So here I am doing it?! I bought the campervan, took a year off work, headed to Scotland.
I thought I’d start this blog mostly to keep a record for Future Me of this year, and for friends/family/anyone else interested to see what I get up to. For anyone who doesn’t know – I’m spending a year in Scotland, living in my VW Campervan and hoping to tackle plenty of Munros (Scottish mountains over 3000ft high). I’ll probably post updates about my mountain climbing, life in the van and hiccups I’m sure I’ll have along the way.
First, I’d like to introduce you to my van. I call her Cali, or Godzilla (named after the reg and her carniverous-looking wheels).
I was lucky to get myself a VW T6.1 California Ocean – second hand but only about a year old and 2000 miles on the clock.
She’s got a bed in the pop-up roof (sort of small-double bed sized), and a downstairs bed which I can use when I want to camp more discreetly, or when its blowing a hoolie. She’s got a two-burner gas hob, a 30L water tank (and 30L waste-water tank), a heater to keep me warm, a fridge to keep my beer cold, and lots of smart storage.
I haven’t needed to make any serious modifications. I’ve added an insulating liner to the bellows of the pop-up roof, which involved a lot of velcro. I also added some hooks and a tiny towel rail which involved drilling into the van – real heart-in mouth moment (and a test of father-daughter trust). I *think* we managed to get the towel rail straight…
My first munro (of 2021)
Scotland gave me a foggy welcome, so I started off by choosing a hill with a well-defined path that would hopefully prevent me getting lost in the mist on day 1. Ben Vorlich (the one by Loch Lomond – there’s another at Loch Earn) is only 943 metres high – but steep going. I had my doubts about the thickness of the fog which seemed to both move and hang about at the same time. It brought back memories of me and my sister being hastily ushered off Dumyat by my Mum and Dad when we were kids, because fog had started rolling up the hill from the valley, and the many times my Dad has told me how easy it is to get lost in fog even on familiar routes. Fortunately I met a few other people on the hill who were at least as mad as me to go up in the coming-and-going visibility, so I pressed on (sorry, Dad).
The mist opened up in a few spots for some views back to Loch Lomond, and the top greeted me with a blank canvas backdrop. I’ll remember to place my order for the view in advance next time.
My first night wild camping:
I’m writing this as I’m settling down for my first night of wild camping – near the bottom of tomorrow’s hill. It’s a little unsettling just parking up and pulling the blinds down, and I keep needing to remind myself that its ok for me to be here. It feels so strange, but very exciting. I think also as a women I’ve learned / been taught to be fearful of being out alone at night. Though out here I might be less scared of ill-meaning people, and more or things that go bump in the night… Will I survive to write a second blog post? Let’s find out!
Only Young Twice 