Day 4

 After a very restful night in a small tent with a large dog and several million midges dawn broke along the bay

 and as the first rays of light appeared over the biggest mountain on the block
 I spied visitors.

 Now if they had happened upon our bay hoping for a quiet morning they were in for a shock as we were just about to launch the life boats and race back to base which we did and this was inevitably followed by a very noisy water fight.

 The visitors, Donald and Douglas, appeared in full highland dress and rowed over for a parley and cuppa, we even extended the hospitality to a chocolate hob nob. Them being real highlander types were disappointed at the lack of porridge and whiskey, so they left but played the bagpipes in salute as the slipped anchor.

 The midges were woken up by this unruly racket and despite full protective clothing and gallons of repellent they still pressed home their attacks making life difficult for all bipeds.

 Boats safely stowed we got on with preparation for the expedition which entailed fitting all this kit

 which is all essential and weighing in at around 80 pound

 into one back pack with two massive extending pouches on the side. The blue bag contains tent and spare tent, the yellow bag has got all that's needed for a day's expedition so that when we get to wilderness base camp I can dump all my gear and strap on the yellow bag and set off. The centre pack has all the rest, sleeping bag, sleeping ,mat, spare clothes, first aid kit, spare torch, emergency gear, dog food, custard, fizzy pop, 5 litres of water (too lazy to go looking for it once there) kitchen sink and so on.

 The sun set on another day and we retired hoping the weather would hold long enough for us to get up the mountain and savour the views.

Red sky at night and all that. But unlike the shepherd we know rain is set to arrive at 4pm precisely.