Monday 14 to Wednesday 16 October

When we left Invernahavon Campsite last Thursday morning our intention had been to go to another campsite on Sunday night on the basis that we would likely need a service point by then. On Sunday afternoon, when Louise & David asked where we were headed next, we decided that the toilet and drinking water situation were such that we could delay such servicing for another night. That allowed us to stay just north of Dalwhinnie on Sunday night and to walk up a couple of Munros to the east of the A9 on Monday (if you feel so inclined you can read about that walk here).

Sunday night's rain behaved as forecast (i.e. it stopped by Monday morning) and we had good conditions and an enjoyable walk. Then, on our way back down off the hills, we looked across the valley to The Fara and decided that, if the weather forecast was good enough, we would go up it (and its neighbouring Marilyn) on Tuesday.

There's not a campsite around Dalwhinnie, so the decision meant another night's delay before we would reach a campsite. This wasn't a problem as such, but our lack of drinking water did make me kick myself as the previous afternoon we had been parked outside of (and indeed paid for the use of) the public toilets in Kingussie. I could easily have filled a 5-litre water container there, but because we were most definitely going to a campsite on Monday afternoon, I didn't bother.

By Monday night we were down to our last litre and a half of drinking water, which we reserved for Tuesday's walk. For hot drinks, we drank out of Bertie's tank (and, in all honesty, there's no good reason why we don't do that all of the time).

Tuesday's walk (report here) passed off not quite to plan (we made it up The Fara but not up Meall nan Eagan, due to a shoot), following which I set about trying to decide which campsite we would visit. Killin was the first choice, until I discovered that the Caravan Club is treating this week as high season (school half-term, I presume?) and if we were going to be paying £25 for a campsite then the more obvious choice was Blair Atholl.

Once installed on our pitch (hardstanding, but we had to drive over grass to get to it) we did very little for the rest of the day, although we did both manage to stir ourselves to use the showers. How disappointing! What's the point of having a temperature control knob if the hottest setting available is still only warm?

On Tuesday evening we did something most unusual: we popped an aerial up on Bertie's roof and looked for some TV reception - and found some! We didn't have a large selection of channels, but that didn't matter as we were only after Channel 4. Thus we got to watch the Bake Off in real time, rather than downloading it the following day.

At some point overnight on Tuesday it started to rain, giving an unpleasant start to Wednesday. Hills were off the agenda in that weather, so we stayed on our pitch for as long as we possibly could and enjoyed the entertainment provided by (based on appearances) a grandma, two mums and two children packing away a soggy tent on the adjacent pitch. Their pole removal method was 'interesting', but impressively, they did manage to wrestle the tent back into its bag after a few failed attempts.

The latest departure time from the campsite is noon and we were within 90 seconds of that time when we rolled out of the gates.

Via a stop in Pitlochry for the Co-op, we arrived at a location just to the west of Dunkeld, positioning ourselves for Thursday's planned activity. Google Maps had told me that reaching Stirling via Crieff was 2 miles shorter than reaching it via the A9, which was as good excuse as I needed to take the alternative route and bag a few hills along the A822.

By late in the afternoon the rain had stopped, although being under trees we hadn't noticed that the sun had also come out. It was only as I set out for a run that I came to appreciate that from a thoroughly miserable morning we now had a stunning late afternoon.

Snaps taken during my run

I'll finish with a mention of seasonal indicators: when we arrived in Scotland two weeks ago, I noted that there were only a few hints of autumn in the colour of the trees. I'm not sure if I've missed the subtle day-on-day changes, but in Blair Atholl we suddenly seemed to have been plunged into the height of autumn, with golden colours all around. All we need now is some crisp sunny days to set off those colours nicely.