The Wet 'n' Wild Cairngorms (2021)

About seven hours of driving and we're now ready to head out into the Cairngorms and it looks like there's a little bit of rain. Weather forecast is like this and worse for the next few days so this is going to be interesting. My back is the heaviest it's been in a long time. Which direction? Where do we start? Well I've got a mountain leader and a trainee mountain leader. But you've also got a map which which I I've been walking for 10 minutes. Only three and a half days to go before we return. Some cool waterfalls. I don't know if it's the right wild swimming spot when it's sunny. Path is a little bit compromised. Oh it's all right okay good. You all right Tristan? We've just looked at the map. We're aiming for a bothy and we're about halfway there. We're covering ground quite quick. Look how clear that water is. How you doing? Living the dream. Hi everyone. Yeah there's a few people. So if we just gather ourselves. How long you guys been here? About 20 minutes. Right small issue. Went to the bothy. There's like 10 people in there at least. Difficult to see because it's so dark. The guy says yes it's the Duke of Edinburgh group so no space in the inn tonight. We've got to find somewhere to pitch our tents. If you look around there's not a lot of fantastic terrain for a couple of tents. We ain't got that much light left that's the other thing. This could be interesting. It's been the worst tent pitching ever. Oh man my hands are completely numb. Happy days. Take one Tristan. You got that? You got it Beth. Right hang on a bit let me turn this on. It is five to six. Now it's snow up that mountain. The temperature really has dropped. It's incredibly humid in there because of all the people. Everything's soaked but it's gonna be a cold one back in the tent. Getting out of these cold clothes and trying to get into warm clothes. Mountains look cool in the snow don't they? Thinking more about tomorrow morning putting our clothes back on. Putting the soaking wet clothes back on. This is our cooking corner. Chef Central. Five past eleven. I haven't filmed anything for 13 hours. It was pissing it down. We had to use my plastic bowl to scoop. Look you can see it's pulled there. But it was like that high. That's just like. Oh I don't envy all the kids who were sleeping in that body though. That would have been damp. What do you guys want to do actually? What are your thoughts? Last night there were 16 people and a dog in here at one point. Yeah I didn't get to sit down until I went to bed. My legs are completely locked up. We've totally changed our original plans of heading off into those mountains. There's going to be snow and very strong winds hanging around up there. So we're going to shorten our trip a bit to some forested area. Hopefully we won't spend the whole day today drenched. The map told us just to cross here but we won't be doing that. Any side of a bridge. Now let's wait for Betty. I'm warming up now. Yeah I see you're doing kind of slight climb. Autumn, autumn everywhere. Thunderous. Now these views are more like it. None of that misty clag and freezing rain like yesterday. This is what you want with Scotland in the autumn. Just spotted a nice riverside path down this steep slope. You next Beth? I think all the paths around here are streams now. That's the waterfall Beth was talking about. I think we may have found the holy grail of pitches. Oh nice. It is 20 past two. It's very early. Very early. Getting the tents dried out Probably 100 times more pleasant than doing it last night. 10 past four. We've set our camp up so we've decided to walk around now with less kit. Gonna head up this hill. Maybe Bag of Munro. I've got this bag with everyone's stuff in it. Hopefully get a good view from up there before the sun's gone down completely. Wowzers. That's how the wind is. Derry Cairngorm. Before we have to use head torches. No but it will lead to it. Back at the camp. That was an awesome walk. Night walking five to eight. Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah! It's five to eight so the night is young and the night is dry. And I am ready to eat some noodles. It's 20 past 11 but actually now it's 20 past 10 because the clock went back last night. After yesterday was absolutely immense we've just suffered a tragedy. Mr JD here went down to the river to get some water. Forgot that his front pocket was undone. Lent forward and his camera fell out and just vanished because obviously look how fast it's flowing. And that's a 500 pound camera but full of loads of pictures that he's taken over the last couple of days as well. Absolutely gutted mate. And as he pointed out this is the second time that the three of us have been present when Jonathan's dropped a camera into a river so who's the bad luck omen? Yeah the weather reflects the mood now doesn't it? Leave no trace. We've got five miles back to the car and then a leisurely drive home. Leisurely for you? You'll be asleep. Any litter? Beth puts up. We just found Jonathan's life straw that also fell out his pocket. It was like wedged in some bushes down the side of the river. It's not a complete loss this morning. It saved me 20 quid. Yeah. Now if you just find a camera case. It's just like a little river. As fast as you can. Full speed. No. Second gear down the middle. Good work. That's what you'd need after losing your camera. Just get the car to drown. There's salt on the river then. Yeah. No option really. The bridge is closed. How do we get? Yeah the bridge. Look. Look at the bridge. Oh wow. Is that from someone crashing into it? It looks like it's lost. When does that road go to? That's the A94. I'll let it get through before I attempt it. Yeah. We're running out of options. We are boxed in to Scotland. Let's see if the mighty Kia can. Oh ---- yeah. I'm driving Jonathan, I'm driving. Can't wait to hit an A road. We are on an A road. Okay. Can't wait to hit an A road outside of Scotland. Whoa. At least we've got this car in front of us. The canary car. Yeah. Oh wow. That was really hard. Oh this is the guy we've been following. Yeah. Game over. We're staying in Scotland. Is that too deep to get through? Well I got through it but I've had a misadventure. Oh ----. Some people have got through. Proper gamble house. Might get out and have a look at it. So that guy in the boots has kicked a load of extra channels to try and drain that puddle and it seems to be doing the trick. So we just wait. Quarter to five. JD's going through it. Thank you. Jesus take the wheel. I think that might just be the water. And we're through. Well thank goodness for that guy in the boots. Yeah. There is a flood that way towards the bridge. It just gets better. Yeah well everyone's in the same boat now aren't they. Then we'll pass another friendly Scotsman saying oh you don't want to go up there. And then we're just going to get the tents out. So we're going back up this. It's washed away. Although they've conked out haven't they. They've conked out now. That was our only other route. This was the only option. There we go. Free promotion. Very friendly staff. We're in a village that we don't know the name of. Surrounded by water. Yeah. Water in every direction. We won't get washed away. Yeah it's all good. But we'll be staying here tonight. This is where we are. This is where we will remain. 8.52. Slept well last night. Just had breakfast and now we're off. It is a fresh autumn day. Road should have cleared. All right you want to release the demons. Oh look at the condensation of that rotting pit. It's wet inside the car. Yeah get everything open a bit. Heavy rain over there. Yeah I've got the room key.