Independent overland travel through Africa in a Unimog called Moglet

We headed slightly downhill to the next village on the map, a little place called Braemar. As seems to be the case for most places this time of year, pretty much everything was shut, but there was a campsite open, as well as an outdoor gear shop so Jason bought himself a lovely sunhat(!) and we got ourselves settled for the night.

We spent a very windy night in Moglet, and woke up to blue skies and sunshine, as well as a fair dusting of snow all around. After Jason had spent a good hour or so getting frozen inspection covers to open up so we could empty tanks before moving on, we carried on up the pass, through some of the most stunning scenery to date. The road was deserted, the snow was fresh and untouched and the visibility was incredible. After a real stop-start-Kodak-moment journey, we eventually arrived at the top of the range we were driving over, a place called Lecht.

The views across all the mountains about 1/4 mile before the summit were amazing, only to be spoiled by a soul-less coffee shop/ski hire shop, built to serve the ski runs when you actually reach the top. I guess thats the price you pay for commercialism though, and no doubt if I'd been out skiing all morning I'd be very glad of a soul-less coffee shop to serve me hot chocolate and a big plate of cheesy chips! On the upside though, we were able to have a couple of rounds of toast there, which is about the only thing we can't make in Moglet so naturally is the one thing we crave almost constantly! There was also on-site entertainment provided by a couple of wombles in a Jeep and a Range Rover who managed to get themselves stuck in a drift of snow by the car park exit. Why do these people think lots of revs and wheel spinning is going to help them?? Once they'd managed to get themselves out the way we drove off too (calmly chewing our way through the same deep snow with hardly a stumble :-)).

Our target for the day was Aviemore, a name I'd think everyone is familiar with when it comes to the great outdoors. We arrived in town a hour or so before dark so we carried on through, following signs for the Mountain Railway. A couple at the site in Braemar had said they were on their way there the previous day as the views from the fernicular railway were stunning. We followed the road all the way to the end, slowly climbing our way to the very top (getting overtaken by the shuttle run bus laid on the for the skiers!) - one thing we didnt take into account though was exactly how far along the road the railway was, and how long it'd take us to get there, so by the time we arrived it was nearly dark! We sat at the top for a little while, watching the fading light and generally staring at the views. Then we headed down again, looking out for the Glenmore campsite we'd passed on the way up. The chap on site was very helpful, and didnt mind at all where we parked (some sites stipulate hard standing areas for us only, as we're a little on the heavy side), seeing as how everything was frozen solid - night time temperatures had been around -15C for the past week or so, so churning up his grass wasnt very likely! We had heard from someone at a previous site that Glenmore was to be thoroughly recommended, you can park right by the loch, fantastic views etc. Unfortunately almost all the lochside pitches were full, and those that weren't had so many low branches overhanging them that it just wasnt Moglet-friendly. So we ended up out in the main site, which on the bright side was a hell of a lot closer to the shower block anyway :-)

We both had a huge lie in the next day, then got the bus into town to have a scout around all the outdoor shops for any bargains. We'd also seen a sign in a coffee shop window on the way through that said 'Free WiFi' so we were looking forward to having a check on a few things, updating the website etc. We shopped for a couple of hours first, trying on lots of stuff but not buying much. Jason managed to find a couple of Lexan plates, so we snapped those up. I was also looking for a jacket, as at the moment I only have a waterproof and a down jacket, so one keeps me warm and one keeps me dry, but I'd like something that does both! No luck though, so the pennies get to stay in the purse a little longer. We eventually made our way to Cafe Mambo for food and wifi just as it was getting dark. We ordered the food and booted up the laptop, only to find the wifi wasnt working. Waited and waited for food, nothing happened... Enquired about the wifi, 'Oh, we've had about 6 people today say its not working, I'll try switching it off and on again...' she says as she wanders back to the bar and serves more people, plainly not going near anything that could be switched off or on... Food finally arrived almost an hour and a half later (it was only a couple of toasted sandwiches with fries!), Jasons was cold and mine was the wrong order! No apology, no interest from them in whether we were happy chappies or not :-( Repeated grumblings later, we went to pay up and the chap behind the bar deducted the cost of my sandwich from the bill. All in all though, still not overly impressed.

We then nipped to the bus stop to check the time for the next bus back to site, found we had about 45mins to kill, so popped to Tesco to get a few bits (and hide in the warm!). Allowing for early buses etc, we were back at the stop about 10mins before the bus was due. We stood in the plummetting temperatures, watching the world go by (mostly a teenage girl dragging a suitcase, who'd plainly had one vodka and red bull too many!), waiting patiently for our transport. And waiting... and waiting... it was like the sandwich situation all over again - except this time it was of our own making! The bus timetable certainly did say we should have expected a bus by now - unless of course we were waiting after September 2008, in which case the last bus was about 2 hours earlier! Fortunately there was a taxi rank next door (do you think they run a book on how long daft tourists will wait for the bus that never arrives??), so we were back with Moglet in no time at all.