Dram in a cold climate
It goes like this.
Get bored with work
Look at maps
Book some flights
Tie some flies
Remember I haven’t booked a car
Pack a pack
Pack the fishing kit
Tie the rod tubes to the pack
Remember I haven’t booked a car
Book a car
Catch some flights
Buy single malt duty free
Collect the car (having remembered this time to bring my diving license)
Drive
Stop to eat and shop
Drive - ending up a track into the hills that saves 2 hours of uphill walking, eventually blocked by a locked gate
Get out the pack
Look at the shopping and fail to work out how to carry it alongside a 28kg pack
Schlepp up the mountain remembering how much easier this was 20 years ago: carrying pack on back and shopping awkardly in a plastic bag
Stop repeatedly to avoid heart attack
Set up tent
Drink a beer
Cook / eat
Get out fishing kit to fish a little in the loch I’ve travelled 1,500 miles to, before I sleep
Realise I’ve left my reel on the sofa at home
Drink a dram
Drink another dram: am I feeling stoical about this yet?
Drink another dram
Sleep
Wake/dress
Schlepp down the mountain to the car
Drive to nearest town (Etne) - arriving at 8am
Wait in a cafe near local sports shop until it opens at 10am drinking terrible, £7 coffee and old pastries
Buy reel, backing and new line from local sports shop
Tell story so far to not-too-straight-faced locals who will repeat the to their grandchildren
Drive
Schlepp back up mouintain
Discover that the water in the loch at the end of May isn’t quite as it is was back in mid-September and those snow drifts that go right into the water should have given me a clue
The cold was immense - but fish rose. A bit. To the smallest, entirely invisible flies. I’ve seen Hoylandsvatnet with a sedge hatch and 2lb trout rolling across it. Not this time.
While it is pretty cold at the end of May in the Norwegian mountains, a down bag and a mat are more than enough. Looking south west and it’s relatively benign. The light changes constantly. Next day looking the other way. Less benign.
There are trout though. And they are wild and lovely.
I wonder when I’ll be back? Whenever it is, the trout will be there and the mountains will be amazing: they always are.