November
This recollection goes back many many years when I was in my middle teens and a patrol leader with the 1st Stirlingshire Boy Scout troop. I was earning my badges toward becoming a King’s Scout; the British equivalent of Eagle Scout.
One of these badges was the First Class hike which required a hike and camping overnight; and was done in pairs. My buddy for that was Ian Wallace. Why this was planned for a November day and night escapes me right now; but the trail was set up by the District Commissioner.
Luckily for us, it was not raining as we trudged up, around and over the Ochil Hills and completed some of our assigned tasks. We pitched our tent, got a fire going, had a meal and settled in for the night. That is until I wakened in the middle of the night by the need to equalize the pressure - that really was water under the bridge - LOL
That November night had to be one of the coldest I had experienced in Scotland. The sky was cloudless; a rarity, the frost was intense, the stars could not have been brighter and the Northern Lights were dazzling.
It was a night not to be forgotten.