home at around lunch time. All in all not a bad two days.
Where - Braes, Isle of Skye, Scotland
Who - Andy Smith, John Siwek and James Smith
Account by John Siwek
On the 15th - 16th of May Andy, James and Me (John) planned a camping trip. It took a few weeks to get everything planned, who was to take what, where we were going to go and when we were going to go. Most importantly and difficultly we had to persuade our parents to let us go, being 13 at the time. But finally we had everything arranged.
We met at the Co-op on Saturday morning at around 12:00. My parents picked us up and drove us back to my house. We had lunch and made final checks then set off around 2 o’clock. It was very tiring as all of us had taken way too much. Along with that we shared the carrying of James three-man tent which is in no way lightweight. The journey that would normally take around 40 minutes took almost 2 hours. We can blame that on the fact we were pausing every 100 metres or so.
Arriving at the campsite, an old fallen down wall circle or it might have been a house at one point but what ever it was, there was enough room in it for the tent. A small tributary burn of the River Varragill called Lòn na h-Airigh tickled past the spot. James’ three-man tent is not the easiest of tents to put up. It has annoying collapsible poles that had a habit of collapsing when you are trying to put them through the slots. Andy and I were mainly just prating around and not really helping with the tent. This got James really quite irritated with us. Although as far as I saw it he was taking it much too seriously, but understandably the tent was a lot of hassle.
Once it was up we decided where we were going to sleep and set out the sleeping mats and bags. Next we ate a dry, cold dinner of bread, chocolate, energy bars and the like. I was not allowed to take the gas stove for some reason I have forgotten.
For evening entertainment we went for a walk. A mile or so away was a forest then the main road and beside that was the river and on the other side another forest. First we walked though the first forest following a track that Andy and I had made on a previous walk weeks before. When we reached the river Andy and I managed to find a place to cross but James was unable to cross for some reason, either he was scared of the water or he didn’t want to get a little wet. Either way we walked along the river while James was on the other side. We shouted over to him to help him across. But still he didn’t get across. Then I remember about the stone bridge a few hundred metres up river. By the time we all got their, my voice had become very hoarse with calling to James and I had started to sound a bit like Louis Armstrong (a difficult feat).
We decided to walk up into the other forest. I can’t remember if it was decided or if I said that’s what we would do. Walking halfway up the path I had the great idea of walking through the forest. This is something that is definitely not best of ideas but something that would be repeated many times on other camping trips. Andy and James had a lot of trouble walking in between trees, getting stabbed by rouge twigs and stuff. I on the other hand merely dodged and ducked between them. After we escaped the woods we found Andy had been stabbed in the eye and was not best pleased. So we walked back to the bridge.
The bridge itself was being worked on and their was still the scaffolding and boards under it. We thought it might be quite interesting down there. Walking down along it was not as scary as I had first thought, in fact the builders had made it quite safe. There was a nice little network of levels and ladders. Making sure nobody was there we came up from there back to the road.
We walked along the road close to where we had come from. But when it was my turn to climb over the fence as I was lifting up my leg it suddenly went into the wrong position and it seized up or something. Now that is very painful but is worse when you have the threat of barbed wire under a delicate part of anatomy and nowhere to fall but bog. So I just stayed in the same place until it died down. Andy and James however just laughed a bit until I explained. Along the way we started to muck around a bit and I tried the kind of leap that you start on the ground and jump straight to your feet. When I tried this my leg did the same thing. More excruciating pain enough to make my eyes water. James still laughed and said to Andy, “Let’s go” and just walked off leaving me. Andy walked a little way and then came back and helped me up but my leg did it again. So I just lay down to let to came down enough to let me walk. James finally came back and we set off again back to camp.
It was almost dark by the time we reached it. We then got ready for bed. James was still annoying me a bit, although for the rest of the evening Andy and I listened to the Eurovision song contest. Turkey won.
I seem to remember going to sleep with everyone in a row but when I woke up Andy was stretched along the side, I was lying diagonally across the tent and James was in a small ball in the corner. We rose and had another dry, cold breakfast and phoned our parents to say we had survived the night and not been eaten by wolves, bears, sheep or grouse. I was still in a mood with James and walked off as he single handily took down the tent.
We got everything together around ten-eleven-ish and set off again. We weren’t that tired waking up at nine-ish. It was a relatively good camping trip. Not bad weather, not bad campsite and not too midge. We arrived back at home at around lunch time. All in all not a bad two days.