New Year Bothy Trip.

29th December 2012.

Well,it wasn`t really New Year but close enough.Over the years our New Year bothy trips have dwindled in numbers and length and due to one reason or another nobody was available at all this year.Gavin,Bob and I decided to get out somewhere for an overnighter on December 29th to a bothy that we hadn`t visited before and which must remain anonymous,so,if anyone posts a comment giving away the location it will be deleted 🙂

We set out in the late afternoon sunshine with packs full of goodies as Gavin in particular likes to dine in style when in a bothy.Never having been here before our first view of the evenings accomodation was a bit of a letdown 🙂

Carrying on from here we left the land rover track and followed a small trail through some scrub and eventually sighted the bothy in the distance with a welcolming wisp of smoke rising from the chimney.A very well looked after bothy it was indeed and inside were the three folk mainly responsible for the upkeep.In fact I think one of them could be almost classified as living there 🙂 Introductions over Gavin proceeded to get serious with his selection of goodies.As in previous years this consisted mainly of 1kg of Stilton cheese and an expensive bottle of malt whisky.He knows fine well that the rest of us can`t stand Stilton or whisky 🙂

A group photo taken by David and if you look closely at Gavins eyes you can detect the effect of either 1kg of cheese or a bottle of malt or indeed a combination of both 🙂

Not long afterwards Gavin “decided to have an early night ” as they say 🙂 The rest of us stayed up to the early hours chatting away about bothies, mutual friends and stepping over Gavin every time we went out for more firewood until,goodies all finished,we went to bed as well.The beds all being occupied Bob and I joined Gavin on the floor,Bob getting the safe sheltered spot under the table and myself on an ingenious drop down platform.

We hadn`t bothered looking at a weather forecast the day before but weren`t expecting a large dump of snow and high winds.A guy and his wife had spent a night here a few days previously and arrived outside on quad bikes with a load of logs for the fire to replace what they had used 🙂

We made them a cup of tea and blethered away for an hour hoping for the weather to abate ,at least the wind anyway. Harbouring dark thoughts of the car being snowed in up the little side road we had parked in we eventually  got the boots on and ventured outside.As usual when things look awful from the comfort of a bothy it wasn`t too bad outside,on fact it was quite enjoyable 🙂

A last look back at the bothy…

On the way back out….

Our fears about the car were unfounded and after a chat with the local farmer we were soon on our way back home 🙂