Thank you for reading my story, I hope that you enjoy it. Love Mica xx, Yorkshire England. You might enjoy previous 'Dales' series stories that will set the scene and relationships, but this story should stand alone.
All comments good or bad welcomed. I will try and reply to each and every one but please note that all anonymous comments will be deleted immediately and will not be read.
I had planned to go on a camping trip with Mik and with John, we had picked the Last Great Wilderness in Scotland. It was on the west of Scotland, and had very few roads, it really was unspoilt countryside. Mik and I would share the driving, John doesn't drive, and it was over a seven hour journey without stops, so basically a full day. The idea was to get an early start, stay in Fort Augustus, and then head west as far as we could, park up and go trekking and camping for a few days, packing a good deal of lighter dried food, I hoped that there would be streams and the like that we could get fresh water from.
Everything was planned and then John had a family emergency and couldn't come with us which was such a shame, I was sure that he would have enjoyed it. However, I chatted with Mik and we decided that we would go ahead on our own, making sure we filled the car with petrol at the first petrol station north of Glasgow, and then topping up at everyone we passed after that, we honestly had no idea how available fuel would be. We had checked and knew that there was at least one petrol station in Fort Augustus, and that would probably be our last chance to fill up.
We planned to drive down some of the tracks towards Auchteware until we could go no further, and then trek for a few days and then trek back. A week away all in all. No point in going for any longer as we wouldn't be able to carry water and food for that length of journey. Obviously with just the two of us we could lose one of the tents, and just use the one, but there would now only be two us as Sherpers.
Mik was okay with it, 'make a change from the cottage and the faeries,' he said with a smile on his face. The drive up the M6 and then onto A roads was long, not too bad and we stopped near Gretna to change drivers and have a comfort break and some food. Eventually we were at Fort Augustus and we booked into our hotel, tired and hungry. We showered, grabbed a steak each in the restaurant, and went back to our rooms and just fell into bed and slept.
Temptations were strong, but our need for sleep overcame our desires. In the morning we dressed, checked out of the hotel and headed towards Auchteware. The roads were deserted once we got onto the single track roads and soon we ran out of driveable roads. There was a reasonable area for parking, surrounded by large boulders to stop people driving further. We parked up, sorted out our back packs and grabbed our Ordinance Survey map and headed off trying to avoid the obvious hikers paths.
There were hills either side of us, and we kept to the valleys, it made the going easier, and also kept us in touching distance of water. There wasn't a path as such, just moss and heather and grasses to walk on. We walked for around four hours before we decided to stop for food. Mik took the filter jug to find water whilst I set up the little stove. After a meal of beans and a drink of tea we cleaned up and headed off again. The going was easy, we didn't really struggle, but in the valley the light began to darken earlier than we expected.
"Mum, look, a cave." Mik was pointing to a black smudge in the hillside, "Let's go and look, then we can sort out our tent."
I followed Mik and we trudged up the hill to the cave, the light failing all the time, and the weather was closing in, the clouds lowering were not helping the light. It took us twenty minutes to reach the cave. I took my backpack off and found my torch. The cave went back quite away, and was at least ten feet tall once you got past the narrow opening.
"Shine the torch on the floor mum," Mik said.
As I shone the torch around I could see that he floor was sandy almost, certainly very fine gravel.
"I can see our footprints mum, but no other footprints nor animal tracks or poop either."
As we looked around the cave we heard the sounds of rain outside, the heavens had opened.
"Mum, we may as well stay in the cave, no point in getting the tent wet whilst we have this dry place. Assuming of course that the cave stays dry, I guess we shall soon find out."
"Okay Mik. At the moment my legs hurt and I need a rest anyway. Let's have a drink and some food and see what the weather does."
I rummaged through my backpack and found some food and the stove. Dried pasta, all we needed was some water. And that was in the valley. I sighed, my fault, I meant to carry some water from the stream when we headed up to the cave, but forgot at the last minute.
"I'll go down and get water mum," Mik said, "I've got my waterproofs I'll be fine, just let me have a torch so I can see where I am going."
I passed him the water container and a torch. He pulled his waterproofs on, we would soon find out if they were as good as the man in the Hiking shop had said they were, and then he was gone and I was left in pitch darkness. I could see the lighter darkness of the cave entrance, but precious little else. I sat at the entrance, just out of reach of the rain and watched the little blob of light as it made its way down the hill to the stream.
I had another torch in the backpack, but without water I couldn't really do much, so there was no point in wasting the battery. I just sat and watched the torch light go down to the valley then slowly return. The torch was really bright when Mik got back. He handed me the water and then the torch as he stripped his waterproofs off. I lit the stove, poured water into the kettle and brought it to the boil.
"There is a bit of an overhang just outside mum. I know I need a wee, I am going to nip out and I shouldn't get too wet, but I need a wee and I don't want to do it in the cave, not if we are going to stay in here."
"Okay, I will need to go too."
The water came to the boil and I made up two pasta meals, they would need five minutes to absorb the water and become edible, and then put the kettle back on ready for some tea. Dried milk in tea is not the best, but it was all we had. Liquid milk was just too heavy to backpack with.
Mik came back after a few minutes. "It's fine mum, although you women can't exactly aim, so if I were you I would strip off and just nip out and then come back and get dressed and warm. You should be able to avoid most of the rain, but we don't have any way to dry our clothes, so the fewer we get wet, the better."
I know he had a point, and I knew I would have to strip at some point, but it wasn't exactly going to be like peeing in the warm shower at home, that rain was cold. I stripped to my bra and knickers and crept outside, hugging the wall as much as possible to stay within the shelter of the over hang. I pushed my knickers down, crouched with my back to the rain and peed, oh the relief.
Adjusting my knickers I went back into the cave and pulled my clothes back on, it was too cold to go without clothes, not far above zero I guessed, no matter how much my son would probably like it. We sat and ate our pasta, now that it had reconstituted and fluffed up. In honesty, it wasn't too bad. I think the key is not to buy the really cheap packets. I suspect that you get what you pay for.
The rain was really coming down outside and I was quite glad that Mik spotted this cave. I do enjoy camping, but camping in the rain can get a bit demoralising if you have to keep breaking camp and packing up wet tents.
"Let's sit in our sleeping bag and watch the rain," Mik said.
"We won't see much," I said, "but okay."
"It is so dark here mum that you will be surprised how much our eyes will pick up as they adjust, plus our ears will help add to the picture."
We unrolled our sleeping bags and zipped them together and used out backpacks as a back rest. I stripped to knickers, Mik I assumed underpants, it was a bit too hard to see. We settled into our sleeping bag and looked at the outside world. It was dark grey and undefined, not pitch black like the inside of the cave. It would have been soporific listening to the rain on the tent, but it was still relaxing sat in the cave listening to the rain outside.
"I think it is sleeting" Mik said.
"Crumbs, I didn't think snow was expected for a few more months."
