5. Climb five Munros (excluding Ben Nevis)

On Easter Saturday (11 April 2009) my good friend Ben, his brother Jonathan, Rebekah and I drove to Ben Vorlich (Loch Earn) in my dad's Nissan Micra (which was in Scotland at the time because my sister Joanna had borrowed it for a visit to St Andrews with her boyfriend Tom). The plan was as follows:

1. Take morning train from Edinburgh to Leuchars
2. Be met by Joanna at the station, drive her back to St Andrews, and then set off for Loch Earn.
3. Arrive and eat lunch.
4. Leave Rebekah in the car reading while the manly men set off to conquer the mountain.
5. Reach the top of Ben Vorlich, triumphant in our strength and fitness.
6. Climb the next mountain over (Stuc a'Chroin) if we thought we had enough time and energy left.
7. Come back a slightly different way to make it a nice circular route.
8. Drive through the beautiful Scottish countryside, past Loch Tay and on to Pitlochry.
9. Visit the Edradour distillery (if we arrived in time).
10. Drive on to Aberdeen via pretty country roads for dinner in a pub (if time).
11. Drive back to St Andrews after dark on the main road (since after dark it's speed and not scenery that matters).
12. Leave the car with Joanna and take the train home to Edinburgh.

What actually happened was as follows.

1-3. As above.
3½. Realise that my dad had sent the wrong map – Loch Earn itself was right at the bottom and the path up Ben Vorlich headed south and soon disappeared off the edge. Also realise that I've forgotten to bring the route printout I made. Shrug shoulders and say "never mind".
4-5. As above (ascent of Ben Vorlich took us a very respectable two hours).
6. Look over at Stuc a'Chroin and be amazed at how close it is.
7. Gamely set off down the other side of Ben Vorlich.
8. Be confused about how what looks like it's supposed to be the path is getting more and more vertical. Lament over lack of appropriate map.
9. Decide that can't be the path and we'll go up what looks like the easiest way, which is only a slight detour to the right.
10. Discover that our "easy" way wasn't so easy and the "slight" detour wasn't so slight after all if we plan to avoid a vertical rock climb. Make way gingerly along steep slope on slippery wet grass.
11. Finally reach the top of Stuc a'Chroin, our second Munro of the day. Decide that the Aberdeen plan isn't going to happen.
12. Begin descent and completely fail to find the way back described in the route. Blame lack of appropriate map.
13. Spend an hour wading through a bog.
14. Find some ground which is dry but quite springy and therefore painful to walk on at the angle we need to. Try to drift closer to the path we came up on.
15. Rejoin Ben Vorlich path.
16. Arrive back at car park to a very worried Rebekah who has finished two whole books while we were gone. By now it is 7pm.
17. Set off for home. Get stopped by police five minutes later beside Loch Earn as car didn't appear to be as green as the DVLA thought it was (Joanna has painted it with flames). Discover my dad's tax disc is out of date but persuade police officers this isn't my fault. Be very thankful they didn't notice I wasn't wearing my glasses, and that we had abandoned our plan of taking Joanna and Tom along as well (making 6 in a 5-person car). Continue with journey.
18. Realise we won't make it to St Andrews in time for the last train back so drive straight to Edinburgh instead. Apologise to Joanna and Tom that they'll have to take the train instead of driving to Edinburgh the next day, and promise to pay their train fare.
19. Arrive in Edinburgh around 10pm, drive straight to Papa John's and buy far more pizza than we can possibly eat.
20. Return to my flat and eat all the aforesaid pizza. Ben and Jonathan go back to Ben's.
21. Wake up the next day almost totally unable to walk. Manage to hobble through day, including a trip to the park with all climbers plus Tom and Joanna.
22. Wake up on Easter Monday not all that much more able to walk. Feel very glad I took this day off work.
23. Thankfully back to normal on Tuesday.

Photos to follow when I can get them off Ben's camera.