Coincidences can be pleasurable and amusing, but some can be alarming, or downright bizarre. In the spring of 1998 I'd based myself at Durness youth hostel. On my way to Meallan Liath Coire Mhic Dhughaill there were speed restrictions due to loose chippings, and at the road-end for Aultanrynie I parked by the verge. The climb was uneventful, and on the way down the road-end below was clearly visible, but where my red car should have been sitting there was an empty space! All I had was my day sack and hill clothes. The villain by now could have driven to Inverness. Far below I could make out the houses at Kinloch - perhaps I could phone the police from there? My thoughts dwelt on having to cut the holiday short, travel home by bus and train, contact the insurance company, and shop around for a new car. I made my way round the final bend in the track and there, where I'd left it, stood my Citroen. There are times when if you didn't laugh you'd cry. What had happened when I'd been away was that a pile of gravel some eight feet high had been deposited next to the car, hiding it from the hill.
Innerdouny Hill in the Ochils was to be a short outing. At the start of the forest track just to the north of Littlerig, I parked to avoid obstructing access. En route I encountered a sizable plantation of pine trees not shown on my aged map, but finding a way through to the summit was easy enough. On regaining the road I made my way back, but when I reached the track end there was an empty space where my car should have been. At that moment, a fully-laden articulated timber lorry made its exit from the forest, with the driver smiling down from his cab as he drove past. This revealed an amazing sight; the reappearance of my car some 50 feet from the original spot where I'd parked. It was a relief to find that it was not damaged in any way. I suspect the lorry driver had somehow managed to move the car on his own. On rechecking the road-end, I realised that the driver must have had to use all of the available space to manoeuvre the length of his vehicle out of the forest track. Surely this disappearing car phenomenon can't happen again?
