Well today (Sunday, 21st of August), the Irvine Dominos crew and myself went up Ben Lomond as part of a fundraiser for The Sick Kids Friends Foundation! I went up Goatfell in Arran about 2 months ago, but the last time I went up Ben Lomond it was for a sponsored walk raising funds for Irvine Teen Challenge about 8 years ago. I remember it was sunny for the full day which was strenuous, but the tables were completely turned this time around.
Everyone (Heather, Chris, Jennifer, Lochy, Stephen, Perrie, Billy and myself) met at Dominos Irvine at 9:00, drove off to Loch Lomond and started our climb at 11:20. Everything was going well for the first half an hour apart from the rain, but when we stopped for a break, completely out of the blue, I started feeling light headed. The worst that has happened in the past has been getting a cramp or getting stuck in a muddy puddle all the way up to the chest, but today, everything went black. I thought I was sleeping and was waking up from my bed, but to my surprise I thought “Oh shite” and woke up on the muddy ground with people surrounding me. Not a pleasant moment, but after a while we got straight back to it and continued our climb! Felt much better after my wee rest!
The 8 of us gradually made our way up the hill, but the weather wasn’t improving at all. In fact the rain got heavier and the wind picked up. Was starting to get mixed up between the rain and sweat! We were all completely drenched. But after our ups and downs, Billy and Perrie went on ahead and tied at first place up the hill, while Stephen and myself reach the top second at 14:35 (3 hours and 15 minutes)!
Unfortunately the weather hadn’t improved by the time we got to the top so there were no views of the beautiful scenery from there. So we made our way down at 14:45 and met up with Heather, Chris, Lochy and Jennifer 5 minutes of the way down, who made it to the top then too! It was fairly easy as always on the way down apart from one or two slip ups and rocks digging into our feet. We ended up getting back to the car park at the bottom at 16:45, so exactly 2 hours to get back down. With a grand total of 5 hours and 15 minutes up and down! Overall a great experience apart from the clouds, rain and the faint bit of despair.
Managed to get some good photos while up there. Take a look below. Camera used: Fujifilm Finepix HS50 Bridge Camera
