*@^! It!

I`m back home after finishing at St Cyrus at 11.00 am on Wednesday.

At present I am trying to get my phone sorted out as between Virgin and Orange they have really ballsed it up.

The computer is chugging away processing the 600 or so video clips I have taken.

One little mistake (apart from the phone) was I forget to put a SD card in my still camera and carried it across Scotland unable to take any pictures with it! DOH!!! Luckily the video camera can take stills as well; so I got some pictures.

I not sure how I'm going to proceed with blogging about the trip, as I have some mixed feelings about it. I'll take the rest of the weekend to decide what to do.

While that is ongoing here is a clip from day three.

TGO Day 2 Tales from the riverbank

We had rain again during the night also strong winds. I was away by 8.30 once I could pack between showers. Again the track was good but this time I was on my own, I reached the Cougie turn off about 10.30 and followed the map, which ment crossing a stream; the terrocs at great for this, wet feet yes but they do dry quickly.

At this point things started to a bit wrong; I was struggling to find the second path East. After an hour of faffing about I decided to go back to the start and take the longer but easier track around.

As I was backtracking I bumped into two challengers and explained my problem; This seems I didn't need to cross the stream as the path stays to one side, bloody OS maps.

Anyway we made it Cougie by 2.15 and had lunch there.

I explained to the owners I wouldn't be staying and they were fine with it.

I carried on into Sunday's route and started climbing up the pass to Fort Augustus. For all thee snow they have had up here the pass is pretty dry, I was finding it hard to find any decent water.

I finally bumped into kate & Tim Wood camped next to a stream; so I've set up camp too GR292207.

It's now 20.15 15 May

TGO Day 1 I feel fine

Fairly good day's walking although it was a day of sunshine and showers so waterproofs on and off.

The walk up Glen lichd saw nice but the climb up to Fionngleann was a killer even though I know it was there.

Most of the day was spent leapfrogging two or three groups.

Camban bothy was a welcome sight as by then I was feeling quite tired but after a good rest and food I felt better.

Again following the crowd to Alltbeithe YH. From here I had to path to myself as most were staying at the YH.

I pushed on to Athnamulloch as the vetter told me that there were some flat pitches here; that's not strickly true as there is a lot of tussocks about but have found a pitch and am just waiting for dinner to cook.

The sun is now shining again and things look pretty good; only probrlem is tomorrow, I can't decide to go to Cougie as planned or push on into Sunday route and make the walk into Fort Augustus easier.

The walking today was better than expected.

It now 19:32 14 May; I'll post as soon as there is network.

Ready, Set....

After the panic from earlier in the week; everything is now packed and waiting for tomorrow.

Pack weight is around 11.5kg

I'm going to try and blog while on the trip but this is dependent on a phone signal, and so far tonight I haven't been able to send any updates, as Orange are having problems with their network.

As the posts will be via email they may end up being out of order, but hopefully they will make some kind of sense.

I will also be making use of Twitter; this will just be short updates but maybe easier than full posts every day.

So if anyone is interested in following along that way; just click the Twitter icon on the right and sign up.

So that's it for now; hopefully the next post will be from Scotland.

Get in There!!!!!!!

It's Official...

I have hit PANIC! mode.

Yesterday was spent on shopping trips to get last minute bits and pieces; gas, food, watch.

Yep; I don't own a watch. And although this trip isn't about timekeeping I do need to make sure I'm at certain places to make the right connections. See PANIC!

Yesterday I also realised that for some reason I can't fit everything in the GoLite Pinnacle, O.K. that's not strictly true; everything in the picture below fits into the pack, this is everything I am taking, minus food. But that's the problem, with all that lot in the pack there is no room for my maximum of 4 days worth of food. PANIC!


Now I say all that lot but it isn't that much; honest. The only piece I don't normally carry is the synthetic jacket, but I think I'm going to need this.

I've swapped the GoLite out for my Six Moon Designs pack, which has given me more room, in fact probably enough to get 4 days food in.

The weight is only around 11 kg but it seems as I'm having problem with bulky items.

TGO Challenge 6 to the End

This started out with the idea of previewing the days of my TGO Challenge but lack of time on my part; means I'm going to post the remaining days as one post.



Day Six; sees me going to a place I've wanted to visit for a while, Ruthen Barracks. Then head East to get into Glen Feshie and another wild camp somewhere in the upper part of the Glen.




Day Seven; continues in Glen Feshie, and along the Geldie Burn, the last time I was here I had to crossing the Geldie but this time, I'm on the right side.

Continuing East I'll be aiming for White Bridge and possibly another wild camp before Braemar.



Day eight should be the shortest of the whole trip, with a short hop into Braemar; for a day's rest the following day.



Day nine looks to be a long and interesting day. Long as it looks to be about 30km and interesting because the bothy I am hoping to be staying at that night has a reputation, as not being that easy to find.




Day ten is over Murkle Cairn into Glen Lee, Loch Lee and on to Tarfside.




Day eleven will be spent walking along the River North Esk into Edzell first of all; and as I now know it's little secret, it shouldn't be to long getting to the campsite at North Water Bridge.



The final day follows the lanes and roads into St Cyrus and then a bus to finish control at Montrose.