Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 19 on 20/3/2005.

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Wild nature at its best

Glen Affric in the Highlands is an outdoor enthusiast’s delight. Our not so outdoorey Editor Dominic Roskrow went for a look

About 60 seconds. That’s how long it took us to realise that we’d made a terrible mistake.

All the clues were there: the children were rolling down the mud bank in front of us laughing manically as their clothes turned from smart light blue to dark, dirty, muddy brown. I was free-skating just behind them and heading towards a large tree. And my wife was standing on one leg, umbrella arm outstretched, in an undignified attempt to stay balanced. She failed.

Then our guide, now well ahead on the treelined pathway, turned and without even the trace of amusement – I was watching carefully for it – said: “in the olden days women from the English gentry wouldn’t have had to do this. They’d have been carried down.”

What a let down for our national pride! We weren’t dressed for it, simple as that: but I’m a sucker for a good waterfall, and in Glen Affric there are a couple of crackers. So when we were offered the chance to see Plodda Falls in all its glory, well… And a bit of rain wasn’t going to put me off – in deed, all the more water to fall, I thought.

But there’s rain and there’s rain, and this sort had turned muddy forest paths in to living and moving downwardly mobile masses. Going down is undignified and messy. Coming back up… well let’s just say that Plodda Falls had a lot of live up to. And it did.

To be fair, a sense of perspective is needed here. On a fine summer’s day the trip down to the waterfalls would be a breeze, given that even in such inclement circumstances a.....

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By Dominic Roskrow

Section : Best of Scotland

Page number : 55