Chilled Etive Camp

Ash and I have tackled a fair few overnighters in the past couple of years but this one was perhaps the coldest yet! Loch Etive was our choice, being easy to reach by boat but also remote enough to enjoy an undisturbed camp.

Launching at Taynuilt in the early afternoon, we filled my Orkney Longliner with camping clobber, wood and plenty of food. It’s amazing just how much stuff you can take for a night! We’d Ash’s Tentipi and tent stove along with us this time, rather than my Robens equivalent. A smart choice (for me :-)), considering drying a massive polycotton tent in a damp Scottish winter can be positively painful.

Heading north through the Bonawe Narrows we skimmed along on a sea of glass. Not so much as a ripple disturbed the loch as we headed towards a snow capped Ben Starav. Our destination was the fine sandy bay at Barrs, offering easy mooring and flat ground for our tent. Although this beautiful spot is now scarred by a large stone jetty and access tracks it would still offer shelter against the NE wind forecast for next morning.

Frosty Night

The sun was gone by the time we finished offloading, mooring and setting up, as glamping does require a little extra effort in return for a comfortable night. However, it definitely all felt worthwhile as we warmed up as the wood burner got to work.

A while later, with dinner bubbling away and water starting to boil, we settled in for the night. Ash has a neat little water jacket that fits to the chimney of the stove, so you can literally get hot water on tap. My setup isn’t quite that decadent, yet 🙂 Dinner was a big helping of sausages and beans, followed by a good chunk of Christmas pudding and washed down with hot chocolate laced with brandy. The sky was clear and wall to wall stars, but it was freezing and we didn’t gaze for long! A final stoke of the stove and we hit the sleeping bags. Even then the chill sneaked in, and I awoke a couple of times wishing I’d kept my thermals on!

And A Frosty Morning!

Next morning the world was white with thick hoar frost. Very pretty, but my fingers numbed within minutes as the cold felt savage. That’s one reason I didn’t take too many photos – and screwing up my camera settings didn’t help. Hence why most of the images on this post come courtesy of Ash rather than me! At least the loch itself hadn’t frozen, except where the river ran into it. Probably the water in Etive is still reasonably warm in November, as I’d expect a good coat of ice in January, given similar conditions.

We piled our remaining wood into the stove and thawed the tent, and Ash fired up his little pellet stove to get some coffee and bacon on the go. We hung around the warmth of the tent for a couple of hours – more coffee, more bacon and more photographs – but could see we were on borrowed time. Although we were still fully sheltered, the predicted NE wind was starting and the loch was getting restless.

Leaving the tent for later, we headed out for a short session with the rods. I reckon we managed no more than 45 minutes before the wind gusts become stronger and more persistant, and easily enough to destroy our drift. We managed just three pollack, with Ash catching by far the biggest, a nice one of about 6lbs 8oz. We could drop anchor, but targeting small spurdogs in this level of cold held few attractions so we chickened and headed back to the Tentipi for a final coffee instead.

By the time we’d packed away our gear mountain Etive there were whitecaps everywhere. Bone chilling rather than life threatening, but I was glad we didn’t drop that anchor! The ride back to Taynuilt was cold enough, even with the wind behind us…

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