TGO Challenge 2012 - Not Even Close

Well I've been back home more than two weeks and still haven't written this up, so here goes (deep breath)...

Having pulled out of the 2011 Challenge at the last minute because of shin problems, it was a relief to get on the train for Edinburgh.  At Newcastle I'd picked up another Challenger, Harry James, and by Inverness, there was a half a train full of them.

Day 1: Strathcarron to Pait Lodge

I left the hotel on the bong of 9am and walked with Mike Knipe for the first half mile until he turned off north. Far be it from me to tell him Montrose was to the east.

So this was it. It was raining but the weather was coming from behind, the track ahead looked long, I was mildly hungover, on my own and there was nothing to distract me from noticing every twinge in my legs. Was I really up to this? I'd planned this route 2 years ago, it had been vetted twice, but did I actually want to walk across Scotland any more? I could see a few other Challengers ahead of me and the gap increasing. I could walk Scottish hill tracks without having to commit to two weeks of day on day backpacking. Oh nagging self doubt be gone!

Wilderness out of Strathcarron

Carl and an unknown rucksack in the bothy at Bedroig Lodge

I stopped at Bendroig Lodge for lunch and reached the east end of Loch Calavie and my proposed camp about 2pm. It seemed a bit early to stop and it didn't look very inviting place to put up a tent, let alone lie in it for 15-16 hrs. So it was on to Pait Lodge.

A few people had told me it was quite hard going as the path on the map doesn't exist (and they were right - it was and it doesn't). Anyway, it had to be done sooner or later. I caught up with the 3 Scots (whose names I've forgotten but could find out if I looked) when the track ran out and we floundered around in the morass with occasional glimpses of Carl Mynot a mile or so in front. I was wishing I could teleport to where he was, though when I got to where he was, I was wishing I could teleport to anywhere else but there. The trees around Pait Lodge seemed within reach but having lost height I'd got myself in a whole mess of bog and peat haggs and brown sticky porridgy stuff and was about to burst into tears like a big girl, then decided that would just make the ground wetter. So instead I crawled on hands and knees out of a big hole I'd dropped into, reached the bridge and then spent 5 minutes trying to open the gate into the grounds of Pait Lodge. Mike had said something the night before about how to do this but I hadn't listened attentively enough.

Rainbow over Pait Lodge

And then a bit more crashing and splashing and splodging and cursing and I came across Carl lying spread-eagled on a rock, looking for all the world as if he had been spread out for any passing eagle. And I said, there s'posed to be a place just up here to camp and he said let's go and off he went, like someone trying to escape from a predatory eagle. And we found a handy, dandy place to camp by a weee burrrrnn and I collapsed in my tent and it was an hour before I had enough energy to do the blowy up thing with the NeoAir and strike a match over the pocket rocket.

Camp by Allt Riabhachain above Pait Lodge

And then Carl spotted a brace of Golden Eagle circling above the snow clad hills - or they may actually have been Osprey, cos there a few of those round there. Anyway, it was dead impressive and gave us a wild and remote feeling and there was only another 154 miles to walk. And then I slept for a long time

More to follow (eventually)...

North to the Cape - Day 7: Glen Ling to Strathcarron

This was to be our last day and we had just 8 miles left to reach Strathcarron.  The tents were wet but at least it stopped raining while we packed them away.  We set off about 9:30 and I was glad that I had had my last breakfast of  noodles and soup for a while.  I really do need to change the menu (please, nobody suggest porridge).

We reached the Allt Loch Innis nan Seangan (I'm also relieved I don't have to type that again), which was easy to cross and started to gain height as the track turned north towards the bealach and forestry. It rained on and off but it was a pleasant and peaceful walk with varied views from the snaking River Ling, through scented pine woods and out to  more open countryside above Attadale.  There was little or no wind and it had got a bit midgy on this side, so we kept moving in a bid to outrun them, which was of course futile.

Upper Glen Ling

After a kink in the lane, to get round Attadale House and Gardens, we met the A890, which was really very unpleasant.  Apart from the feeling we had been spat back into the real world, there was no footpath or verges and quite a lot of fast moving traffic.  In addition the road climbs quite steeply as it cuts over the western end of Carn Ruaridh.  Why couldn't it have been built it alongside the railway line?  Periodically we would have to dive for cover as another vehicle sped past, and in places where there was a bit of a verge, we kicked our way through discarded bottles and cans.  It felt like a poor end to what had been a fine walk.  However, some relief was at hand in the form of two things. 

The first was an unexpected viewpoint, with a tourist information point describing the Moine Thrust on the far side of the loch.  I think it was probably  mentioned in The Joy of Sex but I'd long since given my copy to Oxfam to send out to Africa. 

Loch Carron from the view point

 The Moine Thrust

The second and even more exciting (yes, I appreciate that's hard to believe) was a tea room at the bottom of the hill (marked on the OS 1:50k as Pottery), assuming we survived the campervans driven by anxious tourists, who were not going to slow down for anything and risk losing momentum up this stretch of 1 in 5.  It took a few minutes to make ourselves presentable enough to go inside and we sat at the first empty table before anyone noticed the odour of socks and asked us to leave.  We might well have stayed there all afternoon but it was only another mile to Strathcarron, where a hotel room, hot shower and bar awaited us. 

Strathcarron Hotel
















It took a little while to find anyone at the hotel to give us our key but the goth receptionist was a very pleasant lass (well I thought so).  Christine opened the window and put our boots and socks out on the flat roof just below it.  We could probably have bottled the smell and sold it to the military as a biological WMD. 

The bar was typical of many in this part of Scotland with pictures of the local shinty team on the walls and a motley assortment of people including two oil men and some local fishermen who came to sit at the table next to ours.  They were big and loud and it was impossible not to overhear their conversation but apart from a few words which sounded close to english, I've no idea what they were saying.  The younger of the three fishermen felt it necessary to repeat  back to the two older ones, everything they said but in the form of a question.  "They're putting in new bouys".  "So they're putting in new bouys?"  "Aye, that's right lad, they're putting in new bouys". After more than 10 minutes of this 'Groundhog Day' experience I was close to interjecting to ask if he had some hearing or comprehension problem but Christine saved me from myself and ordered some more Red Cuillin.

So we'd done what we set out to do - 70 miles from Glenfinnan to Strathcarron with16,000 ft of ascent . We'd deviated from the original plan in terms of some of the places we stopped at night but it had all worked out pretty well.  We'd had two nights in bothies, two in tents, two in hotels and one in a garden shed.  I'm pleased we took the route through Knoydart and not Cameron McNeish's with his 'up the middle' start.  I walked Glen Affric and Glen Lichd last year on the challenge anyway, and they are both very fine,  but I think the North to the Cape start is much more in the spirit of what a route to Cape Wrath should deliver.  I don't know if it is the toughest long distance walk in Scotland, a description  I have read in a few places.  I'll maybe have more of an opinion when I've done the rest of it.  If we had been continuing, we would certainly have taken a day off at Strathcarron.  Knoydart is full on, intense, rugged and wild. You're hemmed in by the mountains and sea all the way.  It's a good value for money route that you have to commit to and be confident in your navigation, hillwalking and camping skills.  Until Shiel Bridge, any escape route would need a least a day to reach somewhere useful, unless you could get a ride out from KLH.

So this leaves the question of when we will come back to complete the remaining 120 miles to Cape Wrath.  It won't be this year and if we get on the Challenge next year, it may have to wait until 2012, which would be very frustrating as I am itching to experience the rest of the trail.

The End

Distance for the day: 8 miles and 1600 ft of ascent.  Totals from Glenfinnan: 70 miles and 16,000 ft.