Expedition 308 - The Observation Post, 19/4/14

 

The first 2014 expedition to get nice weather; we had a slight problem because many of the young people were participating in an Easter Event in the afternoon so this had to be a fast trip. We had nine explorers: Alexander, Daibhidh, Fern, Isabella, Jamie, JJ, Maighsi, Roanna and Rowan, with Adam, John, Kate, Phil, Mairi and Sharon as helpers plus Bramble, Cody and Monty investigating the peat pools.

We started from the Forestry entrance, which was just about big enough for all the cars and made our perilous way back along the road to the old Telephone Exchange, where I told the explorers there used to be a hut for the Observers to leave their bikes and brew up their tea. Fortunately I spotted a nice hole under the fence, which the dogs were pleased to use since it avoided the indignity of being lifted over. The rest of us climbed carefully over the barbed wire using my special roll of camel skin, kept specifically for this route.

Once across the fence the expedition faced a long, hard climb before the gradient became easier and we could see the Trig Point and the line of poles that once carried the phone line to the Observer Post.

We were fairly spread across the hill but we all assembled at the Trig Point and got our breath before crossing a boggy patch to the Observer Corps Post. I think the explorers were disappointed that it wasn’t bigger but at least we had good weather, the conditions for the poor observers who had to man it constantly throughout World War 2, must have been grim.

One of the Observers had been Hugh MacDonald, ‘The Gamie’, who told me a lot about the place: it was low and had a corrugated iron roof, the Observer on duty had to stand outside. At the back was a slightly drier area which held the telephone which they could use to contact their headquarters in Oban. There were two teams of Observers: The A shift were full-time and got paid more, the B shift were part time, working three nights a week from 6pm to 2 am. Hugh was on the B Shift but then he had to be out at 6 am to work with the Road Squad. There were always two men on duty.

In the whole war they only spotted one German plane – a Heinkel bomber which was reported by Hugh Cameron, Ardtoe, who was (by my calculations) a great-grand-uncle of Alexander.

We spent some time at the Post, eating our Tunnock’s wafers and looking at the view, but all too soon it was time to return and I took a different route, leading down to the old pine trees. One tree had fallen and it had a smooth branch where the deer had been rubbing off the velvet from their antlers. We looked at one of the telephone poles and it seemed to have been made in 1937. There were lots of primroses to be seen but we didn’t hear a cuckoo.

We successfully negotiated the fence once more and returned to the Tea Room early enough for everyone to get fed and finish a drawing before the egg-hunting in the afternoon. We got some nice pictures and I have picked out JJ’s drawing of the fallen tree where the deer rub the velvet from their antlers, you can see the patches on the upright branches.

John Dye

 







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