When I picked the last weekend in October to complete my round of the Munros, I should probably have forecast that the weather might be a little "autumnal". In fact it was absolutely vile, and even the supposedly easy cycle in to Culra bothy wasn't. Nevertheless, despite my insistence that they really didn't have to follow me up the hill if they didn't want to, a motley collection braved horizontal and incessant rain to toast my last summit - the mighty Carn Dearg. The hip-flasks on the summit were much appreciated, but more so was the quick descent to the bothy and its welcoming fire.
We might have been a little at odds with the bothy code, which discourages groups, but Culra is in fact 3 bothys, or 3 seperate rooms in any case, so the 14 of us were able to co-exist with the other 4 hardy walkers in residence. In fact I think they were delighted by the amount of whisky and fuel for the fire that we'd brought in!
I'm feeling quietly pleased with myself now; Munro completion isnt the hardest, most physical or most risky of mountain adventures, but it does require a lot of dedication over a long time - 32 years to be precise! It's taken me into some of the wildest and remotest corners of the Scottish Highlands, which I might never have visited otherwise. But perhaps most of all, it's given me the pleasure of some fine company from my fellow hillgoers, a good number of whom braved the gusts and shared the craic on the 29th. Slainte to you all.
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