A few weeks ago, Carole announced that she was going to join a few friends for a weekend of yoga and pampering. That meant that I could plan some time to do things that I would enjoy but she would not. After a little thought, I decided a naturist drive and cache and camping trip would be fun and that with a little planning I ought to be able to complete my English and Scottish mainland counties challenge, by finding at least one cache in each county I had not yet logged a find in. There was also the UK Jasmer challenge (finding at least one cache that was originally hidden in each month since caching began (not all months are possible in the UK, there were no caches hidden before December 2000 and there is no existing UK cache from March 2001). To keep costs reasonable I decided to camp in the car, a two ring gas cooker, a few pans, a jerry can of water and a sleeping bag is really all I needed and I already had most of that.
Day 1; Thursday.I set out on Thursday morning, after a three hour naked walk with Hazel. I had decided to leave Hazel at home as it would be some long drives that are not really dog friendly.
I initially drove to Broomsfleet in East Yorkshire with a view to finding a series of caches in the only English county that was outstanding. The drive was just under three hours and was, naturally, done naked. In the warm weather I doubt if I even attracted any second glances from other drivers, I certainly did not notice any. As is my usual practice when driving naked, I sat on my wrap so that I could drape it across my lap if required, in the event, I did not have to do that. On arrival, I was able to park and leave the car by the roadside without dressing and headed straight to my first target cache. I did not search hard for that, it was heavily overgrown with brambles and nettles and definitely not nude friendly. Walking on to the next one in the series proved that the whole path was heavily overgrown and I found myself using a walking pole to clear the worst bits before I gave up too much flesh and blood to the vegetation. The second cache in the series was similarly defended by nature, so I decided to try one more and if necessary return to the car to identify another target I could look for to fill in the county blank. In the event, the third cache was a quick find with no need to dive into heavy undergrowth, so once the log was signed I returned to the car to move to Garforth and the UK Jasmer challenge cache.
There was no need to dress for the drive and I was able to get to my planned parking spot properly attired. However, I had to walk a section of lane to get to the footpath and there was enough traffic to suggest that clothing was going to be required, so I dressed before leaving the car. Once off the road, I was able to strip and continue my walk, collecting 7 caches on route, including the important Jasmer series, and only having to cover up a couple of times to cross relatively busy roads (such as the M1 (on a bridge) where I did not want to be a distraction that caused an accident). Then it was back to driving naked to get into position for the next days planned walk in the Scottish Borders. That was a further three and a quarter hours and 160 miles, again entirely completed naked apart from a short stop to get something to eat. I was getting used to driving naked and my initial hesitancy was wearing off as experience confirmed what I already knew at an intellectual level; no one was likely to notice I was naked and if they did it was unlikely they would care, let alone do anything about it.
I reached Hownam (pronounced "Who-nam")at about 10:00, found a place where I could park without blocking the single track road or a passing place. (It was actually the bypass to a cattle grid, however, the gate was open and I was able to park so as not to prevent anybody using the bypass.) A few minutes sorting the car for the night, no need to dress to do that, then it was time to hit the sack.
Day 2; Friday.By 05:30, when I woke, I had established that the front passenger seat is remarkably comfortable as a bed when reclined to the limit. I was refreshed and ready for a planned 12 mile walk on the border ridge, but first I needed to eat. Stove out, boil kettle and make tea. Right that was the most important thing done, then it was time to cook up some porridge (instant porridge in a tub, (just add boiling water), is surprisingly edible, though probably not high on JB's lists of good food. I am certain that the fried sausages and baked beans that followed would have stopped anyone complaining about the nutrient value of synthetic porridge
)
Suitably fed and after chatting with a couple of local dog walkers, I set off up the lane (dressed as I knew it was fairly well used and that there were a couple of farms to pass). Once past the second farm, I was able to put my clothing in my rucksack with the essential safety bits and provisions and continue my walk in a more comfortable state.
The walk took me past the (now disused) Heatherhope Reservoir, where I collected the first cache of the day.
Shortly after that, the route started to ascend the flank of Phillip Hope. This was a fairly steep path and I was very grateful that I was not clothed as I worked up a good sweat that would have saturated clothing and made it even more uncomfortable than usual. The view of the reservoir from the cache halfway up the slope gives an idea of the terrain:
The track I had walked can clearly be seen along the left hand side of the reservoir. I had left that track for a much smaller path just at the bottom of the hill, slightly out of sight in this picture.
The path continued to a cairn on top of Phillip Hope and then descended slightly towards the border with England, which is marked by a three foot high wire fence, designed to keep sheep on the Scottish side of the border and out of the Ministry of Defence land used by soldiers for war games (and catching the occasional straying lump of mutton...)
I made use of one of the fence posts to support my camera for a quick selfie
The track along here is technically a road, known locally as “The Street”, and had a few surprising reminders of its' legal status:
A few more minutes brought me to one of the old caches that I was really after on this walk. It is called “Where's Georges' kidney stone?”, for reasons that are too convoluted to explain here and is actually a virtual cache, that is to say that there is no physical cache to find, simply a question to be answered to prove that you've been here. I wonder how many other cachers have visited while properly dressed...
From here, I headed north again, back into Scotland towards the top of Mozzie Law and another cache, as you can see, some of our roads are fairly narrow...
This is actually part of the Pennine Way, a long distance path that runs north-south along the top of the Pennine Hills. According to the guide books, this is a fairly busy stretch of the path (hence the paving to protect the environment from wear) though I saw no one in this area.
Once I'd located the cache at Mozzie Law, I reversed my track, heading back past Georges' Kidney Stone and up the street a little before turning off onto the border ridge proper to walk to the top of Windy Gyle and Russels Cairn, where the second of my target caches is hidden, another one dating back to 2001. This one contains the original logbook and I spent a happy half hour sitting down, munching a snack, drinking a bottle of water and reading the old logs in the book. I love finding these old logs and connecting with cachers who have gone before me as well as spotting a few names of people I have met.
On the edge of the large cairn is a trig point and I could not resist the obligatory “Angel of the North” picture on top of the triangulation point.
Once again, I backtracked a little before setting off on another path to make the return to my car along the top of the ridge on the opposite side of the valley to the path I took past the reservoir. A mile from the end I had a great view over the top of the village of Hownam. If you look to the left of the picture, you can just make out my car at the end of the line of trees.
I got back to the car at about 17:00, having walked 16 miles and climbed 7,000 feet, and decided that rather than camp there as I had planned, I'd move on to the Dunfirmline area, where I was planning my first walk of the next day. Once again the drive was accomplished naked without issue and I was able to find a good parking spot by a small, though fairly well-used lane. By reversing in, I was able to create a small area that was screened from the road, which allowed me to cook and eat dinner naked before drafting my caching logs and uploading them via a combination of tablet and 4G phone connection. A quick phone call to the boss to convince her I was safe and had not been eaten my a carnivorous sheep, a swarm of sabre-toothed midges nor fallen foul of a hoard of hairy skirted men with screaming octopuses over their shoulders. Then time for sleep; deep, comfortable, well earned sleep.
Day 3; Saturday.Once again, I woke reasonably early and a combination of yesterday's careful parking, the location and the time of day made a naked breakfast possible. I have to confess to another batch of sausages and beans and can hear the nutritionists shaking their heads and muttering about heart attacks. At least the porridge was a reasonably healthy multigrain product with no added sugar.
Saturday's first walk was up a steep-sided hill with a flat (ish) top, known locally as “The sleeping giant”, but marked on maps as Benarty Hill. I left the car with my clothing in my bag (no need for a full rucksack as I was only planning a couple or maybe three hours and could return to the car fairly quickly if the weather should turn against me).
The walk up the initial climb was steep enough to work up another good sweat and towards the top I decided to turn off the track and bushwack through the dense pine trees to get a more direct route to the cache I was aiming for. That worked but left me on top of the hill in dense heather having to wade through it to find a track, it was almost half a mile to the cache and I did not find a path until I was just a few yards away. The cache was hidden under a large flat topped rock, which I sat on to enjoy the view while I was signing the log. There was a farmer rounding up cattle using a pick-up truck in a field below me but I do not believe he saw me and if he did it is unlikely he could see how I was dressed.
The walk to the next cache was on the fairly flat top of the hill, although the cache itself was hidden at the top of a cliff. A slip there could have been rather unfortunate...
The water below is Loch Leven, which lies to the north of the hill. The pylon below me gives an idea of the height of the hill sides; there is a reason why this cache had a terrain rating of 4 out of 5.
In all I spent about three hours caching on top of the hill, meeting only one other walker who I saw well before he saw me. I did consider staying naked, but Scotland has different laws to England and |Wales and I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and covered up before he noticed me. I left the area, driving north to collect another cache near Perth in the interests of filling a hole on my finds map (I had to be dressed for those, they were right next to a main road) but before I left the area I grabbed one more picture of Benarty Hill.
After Perth I continued to Archiestown, near Elgin. There I parked up and left the car naked to walk up onto the hill. Half a dozen caches and another trig point bagged I returned to the car after just one quick cover up for a young girl (about 10) on a pony.
I could have camped where I was parked but decided that instead I would continue to the start of the next day's planned walk at Abriachan, just north of Drumnadrochit on the north side of Loch Ness. On route I stopped in Inverness for some shopping (dressed!). The Abriachan Forest trail car park provided a great camping spot. There were toilets and picnic tables and I was able to park by one of those to use for cooking and eating, which was easier on my ageing body than working at floor height. No one else in the car park made it possible to be naked, however the midges were hungry an so a long sleeved shirt and a sarong became the clothing of choice. No phone signal, so I could not log the days caches but drafted up the logs and saved them on my tablet for another time. Once again, I slept as though I had a clear conscience (it is really a sign of a poor memory
) It was only as I drifted off that I remembered that I had intended to be on the Naturist Ramblers walk at Hoo that day.
Continued in the next post...
