Meet Report

13th to 15th September 2003 - Arran

It's a while since the club went to Arran, Glen Rosa being a campsite best enjoyed by those who are hard of hearing and tolerant of fun behaviour like having a motor cycle driven round your tent in the middle of the night - makes Kenmore seem positively boring. Having now discovered Shore Lodge as an alternative hopefully we will be back to Arran a bit sooner. As we lounged in the expansive sofas beside the log burning stove, it was agreed that the problem with Shore Lodge was that there were too many bathrooms, not enough hooks and "no little shelf in the bathroom to put my glasses on (Bill B). Yes you can begin to see why the Meet Secretary has quite a tough job!

Unforunately the walking was not up to the comforts of Shore Lodge, mist, wind and rain being the order of the day. Those who went for the low level options on Saturday at least had some sunshine. Sunday was similar but with more rain and less wind. Bill B, son Christopher, Cathy and Gillian returned wtih wired expressions having had an exciting ascent of the Caisteal Abhail some tricky scrambling on greasy rock had them adopting a variety of unorthodox climbing techniques. Actually Gillian returned quite a bit later after extending the walk to Cir Mhor and coming back in the dark (so whats new) after getting a lift back along the road in a taxi full of revellers heading to Brodick. Eileen and Bill got within a stone's throw of the summit of Beinn Tarsuinn but in the thick mist failed to find the actual summit. Clare and Kenny did Goat Fell by different routes, Clare's route involving as little time as possible on the mountain. My walk along the road from Sannox to Brodick enabled me to watch the basking seals and return with a large bag of brambles.

Monday was yes more of the same so we all headed off for the mid morning ferry. At least it gave Bill B a chance to have a full scale rant about the inability of west coast restaurants to make a decent cup of coffee.