An early start got me to the Mar Lodge estate for breakfast at 9:30, and to Braemar soon after 11. And not a TGOer in sight! Many places were closed on this Monday morning. Braemar Sports provided the main hub of activity with a busy café now attached to the mountain gear shop. Having bought […]
Acharacle to Montrose The TGOC 2021 notes: days 10-14 Read More »
The Duke of Gordon Hotel is not an obvious choice for an overnight stay. My original plan was to pick up a resupply parcel and camp; but I needed gas too. TGOC management were able to arrange delivery of a canister to the hotel. So this worked well for me. As I approached the hotel
Acharacle to Montrose The TGOC 2021 notes: days 7-10 Read More »
[Viewing the blog – in case you hadn’t noticed pictures are zoomable if you click on them. Maps can be pulled and pushed to follow the route in blue. Maps can also be zoomed in and out and viewed full-screen.] The Macdonald hotel makes a pleasant stop. It is on the edge of town, exactly
Acharacle to Montrose the TGOC 2021 notes: days 4-6 Read More »
[Viewing the blog – in case you hadn’t noticed pictures are zoomable if you click on them. Maps can be pulled and pushed to follow the route in blue. Maps can also be zoomed in and out and viewed full-screen.] 14 Different start places on the west coast of Scotland. How to decide? And then
Acharacle to Montrose the TGOC 2021 notes: days 1-3 Read More »
Here we Go – TGOC 2021! The Great Outdoors Challenge Scotland coast-to-coast backpacking In 2016 I ‘walked’ through the jumble of rocks that make up Dirc Mhor, this time I will be definitely walking around! Planned for May 2020, postponed to 2021, and now shifted a month or so into the midge season! Here’s the
Here we go -TGOC 2021! Read More »
It’s October. Daylight appears at 7am and lasts until about 6 pm. This makes for a relaxed backpacking plan:- a core of 7 hours walking, topped and tailed by 2 hours for breaking and making camp. [route map at end of post] Arriving late on a Tuesday evening, I had the campsite to myself –
The Lakes – An Autumn Pitch Read More »
T was keen to revisit his youth! He had worked as a gillie on an estate while a fresh-faced student. He ran up and down the pathless hills to manoeuvre deer towards the hunters. On his days off he took free and walked to The West reaching the edge of that blank part of the
Knoydart – a TGO Challenge Pre-amble, or a Post-lockdown Taster? Read More »
Sometimes we cannot do the TGOC. When this last happened to me the Cape Wrath Trail (CWT) beckoned. In an earlier note I described the first half – planned as a mountain route. After illness moved the trip from May round to a rainy October, it became more low-level covering some of the areas frequented
If not the TGOC then …. why not the Lakeland 100? Read More »
The TGO Challenge – there’s lots of advice out there – so my small contribution may not add much. At least this catharsis will allow me to move on in my reflections – and focus on my new challenge for 2019. Some may think backpacking is backpacking is backpacking. But Scotland always has rain which
The map shows the route tracked from 30 minute beacons sent by a Spot satellite tracker and captured by Phil Sorrell’s Social Hiking site. Push and pull the map in the window below to see the route in blue. Pitlochry was planned as the first night indoors. I had tried to find somewhere earlier, but
TGO Challenge 2018 – Oban to Kinnabaer: #3 from Pitlochry Read More »