TGO Challenge Preparations – Part 1: Warming-Up

It’s a week today until I set off for my 5th TGO Challenge, this time walking from Kilchoan to (hopefully) Kinnaber Links via an insanely rambling route that heads west more than a west to east route really should.

This is a route I’ve wanted to do for a while, and sitting in the bar at the Park Hotel at the end of my last Challenge in 2022, I swore that I’d let myself have it for the next one – if only to make up for some of the horrors of crossing number 4.

This will be my hardest route – some 380km long, with 4 Munros (which I consider optional), and 8,900m of ascent – and I needed to be in good shape, both mentally and physically.

I usually have a warm-up trip in late March or April to blow the cobwebs off both gear and skills, and this year I planned it as two warm-ups – the warm-up and the warm-up for the warm-up.

This was because having started the Southern Upland Way last year, I identified some time ago that finishing this would be an excellent warm-up for the Challenge, and April was the most convenient month to do it too. But given that alone is 8-10 days of backpacking, and hence not far short of the Challenge itself, I felt the need (or, do I mean excuse) for a shorter trip to get ready for the SUW.

The Warm-up for the Warm-up

I duly headed to Cumbria to see if I could knock out the Cumbria Way in 5 days. This was my first long distance trail back in 2011, and I took 10 days, although that did include a number of detours to bag Wainwrights and 3 nights spent in the same place, for the same reason.

The plan this time was to fill in some of the gaps left by the detours I made on the original walk and to put into practice some of the thoughts I’d had about the trail in the intervening years.

I headed to Cumbria via the overnight coach to Preston and the first train to Ulverston.

I wasn’t long outside Ulverston when I hit the first muddy field and slithered all over the place. And again and again. I had very little grip on my shoes and ended up on the road. I made my target for day 1 of Beacon Tarn, but somewhat frazzled.

The next day, more of the same and after a long sit on a bench overlooking Tarn Hows I was almost ready to call it.

None of the walking was that difficult, but the painfully slow progress and the chances of me taking a tumble ate away at me. Eventually I walked out to the road and got a bus the rest of the way.

Two nights camped in Langdale did something to restore spirits, but one thing was clear – I wasn’t going to finish the Cumbria Way. I didn’t have time, let alone the inclination. I resolved that the rest of the trip would be focused purely on doing what I wanted to do.

The next day I climbed up to Angle Tarn and then descended to Langstrath for my final camp. A great camp but a windy pack up set me on edge again. I made it down to Stonethwaite to end the trip.

I came home from that trip, confidence dented – I’d failed to do a walk I’d done previously even though I’ve got lots more experience, a lighter pack weight, better gear, and have walked under such conditions plenty of times before. Part of this was a bad call on the footwear – if I could get that wrong, what else would I muck up next time around?

I wouldn’t have long to find out. Three weeks later it was time for the second trip, and I couldn’t afford for this one to go badly.

The Actual Warm-up

The plan was to return to the Southern Upland Way and have a go at finishing it off. I walked the first chunk from Portpatrick to Sanquhar in April last year, and wanted to do the remaining 190km now. It should be excellent TGO Challenge preparation as it would take 8 or 9 days of walking over remote terrain.

But after my recent experience of Cumbria, I was concerned that I’d have to contend with similar ground conditions and feared that it would lead to a bail out. This would shatter what remaining shreds of confidence remained, ahead of what I expected to be my hardest Challenge yet. This would be a disaster.

So with reports from other people confirming the state of the ground in the Southern Uplands, I started looking at a better option. I needed firmer ground above all, but the easier it was logistically the better too.

Ultimately I opted to re-walk the Great Glen Way, which I did originally in October 2021 with my pal Paul. Not only was this firmer terrain but it was familiar terrain too. This would heavily stack the odds in my favour.

Initially I considered doing it in the reverse direction to make it feel a bit different, but the traditional SW-NE direction made better logistical sense.

Overnight bus from London and a Citilink to Fort William got me to the start of the trail for about 1:30.

My first day’s target was Gairlochy – there’s few camping spots along the Caledonian Canal, and having hired a key for the canalside facilities, I wanted to use them: so Gairlochy it was.

The first night of the trip over with, I could settle into the walk properly. I always find this on the Challenge too – it doesn’t feel real until day 2. And in this case, I remembered day 2 as including my favourite section. I set off enthusiastically to enjoy the shores of Loch Lochy, and whilst it was great, it didn’t quite match what it’s like in autumn.

Day 2 finished with a couple of detours. The first one to avoid the hydro works at Glas-dhoire, which has also relocated the Trailblazer rest stop back a bit along the trail.

And then as I emerged from the forest, I took the Invergarry link for my overnight accommodation, but also because the route from Laggan up to Oich Bridge on the other side of the loch is closed.

It felt like a really long way to the campsite, and it was uphill. I felt much the same as I did the first time I stayed there – at the end of a gruelling 38km day 3 of my 2019 Challenge.

Day 3 was very much a recap of the following day from that 2019 Challenge, at least as far as Fort Augustus. I climbed into the forest, and was soon caught by Jack from the Netherlands. We chatted as far as Bridge of Oich, where I stopped for a break while he forged on.

After Fort A, where I’d foolishly stopped for an overpriced and under-portioned eat-in meal, I followed the low route as far as Inver Coille, my campsite for the night.

Day 4 was an easy walk into Invermoriston for breakfast at the awesome Glen Rowan cafe, before the horror of the steep road climb back into the forest. Unsure whether to go low or high route, I found myself unthinkingly taking the high route and forging past the camp spot we used last time. The plan today was to get to Drumnadrochit, which I duly did, but my feet were ready to stop.

Last time we also broke Drum to Inverness into two days, but I was on a schedule – wanting to get to at least the outskirts of Inverness by the end of today (Friday) for parkrun the next morning. This was going to be a slog.

An epically steep climb up through the forest was at least rewarded with some good views of Loch Ness and some more level ground.

As before, I decided not to risk the Eco Cafe, especially having met a couple coming the other way who complained about a fixed menu at a fixed, very large, price that the owners refused to divulge beforehand. Screw that, and screw them – I’ll take my money to the big corporates instead.

The final slog along the road to Blackfold, and the realisation that I’d still got another 10km to go, at the point we stopped for the day last time. The descent to Torvean seemed to take forever, but at least my AirBnB was right by the canal.

My room faced north, and the owners told me there was a possibility of seeing the Northern Lights from my room! I did look but nothing.

The next morning, I polished off parkrun across the canal, and then headed into the city centre to formally finish the walk with the last 3km to Inverness Castle.

I still had time to kill, so crossed town to the marina to drop off the key to the canalside facilities and completed the loop back to my accommodation.

In the next post I’ll cover some of the practical aspects of preparation, including travel plans, provisioning and some of the peculiarities of the route itself.