A flooded pitch

"This is one of the best camp spots we've ever had" - me on the Saturday night. Oh how wrong I was... 

After completing the Glas Maol 4 munros, we set off to find a camp spot for the night ahead of doing The Cairwell munros the next day. 

We found a little track turning off the main road that took us down to a lower level on the side of the valley. The track forms an extended D along the main road and has a few spots suitable for campers, plus some areas that work for cars + tents. We found a beautiful flat ground clearing with views of the 4th munro we had climbed earlier in the day, Creag Leacach. 

The wind was fairly strong but no match for our Vango tent* so we pitched up quickly and cracked open a can of Tartan Juice. To be honest the wind was needed to dry the tent - it had been quite rainy the night before and no one likes to sleep in a soggy bed! Once again we had a pitch with no midges which was fab, but it was a wee bit chilly so we got the fire going and I put on my snugglywoof* to stay toasty. 

We had dinner while we watched the sky go pink as the sun set behind the mountains behind us and then it was off to bed for what we had planned to be an early start with the aim of climbing Cairn Aosda for sunrise. 

Sounds blissful so far right? 

At about 10pm the rain started. It got worse and worse, soon becoming a full thunderstorm. Unfortunately Hugo has a bit of anxiety around thunder (brought on by some a**hole setting off fireworks behind our house when he was a puppy) and so he was very unsettled. We were constantly in and out of sleep comforting him and trying to calm him down. 

At about 2am we heard a very faint air hissing sound near our heads. I felt around and found the teeniest little hole in our airbed (likely caused by Hugo scratching to get comfortable during the night). I was shattered and wanted to leave it until the morning, but Stephen wanted us to patch it up so we could top the air back up (being 106kg, if the bed isn't firm he sinks to the floor!). I got out the repair kit, patched up the hole and then Stephen started pumping it up again. Now its at this point that Stephen and I's accounts of what happened next differs... but long story short there was one pump too many and the air bed ripped open. I'm talking a hole big enough to fit your head in. I may have said a few swear words! Stephen went out into the rain to run to the car and grab our roll-mats (always have a back up!!) and by 3am a slightly soggy Stephen and I were ready to go back to sleep. 

4:30am and our sunrise alarm started going off. With the rain still pelting the tent, it didn't take long for both of us to say a firm NOPE and go back to bed! At 7am we woke up again and I turned over to head a sloshing sound. Pressing on the floor of the tent, it felt like we were on a water bed! I stuck my head out of the tent to see that our entire pitch was flooded. Thankfully the inside & floor of our tent was still bone dry - shout out to Vango's 10cm bowl waterproofing!! - so we packed up everything we could and prepared to make a break for dry land. 

I carried the boys to the car and gave them their breakfast in the back seat while Stephen started packing our bags. We pulled up our sleeves and reached into the pool of water to pull up our tent pegs, then dragged it to a bit of high ground to roll it up. 

If it's dry and/or you're in a camper, then this would be an awesome spot to camp. If you're in a tent - CHECK THE FORECAST!!!