Though i've been a member of this forum for over four years i've been doing a lot of lurking, post reading and general info gleaming.

I would like to thank you all for your replies to my posts and that of others, reviews on gear and general banter. You have all helped me make sense of a lot of technical aspects of the gear  that i've bought and made the obvious crystal.

I'm now in a far better position (as are my mates) than i was so many years ago when a remote fishing trip meant a night on the hill in a bin liner with a wet Barbour jacket for comfort.

Tapadh Leibh

Hoorah for Calum - a happy OMer, about time we had another "Isn't Outdoors Magic Great" Thread.

Oh aye it was superlight enough until the rain and mist came down and we discovered that we had gone in a complete circle for 3 hours. Though the best was yet to come when my mate who had carried a half bottle of brandy in a carier bag smashed it against a rock at the exact moment we decided we were going to have to spend the night there.

Spending another night on Gallan Head with the luxury of a tent and listening to the shipping forecast on the radio, "Gallan Head gale force 9". "Oh shit, but they allways get it wrong". No this time they were correct and the tent ended up in some far flung corner off the edge of the world. Though it wasn't so bad as it was about 5am and we had managed to get a few hours sleep before the gale hit and there's plenty of sheltering rocks up there.

I had a look if this is was what you were referring to : [b]OM mini-meet windy night[/b] , but it's not really my kind of reading. People talking to each other one to one, chat forum etc.

Though i did notice that you had a post or two there Metric.

Myself and the mates didn't have to try while trashing tents, as the gear we had was so crap. It was taken as almost a given that the tent would be knackered after the weekend. In fact any tent that survived after two outings was known as the lucky tent.

Harris Tweed blankets were our sleeping bags though they had no doubt been invented but we just never seen the need for them when there were so many  blankets in each household, and a groundsheet well that was just a piece of plastic or anything suitable that could be found in the shed.

Fantastic times though, and i'm only talking of about 30 years ago.