Posted by Marcus Filtton on 8/6/2002, 1:46 pm
Wee Dougie and I took a trip up North over the sea to Skye, we were staying in a Bothy up there with some guys who were absolute pishheads but they were very polite and brought us wood and fish to eat. They mentioned a story that I had long forgot.
Apparently one night in this bothy, two walkers were asleep in a bedroom directly behind the fireplace. The guys sat up by the fire in the main room were getting cold and Dougie was shivering, I had put my arms around him to try and keep him warm but we decided to put a fishcrate on the fire. The reason was to get rid of this un degradeable plastic litter and to keep the fire burning and warm us both up, we were almost naked after all cos our clothers were drying out. We thought the smoke would be taken out of the flue and the only thing it would have damaged was the atmosphere and we needed dry clothes. However, the crate erupted into a fireball and the flue was blocked so the thick black smoke poured back into the bothy.
Me and Dougie ran for our lives cos you wouldnt beleive how quick the room filled with smoke.
In all the adrenaline we forgot about our clothes but then we realised we had also forgot about the guys in that room and by the time we had tried to wake them up it was the damage had already been done. Nightmare.
We banged on the window....it was awful to see them staggering around coughing but the window didnt open! They managed to put some stuff over their mouths and run out through the smoke.
They survived but god knows how bad it could have been, I suppose even to this day they have breathing difficulties.
When they finally staggered out coughing and spluttering Dougie ran back in through another door to get us something to cover us up. I was quite embarrassed because i wear tights and silk pants for walking in cos the silk doesnt chafe and the tights are like lightweigh longjohns and there I was stood there in tights and silk pants in the middle of the scottish highlands with my big curly ginger hair and beard billowing in the wind with these two guy coughing their lungs out next to me!
I couldnt apologise enough for my indecency but they seemed more bothered about which idiot had put the fish crate on the fire inbetween worrying where there next breath was coming from.
When dougie returned with two sleeping bags from the room next to where the fire had been we then had to decide how to get help for these guys. I mean I couldnt walk out without my boots and pants and these guys who were fighting for their lives couldnt either!
I made dougie run for help whilst I looked after the guy, dougie knows who is boss, Ive spent enough time with the wee man to make sure he knows who wears the panties if you know what I mean and he likes me in them!
These guy were fuming (no pun intended) that some idiot had put a crate on the fire, I blamed Dougie in his absence but there wasnt a responce as such. more of an increased cough, they were coughing up black stuff!
When the mountain rescue helicopter airlifted them away I was left explaing that I didnt know how the fire had started.
You know, I dont think those guys knew I did it!
Back to the present time and this second trip to Sky with the pish heads (it was a new year in 1998/9)
Dougie was firmly punished those days up there but I decided that these pish heads might have known too much, it was a bit of a coincidence they were telling me about something I had done!
I kept a big ginger eye on them for the remining 4 days of the break but I think they drank too much to know anything about me, I told them of a cave where they could sleep on foxskin beds, I dont think they beleived me in fact as nothing more was said about my 'crazy' story I realised they werent infact paying any attention to me so they definately didnt know.
From now on, I'll stick to building supplies, woodwork and metalwork and leave the plastic to the chemists.
Morale of the story is DONT BURN PLASTIC
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