Close call for camper who sleepwalked into the Spey
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A BANFF camper “sleepwalked” into Scotland’s fastest-flowing river, and lived
to tell the tale.
Carer John Ord, who woke up soaking wet in woods on the opposite bank of the River Spey from where he had pitched his tent, a quarter of a mile away, admitted: “I am lucky to be alive”.
Mr Ord (47) had been on a hillwalking trip with his brother-in-law, James Mackintosh (36), from Macduff, and they decided to camp on a small beach in an area known as the Bathing Pool by the Spey, just off the A95 in Grantown about two weeks ago.
Mr Ord, from Banff, explained: “It was a beautiful night. We put up our two-man tent, had something to eat and sat around drinking a couple of beers.
“James went to bed, and I stayed sitting outside, but I must have dozed off. The next thing I knew, I was soaking wet from the neck down, in the dark, in the middle of some woods.
“I don’t think I fell in, as the cowboy hat I had been wearing was bone-dry. I must have sleepwalked into the river and swum along. I think if I had woken up in the water, I would have drowned!”
