Mellow Expeditions - @hikeandgrubclub
Been a couple weeks since we’ve done a Mellow Expeditions feature but we had to squeeze one more in for the year. This time we spoke with @hikeandgrubclub (Sam and Mais) who took a debut road trip in their Caddy Van. For their first trip they chose to explore some of the beautiful scenery in Scotland. Here’s what they had to say..
Our first endeavour in the Caddy Van!
My boyfriend Sam and I (Mais) spoke about exploring Scotland and hiking Ben Nevis for quite some time. It had always been topic of conversation since we first started getting outdoors together. So in April this year we went on our first trip in the Caddy. We thought it would be the perfect time to go, seeing as Sam had just bought the Van and our anniversary falling on earth day. What better way to spend it hiking a mountain together.
Our first stop was the Lake District, having never been there before we wanted to incorporate it in the trip and a plus it broke up the hefty 7 hour journey to Scotland. We drove to Windermere, had a day walking round the lakes, ate the best scran and headed into the mountains for our first night. We ended up in the area of Seathwaite Tarn, not having planned specifically where we would park up we got so lucky with the most gorgeous spot. The sun was setting to the left and a view of lakes for miles on our right.
The next morning we woke up early to continue our journey to Edinburgh, we decided to have one night of luxury and stayed in a beaut hotel to experience the city properly. After our short stay in Edinburgh we continued on to Ben A’an the following day. Ben A’an is situated near Callander in Loch Lomond. Instantly Ben A’an delivered, it’s breath taking views from the top over the lochs were the perfect place to have a picnic, and the hike eased us in gently for the hike up Ben Nevis the next day.
As soon as we ended up back in the caddy from the trek up Ben A’an we continued the journey to our final destination Fort William. Travelling through the highlands was like no other, we stopped a few times to take in the scenes around us. The scale and beauty of the mountains made us even more excited to hike Ben Nevis. We arrived in Fort William and camped next to Loch Linnhe, that night we experienced the most beautiful deep orange sunset and a magical view of Ben Nevis. The next day we filled our stomachs with a big breakfast ready for our hike. It was stunning weather, not a cloud in the sky!
We completed Ben Nevis in 6 hours 36 mins! The view from the top was outstanding, we were 1,345 meters high so the wind was strong but the weather was perfect even giving me sunburn. We experienced all types of terrain, one being thick snow but it helped we were prepared with kit and motivating words for each other. We celebrated at the bottom in a local pub with an ice cold pint closing off our first successful trip in the van.