The Scottish Highlands … rainy and cloudy and exactly the right weather for a bean chilli

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I don’t think that anyone told Scotland (or the entire UK for that matter) that July is supposed to be summer. Smack bang in the middle of Summer in fact. And I’m fairly sure that this should mean at least occasional glimpses of the sun. But despite the cold and the rain, it’s Scotland and I absolutely love this country.

Dave and I are on our way to his sister’s wedding just outside of Oban on the Scottish west coast. We’ve made a detour to the Scottish highlands for some hiking and mountain biking and are staying in a beautiful cottage on the shores of Loch Long. Yesterday we decided to tackle the 884 metre high Cobbler, an unusually shaped mountain named because the summit looks like a cobbler at his work bench

The way up was beautiful – emerging from the trees after about 30 minutes of uphill hiking, we entered a lush green valley dotted with quick running streams that gushed by us, fuelled by the continuing summer rain. For about an hour we walked through the valley; intervals of thick cloud and light rain interspersed with glimpses of The Cobbler and its adjacent mountain peaks of Bein Ime and Bein Narnaim.

The climb to the top of The Cobbler was a tough scramble up loose and slippery rocks, and we made it to just below the summit before we decided that the combination of wet rocks, boggy marsh and the increasingly steep slope was not good for Dave’s recent knee injury so we turned around and slid back down the rocks to the nearby path.

Next decision … Go back the way we came or try our luck up the next peak and try to find the path on the other side for a circular route back to the Loch? Second option was the winner by a unanimous vote so off we went, into the thickening cloud and uphill once again. It was quite a nice climb, fairly steady and just the wet ground to contend with. From half way up we had a amazing view of the seemingly never-ending valley rich with the deep green of a land that experiences rain many months of the year. In the distance we could hear the baa-ing of sheep grazing on the slopes and, bizarrely, a helicopter that seemed to be dropping equipment into the middle of nowhere (enter conspiracy theory here).

Towards the top of the mountain the rain started to fall quite heavily and the thick envelope of cloud meant we couldn’t see anything outside of our immediate vicinity. Again we decided to forego the final part of the summit, worried about finding our way back, and instead decided to head straight down the hill and hopefully find the track at the bottom. Slightly concerning was the increasing cloud and the fact that we couldn’t see the path. Even more concerning for me was the fact that if we couldn’t find the path that we might have to go back up the mountain, a thought that I didn’t relish as we climbed over rocks and through streams, hoping that we were heading in the right direction.

But after about 40 minutes of sliding down the mountain and getting covered with mud, the rain stopped and we finally saw our original path. I’ve no idea where the path that we were attempting to get onto was, but the original path we walked up on was good enough at this time of the day so we made a beeline directly for it, a last few stumbles in the mud along the way.

After six hours of hiking we were back at the car – tired, wet and muddy. It was a great day of fairly strenuous hiking with some tempestuous Scottish weather thrown in for good measure, and chats with lovely people along the way also trying to find their way through the cloud and rain up a mountain which on a clear day apparently has amazing views across the valley.

And after such a strenuous day of hiking, a hot, hearty meal is obviously needed. The meal … Dave’s amazing bean chilli. Super easy to cook, we generally make it up as we go and use whatever is on hand. You can see from here and here that there are many different ways in which to make this meal. This time we used kidney, haricot and borlotti beans with a tin of chopped tomatoes and tomato paste, onion, carrots and capsicum (peppers), and spiced with chilli powder, cumin and salt. We didn’t have any garlic but I’d definitely recommend trying to remember it as garlic does make a difference to the overall taste. We topped it off with some natural yoghurt, grated cheese and corn chips. Easy to make and absolutely delicious. And a great meal to make when you’re not in your own kitchen and with minimal spices available. Accompanied by a nice bottle of Rioja and followed by curling up on the couch with a bowl of ice cream, it was exactly what was needed after a tough day in the Scottish highlands!