By: Blonde Two

I have told you about ‘Friends Who Say Yes’ before. These are outdoor friends who, no matter how weird or inconvenient the invitation, or how cold it is likely to make you, will do their very best to say ‘yes’ because they,

a) Love an outdoor adventure

b) Know that sometimes a friend just needs to Get Outside

c) Are quite as mad as you are

For my 50th birthday month I have lots of exciting things planned (some of them even involve sleeping inside, in a normal bed!) but for my first celebration I wanted to do something really outdoorsy and I wanted to do it with some outdoors women who knew how to cope with,

a) Being cold (all night)

b) Walking in bogs

c) Carrying a rucksack full of kit plus coal and wood for the fire

d) Being in a very dark place, in the middle of nowhere

e) Strange toileting arrangements

On the weekend of January 13th, Mr B2 was planning one of his regular trips up to Mid Wales (wild and stunning as is Mr B2 of course) and offered to take myself and two friends (all the friends we could fit in the camper) up with him for our own birthday adventure. This is a snippet of the email invitation I sent B1 and Ju Lewis (another most excellent DofE leader, walker and wild swimmer).

I have come up with a possible plan for my 50th birthday/outdoor friends do. Here is the proposition…
  • We will walk, in a suitably backpacking women type manner to a bothy of our choice (there are 5 to choose from)
  • We will indulge in bothy delights such as… ‘being too scared to go in to the bothy’, ‘being too scared to go out of the bothy’, ‘trying very hard to light the fire’, ‘realising that the fire only warms 3 cm square of room space’, ‘remembering to bring enough wine’!
We can only fit three of us plus rucksacks in with Simon and his bike gear so I have chosen to invite you two because:

  • I don’t really know many other people who could cope with bothy sleeping

  • I quite like you

  • You won’t moan at me if (when) it is freezing cold

  • You might consider coming outside with me, in the dark, in the middle of the night… and not listening…

  • You will continue to smile at me if the bothy is full and we have to bivvy outside

 

I must be getting quite good at choosing my Friends Who Say ‘Yes’ because they both said it despite having never before slept in a bothy. We went, had the most marvellous (and unexpected) time and all wanted to stay longer. We have some tales to tell but those are for another day. For now I would like to raise a toast to Friends Who Say ‘Yes’ #FWSY

If you fancy a night in a bothy, read the bothy code and take a look at the fantastic work done by the Mountain Bothies Association. Membership is £25 a year and volunteers are often needed for maintenance work. If you are one of the kind people who gave me some Christmas money, this is what I spent it on! I am sure you will approve!