As the trek continues Will and Sam meet fellow challengers, swim in canals and fuel themselves on SuperNoodles


The beginning of our trek, Mallaig and the ceaselessly stunning Knoydart, both seem a long time ago, even though at the time of writing it’s only been five days.

The last time I blogged was in Invergarry. Since then Sam and I have touched upon Loch Ness at Fort Augustus (where we both had a swim in the Caledonian Canal), we’ve hiked up the Corrieyairack Pass which gave us far reaching views – right back to where we had started – and now we’re at Newtonmore in the Cairngorms.

It took a few days to meet any Challengers but we’re meeting them frequently now. We met two friends called Pete and Nick brewing tea on a mountain top, we heard their laughter long before we’d spotted where it was coming from. We also met a group in another bothy who had settled in by the fire with some whisky, one of them had been drawn to the TGO Challenge after reading an inspiring story about the Challenge in his local paper in Minneapolis.

We’ve had some more good wild camps since my last blog post, the nights are now a bit warmer so we’ve been able to sit out on the grass all evening and enjoy the views. Yesterday we found a bothy in the wild hills above Laggan. We got there moments after the rain arrived – the first bit of rain since we set off. We chopped some wood for the fire, cooked some ‘hearty’ grub (SuperNoodles) and settled in on the tattered and damp – but hugely appreciated – sofas in our little stone cottage as the drizzle set in outside.

Next up we’re hiking through Glen Feshie into the heart of the Cairgorms. The sense of adventure grows greater by the day…