Meet Report

1st to 3rd June 2002 - Gairloch (Jubilee Weekend)

Despite an unpromising forecast a large number of us descended on the Sands Holiday Park at Gairloch to celebrate the Jubilee weekend. I counted 29 people and 20 tents but no flags or bunting. Older and wiser members have told me that this is not a record but I was still impressed.

Clearly a multi activity weekend was planned with bikes and barbecues. Not for the first time the intricacies of bike racks nearly resulted in disaster. Alistair put his bike rack on upside down with 2 bikes attached. He made it to Crianlarich where Stephanie spotted the crucial error.

Inverewe gardens was a popular choice for the early arrivals on Friday. Saturday was much more promising. Richard took the chance to bag his penultimate Corbett on a day raiding trip to Beinn Lair. He seemed disappointed that it had only taken 9 hours. Not long enough for Gillian either who bagged another Corbett on the way back. The Baosbheinn group seemed to suffer from some localised hurricane force winds, with Alan R resorting to a crawl to get to the summit.

It wasn't exactly warm in the evening at the campsite but at least the wind was keeping the midges away. I noticed some smug smiles on the faces of the people who had brought duvet jackets.

Sunday saw a very leisurely start. The club's English contingent found a pub in Gairloch to watch England v Argentina in the morning. The long June evenings enabled some hills to be done afterwards - Ben Alligin, Ben Damph, Slioch, Beinn Eighe, Baosbheinn, Ben Airigh Charr, Sail Mhor and some climbing "reccies" - the rock was still too greasy.

Arriving back at the campsite we saw a gigantic bus parked outside the shower block. A party of German school children had arrived and made camp just beside us. Those of us who had camped towards the middle of the spot gradually became encircled. Fortunately, everything was quiet in the German camp and there were no international incidents.

On Monday morning it was pouring with rain. Most people made a quick escape. Alistair managed to have a breakfast barbecue with the help of his umbrella. In the end only 9 people were left but the early birds definitely didn't get the worms. By midday the skies were clearing quickly and it turned into a glorious afternoon and an even more glorious evening. Alan R set off for a quick bag of Sail Mhor but was tempted onto one of the subsidiary tops of An Teallach. He would have gone further but had to turn back - expecting a short day, he hadn't taken any food.

At last a nice sunny evening to sit outside and drink wine and beer while watching a chinese cookery demonstration by Jon and Jo.

Tuesday was the start of a mini heatwave in the Northwest ...