A fantastic group assembled over a very tired and asleep group of porridge oats at dawn:- Phil, Mark C., Ian H., Tim, Amanda and the author. These people went to the minibus, with cries of “what do we want, Sarah Kirkpatrick and what do we get, Tim Minshull!” Tim defiantly took command of the wheel of the vehicle. Silence broke out and Fort Augustus approached.
Rain fell everywhere, and the brave adventurers fought through raging torrents falling from the sky and crossed an immense precipice of a lock on the Caledonian Canal with the aid of a lock gate. There was a warm pub and some alcohol and some postcards were rit for three hours without a break for nutrition (with the exception of Mark C. who surepeticieously ate some nutrition). Beinn Chradhbheinn was written to; he had refused to come on this fantastic trip with the bunch of megaheroes. A tape played in the background, with tunes such as “Candle in the wind”, “How many roads must a man walk down”, “All that I need is the air that I breath”, “Ride a white swan” & “Nights in white satin”. Everyone remembered. their youth, searching back into the mists of history to remember the Hollies on Top of the Pops sometime around AD 1970. Again we pondered Life and the transition of Time. Quite a lot of time walked past us, and the whole tape was played twice through. Then we thought it was time to go; as we were close to feeling extremely hungry at 3.00pm. Lunch was eaten in the large white vehicle, Tim found this involved some conflict with controlling our movement along the twisted road to Urquhart Castle. A group clung together in a tangled form and Mark balanced on a rubbish bin to take an incredibly time consuming photograph.
There was a massive entrance fee to. the ancient monument of one pound sterling, this was beyond the financial capabilities or economic preferences of Amanda and Tim. They were excluded. (Accounts suggest that they did some log writing). We crossed the divide or moat. Though prohibited by law from climbing the walls, we had a jolly good time frolicking up and over and across the walls. Andrea collapsed on top of a drystone wall, licentiously lounging in 3 jumpers, a teeshirt, shirt, cagoule, gloves, CUYHA scarf and a red woolly hat. We climbed a tower and aimed to throw offensive material at our assailant (Mark C.).
This castle, by the way, overlooked Loch Ness. This was the place we were visiting that day. We reattained the car park, and entered the Some hitch-hikers were hitch-hiking, these were noticed and debated on by Tim and Amanda. Sarah took the wheel and the hitch-hikers got in (and we asked, if on reflection, they had any misgivings). Reverse proved elusive, the van into the forward mode of action. lan gave some guidance. We exited the car park in an unorthodox manner. We moved at about 30mph and increased speed. The road had many places to pass, but Mark thought these should have been merged together into a continuim. We ditched the hitch-hikers from Queens’ at the end of the drive, they thrust an ice-axe into a seat and destroyed part of our vehicle.
We returned victorious and successful after a fantastic day of frolicking and postcard authorship. On the way we picked up Archie from the highway. Animals was played in the evening.
Andrea.