Bothie: Unique experience with an upper case "U"

I really worked on my Halloween costume last year. I was going for the "no shower in 2 days, weary camper" look. And let me tell you, I NAILed it. It did take a couples days of camping to perfect, but I got it down.

Way back when (October 29 - 31, 2010) I went up to Scotland with a few friends and hiked to a Bothie. In case you don't know what a bothie is - I didn't either - it's a shelter made of stone. It may or may not have a fireplace, and maybe a counter for cooking and possibly some benches. And that's about it.

Let me tell you: hiking 3 hours to a remote Bothie in the POURing rain making the trail a river, in the pitch black to be greeted by a freezing cold stone home to sleep in was awesome. No, it really was. It was absolutely beautiful up there and I had an amazing experience!!! Thanks to Dave for organizing it all and doing all that driving :) And thanks the whole gang who went for the fun time!

The "Grand Hotel" in the town just before we went really remote. Yes, very grand indeed. With all those boarded up windows and doors. So welcoming.

View on the drive. Difficult, nay, impossible to capture well in a picture.

View from the Bothie. Besides the first night hiking in, it didn't rain the rest of our trip!

The Bothie. Stunning backdrop. Night 1 it was just us 5, second night there were about 30 people sharing the bothie.

The boys found and chopped the wood. Sunsets were beautiful!!
Group shot. L to R: Erika Mitchell, Me, Mike Robinson, Dave Robinson, Anders Aabo
Erika and I. yes, the hair was windswept. Like on magazine covers! Ok...looks a little different than a magazine cover.
Drive home. One way was like 12 hours, so a lot of our Friday afternoon to Sunday night trip was spent in the car. But it was gorgeous.


Dave drove the whole way there and back. What a trooper!

What else would you expect to see on the side of a remote rode in Scotland?

Erika doing a jig. We were trying to raise funds for all the petrol for the car. (Yes, bag piper was taking a break and we used his step).