On a wet winters morning when repeating a local hill walk for the umpteenth time simply doesn’t fill you with enthusiasm, it’s easy to wonder whether after all these years, you’re beginning to exhaust the possibilities. But look a little closer at this small Island we live on and you realise you’ve only really begun to scratch the surface. Continue reading
After much deliberation here’s what I’m planning to take on the TGO Challenge this year.
Final base weight is 7.4 kg including all my shell gear, camera etc. I’m assuming worst case weight, so a sunny start from Lochailort wearing minimal gear. Everything else in or on the pack.
Miles walked: 810 (short of my 1000 mile target, but doesn’t include 266 miles of evening TGO training walks)
Longest trip: 220 miles on the TGO challenge
Nights under canvas: 22 (not nearly enough)
High point: Laughing over a pint with the Chuckle Brothers until it hurt, in Braemar on the TGO **
Low Point: Doing an accidental back flip into a deep peaty ditch on day 1 of the TGO
Best days walk: Second day of the Limestone Lion from Malham to Grassington on a gloriously sunny spring day
Most expensive piece of kit purchased: Z-Packs 20 degree sleeping bag
Best piece of kit purchased: Vivo Barefeet ultralight trainers
Piece of kit I actually didn’t need to buy: All of it…it’s pure indulgence
Gear purchase excuses I used : (I) Orange is no longer fashionable. (ii) My life may depend on it, (iii) This one goes to 11
What I did too much of : Looking out of the window and deciding to wait until the weather was better
What I didn’t do enough of: Getting out while the weather ‘was’ good ** Not the Chuckle Brothers, obviously.
Backpacked this little trail with a difference over a very hot few days last July. Continue reading
Well the Vetter’s comments about my suggested route are back, and it looks as though I could have picked a drier route underfoot in Waterworld.
Selected comments from different days include;
So let’s get this straight, what I appear to have planned is a 200 mile walk through this !
Well after months of deliberation, routing, re-routing and laptop crashes I just made the deadline for submitting my Route Sheets for the TGO 2014.
As a TGO newbie I think I badly underestimated the number of evenings I thought I’d need to get the pre-planning done. I mean, how hard could it be I thought. I get the train up to some place on the west coast of Scotland, turn to face roughly east and then put one foot after another for about 200 miles until the land runs out and your feet get a briny wash.
Yeah right ! Continue reading
A Life's Walk 