TGO Challenge: Accepted!
We’re there! Or at least, we are at the start of there. Gabe and I have had our application accepted to join what will be our first The Great Outdoors Challenge, a self-routed coast-to-coast jaunt across Scotland exploring the lovely wilds. It “officially” ends in Montrose, where everyone has the opportunity to meet the other Challengers and have a well-deserved celebration, but unofficially you need to touch your toes to the west coast and then dip your toes in the east coast at the end of your trip to consider it completed.
The route planning process is now firmly on our plate and at the moment we have a few vague ideas of what we’d like to see en-route, but little else firmly agreed. The attraction of the TGO is that there is no set route, you can make it as challenging or as simple as you like to fit your abilities and aspirations. Or in other words they give you just enough rope to hang yourself if you decide to make your crossing too ambitious!
With that in mind (we’re fit but aren’t supermen) we’re looking to put a route together without it all being up and down Munros — but we’re conscious that we might not do this again and don’t want to find the route too benign by not challenging ourselves enough. It’s a great outdoors “challenge”, after all. As part of this whole route finding process it’s been quite humbling to realise how much I need to up my knowledge of the Scottish wilds. Scottish Hill Tracks has been duly added to the reading list and shall be perused with much brow-furrowing, particularly when there is just so much choice. At this point it’s looking like a 300km+ route and close to twice the vertical height of Everest throughout the trip — we’ll have to see whether we can narrow down the exact areas.
There are loads of questions worth asking as part of this, “Do we take the iconic locations like the Lairig Ghru?”, “How many rest days do we want/likely to need?”, “Do we want to join the other Challengers at Aviemore/social areas like Tarfside?”. And most importantly “will our feet be in one piece if we take a high route over all that distance?” (likely, no, no they won’nt). Having dipped my toes in the water of route-planning, I have quickly realised this phase is as involved as the hike itself and indeed is what many ‘novice’ backpackers struggle with. How do you structure it when you can go anywhere but don’t know the area well enough.
What really helps for us:-
- Divide your route up based on Resupply Points — probably every 4–5 days.
- Treat each sub-route as it’s own trip.
- Make sure you consider hygiene, so either route via campsites or hotel rooms if you’re being ‘posh’ or simply routing via streams (‘burns’) if you’re doing it the old fashioned way and wild camping the whole route.
- Remember if you’re a comfortable, fit day hiker — that longer trips add a lot of cumulative fatigue and it’s always easier to spend more time in camp than feel exhausted and stop enjoying it.
One thing we have noticed from pursuing maps is the fantastic opportunity for a little symmetry at the start and end of our Challenge route — by starting and finishing at iconic castles. The vague route so far will start at the majestic Eilean Donan on the west coast; and end close to two weeks later at the beautiful Dunnottar Castle, pictured above, perched upon the eastern coast just outside of the fishing town of Stonehaven. No doubt we’ll be tired by then, but hopefully it’ll be worth it — having experienced an area of the world so beautiful that many Challengers walk across Scotland every year (the mad bastards keep signing up!) and keep trying to quench their thirst to take all of it in.
