hike | camp | paint
[Planned route, excluding FWAs, in blue. Actual route in red] For 2025, I chose the little-used start point of Ardrishaig - this year only 5 out of the circa 300 starters used it. Now, I'm still relatively early in my Challenge "career", and haven't yet exhausted the more popular start points, so why pick Ardrishaig … Continue reading TGO Challenge 2025: Ardrishaig to Aberdeen
Day 12: Ballater to Aboyne 20.9km and 51m of ascent. Total distance so far: 299.0km There were 6 Challengers staying on the main tent field, and I was very much the last to go. But even so I was away by 0840, which timed it just right to pop into the Co-op to buy something … Continue reading TGO Challenge 2025 – Part 4: The Deeside Way, Ballater to Aberdeen (Days 12-15)
Day 9: Blair Atholl to Bynack Lodge 28.1km and 597m of ascent. Total distance so far: 227.3km Woken by the %^&*ing crows, I decided to not try to go back to sleep, and instead opted for an early start (0650). Due to an oversight, there was no porridge for breakfast this morning, and a hasty … Continue reading TGO Challenge 2025 – Part 3: Blair Atholl to Ballater (Days 9-11)
Day 5: Glencoe Resort to Rannoch Moor 10.2km and 180m of ascent. Total distance so far: 129.4km After returning to my tent last night, I unpacked my parcel and did some thinking. Over the last couple of days a decision had been brewing about my route for the next section: specifically, that I probably wasn't … Continue reading TGO Challenge 2025 – Part 2: Glencoe Mountain Resort to Blair Atholl (Days 5-8)
Getting to the start As has now become a bit of a tradition, I got to Scotland on the overnight coach from London - this gives fundamentally the same journey, and even timings, as the sleeper, but for £20 instead of £70 (for a seat not a bed). The key to making this work, though, … Continue reading TGO Challenge 2025 – Part 1: Ardrishaig to Glencoe Mountain Resort (Days 0-4)
Day 9: Saturday 18 May - Newtonmore to Ruigh-aitechain 23km with 318m ascent It took a while to really get going today, which I think is a legacy of my original plan to pop up to Aviemore to do parkrun, then come back and do the day's (short) walk in the afternoon. Having scrapped the … Continue reading TGO Challenge 2024 – Part 3: Newtonmore to Ballater (including video)
Day 5: Tuesday 14 May - Fort William to Clunes 24 km with 123m ascent The seed of an idea sprouted late last night and I decided to sleep on it. I really wasn't feeling well and things could now go one of several ways: I could retire, I could try to stick to my … Continue reading TGO Challenge 2024 – Part 2: Fort William to Newtonmore (including video)
Day 1: Friday 10 May - Kilchoan to Sanna(ish) 21 km with 464m ascent The Tobermory clocktower woke me far earlier than was ideal, and after sitting it out as long as I could, got up and went out in search of breakfast and for a leg stretch. Back in the room, I packed, grabbed … Continue reading TGO Challenge 2024 – Part 1: Ardnamurchan (including video)
Usually, simply getting to the start wouldn't warrant a post all of its own, but then I don't usually start in Kilchoan. To get to Kilchoan you can take the bus from Fort William, but there's also a more intrepid way of getting there that many Challengers use, and which I did this year. The … Continue reading TGO Challenge 2024 – Part 0: Getting to the Start
*I originally wrote most of this post before setting off, but didn't quite finish it, so what you have here is updated to change all the verbs to the past tense and with some added hindsight...* Provisioning As on all of my Challenges so far, the plan was to be relying on home-dehydrated food topped … Continue reading TGO Challenge Preparations – Part 3: Practical Stuff
With my head now in the game, I have started to look forward to the Challenge, and this post will cover the planned route, the process that led to it, and how I plan to get to and from the start/end. The Route I am one of a small handful of Challengers who have opted … Continue reading TGO Challenge Preparations – Part 2: The Route
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 … Continue reading TGO Challenge Preparations – Part 1: Warming-Up
You know when you've waited and waited for something, and when it actually comes, it's a little bit of an anti-climax ? That. This is not to say I didn't enjoy the Challenge - merely to say that I built up such expectations of this one that they were never all going to be fully … Continue reading TGO Challenge 2022: Reflections
Darren and I agreed a meeting time last night, and I'm there a few moments early as Darren is walking over from his camp spot. That worked well. We cross the Cowie and head south to Hill of Quithel. As we go, and come into phone signal range, I'm messaging Brian. Brian had been stalking … Continue reading TGO Challenge 2022 – Day 15: The End
The X-Mid dweller turns out to be Immo, a chap we've seen before on the trade route into Braemar. He's not in great shape and talking about getting the bus to Aberdeen. We make some encouraging noises about "seeing how you go", and leave him to it. Just along from the campsite entrance lies a … Continue reading TGO Challenge 2022 – Days 13 and 14: Slow Down and Enjoy