Two kilts & 3 lungs across Scotland

 

In the beginning:

This year’s TGO Challenge very nearly didn’t happen for me: Covid-19 being responsible for he cancellation of last year’s event, and delaying this year’s. Also, I’ve been firing on just one lung for the last 2½ years, and very recent surgery to try to kickstart my non-functioning lung had been, well, very recent – just a few weeks prior to the Challenge start date.

Whatever..

At stupid o’clock on Thursday morning I boarded the train to Preston to connect with the awful Transpennine Express ‘First Class’ service to Glasgow Central – the only thing that was first class about it was the comfortable seat. No reserved seating, no refreshment service – nada, nothing, nowt. 

At least I had the foresight to buy some decent reading material before boarding the train.

 

Note to self: Avoid Transpennine Express in future.

 Me and Judith at Glasgow Queen Street (Mike's photo)

I met up with other Challengers at Glasgow, and along with Judith and Mike, we navigated our way to the recently ‘improved’ Glasgow Queen Street station for the next leg of our journey to Oban. The improvements included no refreshments. Great. Fortunately there was a Greggs not too far away.

On arrival at Oban it was felt that Mike and I should improve our levels of hydration to help prepare ourselves for the coming Challenge. Six hours later we rolled out of the pub, completely rehydrated and in high spirits. It was great to see musician buddy Lindy (who now lives in Oban) and fellow Challenger Ian in the pub.

We spent a comfortable night in Oban’s SYHA, waking to glorious weather – warm, sunshine, gentle breeze…all rather lovely really. We headed back to, er, the pub – for breakfast and a goodly amount of coffee.

The view from our hostel window

Brekky down the pub

The obligatory Great Wetting Of The Feet

Try as we might, we couldn’t delay our departure any further. First waypoint on our route was McCaig’s Tower, above Oban. ‘Above’ meant this was the first climb of our Challenge –  the climb out of town was a bit of a rude awakening!

View from McCaig's Tower

Men in Kilts at McCaig's Tower

After a quick photo-shoot (and a pause for me to catch my breath) we meandered out of town along the long and winding road that is Glen Lonan.

Much tarmac followed. And there was an eagle. And a very fine and erect standing stone. Oh, and a blockage.

One for AlanR

Ask Mike, he knows what they're called.

After a load of very accurately measured kilometers and ascent we pitched up next to Eas Mor Burn where there weren’t many midges at all. Or ticks.

I’d treated my clothing to a good dose of Permethryn prior to setting off, I also carried Smidge, a midge jacket and a head net, plus (and I’m very grateful to Dawn for her recommendation) Citronella incense sticks, produced by Stamford. They very successfully kept midges out of my tent for the entire trip.

In an attempt to reduce my pack weight I opted for a lighter-weight tent this year, I’d obtained a second hand. pre-loved, previously owned or whatever, Scarp 1 in good condition. It’s rather lighter than the Akto, in addition the inner is larger and it has two porches – although individually, they’re smaller than the Akto’s single porch. It took me a few days to get used to having two porches and making optimum use of them.

I always thought the Akto was quick to put up, the Scarp is even quicker – a boon in wet weather.

There are a few minor modifications I’ll be making to the Scarp, but I can safely say that it’s a keeper – although not for the depths of winter, that’s where the Akto scores.

I had a lovely tea of home-made and home dehydrated lamb stew – very tasty.

The first day had gone well. Although there were no hills to speak of, my one functioning lung was strutting it’s stuff – maybe all this walking will encourage the other lung to join the party. I know I’ll never regain full lung function, but owt is better than nowt.

MSR Titan Kettle Burny Fingers 1st June 2021

I’ve been using my MSR Titan kettle for a good few years, it’s favourite bit of kit. I like it because it’s titanium and therefore very lightweight, and I can store a gas canister and a Primus windshield inside it when I’m packed.

I’ve used it with various stoves: a Caldera Cone meths burner, a Pocket Rocket clone, and an Optimus Nova multi-fuel stove.

Points are knocked off because it’s so expensive (but that’s titanium for you), and burny fingers: the metal wire handles get seriously hot, especially when I use it with the Caldera Cone. I have the scars to prove it.

I recently spotted a solution on a post on an outdoorsy FB page: slip a length of silicone rubber sleeving over the metal wire handles – it works perfectly!

 

Pre-Modification 

 

Apres Modification

I also flipped the handles round so that they’re ‘upside down’ compared to the original. This has two advantages: I find the kettle handles easier to grip, and because the shorter part of the handle is now closer to the heat source, it heats up less.

If you want to do this mod yourself, the wire handles are 3mm diam. I sourced the silicone sleeving from Amazon, 3mm ID x 6mm OD., it’s available from other suppliers too, search for:

‘Sourcing map Silicone Tubing 3mm ID x 6mm OD 10ft Flexible Silicone Rubber Tube Air Hose Water Pipe for Pump Transfer Red’

Gear Test: Sleeping mat pumps

An alternative to lung power was needed in order to keep the dreaded moisture from making a mess of the inside of my expensive sleeping mat, so….

Left to Right:  

FlextailGear, Thermarest Mini-Pump, Thermarest Poly Bag Pump

 

Thermarest Polythene Bag Pump

The was first option I explored. The pump consists of a short section of very flexible tubing that has a large open-ended polythene bag on one end, whilst t’other end is pushed over the inlet valve of the sleeping mat.

The idea is that the poly bag is opened up to it’s max, then with the open end of the bag scrunched closed, the air is squeezed out, thus inflating the sleeping mat.

It’s good, it works, it’s lightweight, and the batteries never go flat. I paid around £10 for mine 6-7 years ago, quite expensive for a bit of tubing and a poly bag – but it does work well. I store mine in an old sleeping bag liner stuff sack, total weight is 68gms.

6-8 squeezes are enough to fully inflate my full-size NeoAir, taking a couple of minutes.

The bad news is that I don’t think it’s available any more having been replaced by Thermarest’s Blockerlite Pump Sack – a similar idea, but rather than a poly bag, it uses a stuff sack. Price is around £34.

Thermarest NeoAir Mini-Pump

I bought this on the recommendation of my friend Beryl the Peril (aka Margaret) who was, and still is, delighted with her pump.

The gentle buzz emanating from her tent as she enjoyed a brew and her sleeping mat inflated (whilst I was going cross-eyed trying to inflate mine with lung power) was enough to convince me to buy one!

This is an electric pump, powered by 2 AAA cells. Thermarest recommend using Lithium cells, presumably for longer life and maybe (?) their ability to provide higher current. I only had a quick look around but I couldn’t find the capacity of these cells. I store it in a small poly bag, total weight is 80gms.

I power mine with 2 Energizer alkaline cells, they seem to work well enough. The pump draws around 300mA, so batteries will be taking a bit of a hammering.

The pump is operated by opening an end flap that conceals a flexible rubber nozzle which should be connected to the sleeping mat air valve. The pump starts to run when the flap is opened.

Mine developed a fault earlier this year, it was only minor but it stopped it working. I repaired it at home (it was just a corroded battery connector) but it wouldn’t be repairable in the field. I stripped it, cleaned it, and soldered a copper connector in as a replacement.

I paid £32 for mine, a recent advert I spotted has them priced at £40.

It took 3 mins 40 secs to fully inflate my Neoair, not quick.

FlextailGear pump

I’ve only very recently bought this pump so haven’t had time to try it out in the field. Yet.

It’s larger, and at 159gms, twice the weight of the Thermarest Mini-Pump. It’s powered by an internal rechargeable Lithium Ion cell, presumably 3.6v. Capacity, according to the ‘manual’ and markings on the pump case, is 3600mAh. The electrical power rating of the pump is published at 15W. Charging is via a mini usb charger, not supplied – although a short lead is supplied. It comes with a stuff sack, plus a selection of adapters to suit different-sized valves.  The pump has an one / off slide switch on it’s side.

The pump has inlet and outlet ports, so as well as inflating it can be used to FULLY deflate a sleeping mat – saves struggling to get every last bit of air out prior to trying to squeeze it into it’s stuff bag.

Where this pump scores is the time it takes to inflate my NeoAir: 40 seconds – rather quicker than the Thermarest Mini-Pump.

Assuming the power source is a single 3.6v Lithium Ion cell, and that the 3600mAh capacity is correct, the claimed 15W power rating = a current draw of around 4.2 Amps.

I don’t know much about the characteristics of Lithium Ion cells, but the sums, guesstimation, (and a smattering of experience of discharge rates) suggest a theoretical total pumping time of around 40 minutes.

Price: £24.99

Conclusion

Each pump has it’s own merits. Although it’s a great performer, I’m not sure whether I’d take the FlextailGear on long trips – weight and the non-replaceable battery being the main drawbacks. I’d be happy taking it on shorter trips of 2 – 4 days though.

The Neoair Mini-Pump is slow and fairly lightweight - but batteries are replaceable. I’m not 100% sure on reliabilty though.

The NeoAir Poly Bag pump is lightest, the batteries last forever, and it has no moving parts – although it’s a bit of a faff to use. For longer trips this is the one to go for.

 

A night with a Madwoman. And a gear test.

It was all a bit last minute. I needed to get out for some serious brain-straightening peace and quiet, plus I had some new(ish) kit to test out.

I packed my rucksack and travelled by train to Edale, alighting in the late afternoon. I scuttled up Grindsbrook Clough in the failing light and once at the top, headed east (East is good) along the edges to a nice little spot by Madwoman's Stones.

It was dark by the time I was putting the tent up, but the sky was clear and the moon was shining brightly - and it was damned cold. I grabbed a couple of litres of water from the trickling stream at Jaggers Clough and got my tea on the go

My Plan, given the lovely clear skies, was to spend a bit of time taking photographs by moonlight. The Plan, like so many plans, failed. By the time I'd eaten and sorted my kit out it had clouded over. And then it started to rain. And then it got very windy. VERY windy.

Ho hum.

I was checking some new kit out: a NeoAir X-Therm, a down-filled balaclave (for sleeping in) and down-filled socks.

The socks and balaclava all came from AliExpress for around £15 each.

Balaclava: 85gms, Down socks: 105gms

All this kit worked superbly well, I spent a very warm and cosy night in spite of the horribly cold conditions. I was so warm that I had to unzip my sleeping bag and remove the balaclava during the night.

 My wind-battered Akto

Leave no trace

 My water source at Jaggers Clough....a bit peaty!

Jaggers Clough

 Descent into Edale

Next morning I headed down by Ringing Roger, back into Edale for my train home.

Good bits:
a) All the kit I took out for testing worked well
b) I had a nice overnighter.

Bad bits:
a) I forgot to take a compass (tsk).
b) I've decided that my Caldera Cone meths stove really isn't up to winter camping trips.
c) I missed my intended train home 'cos of phone call...so I had to drink filter coffee in the cafe by the station....so it wasn't ALL bad!

TGOC2018, Day 9…A Bacon Butty Start

In which Chef Pieman excelled

At 7.30am a bacon barm was thrust (a good word that, ‘thrust’…I must use it again) into my tent as I was slurping my second caffeine shot of the day. Mike had been busy cleaning the camps site’s communal frying pan and using his culinary expertise to maximum effect. I thrust the bacon barm down my neck, washiung it down with what was left of my mug of coffee. Thanks Mike – it was good, and a pleasant change from my usual muesli.

The sun was shining brightly and the laundry I’d left out all night was virtually dry - my white undies were now only slightly grey.

We left the campsite, continuing east along the disused railway line that coincided with the Rob Roy Way and then along a very quiet lanes for a couple of miles.

A seriously BIG hare bounced away across the road and into this freshly ploughed fields as we approached.

Came across a farmer from the North Riding of Yorkshire who was moving his cattle around. We stopped to chat – what a sad story he had to tell: during WW2 his house had been destroyed by a crashing aircraft – one of ours. His parents and his brother had been killed in the accident. He described his life as being ruined. I can’t imagine how such a young lad would have coped with that loss. The widow of the pilot had offered to adopt the orphan – she must have felt distraught too.

On to happier stuff…

Yet another bridge over the River Tay

Stopped for a quick chat with the couple doing the Rob Roy Way, they were finishing in Pitlochry later that day. They’d wild camped before us the previous night.

Into Ballinnluig and the very excellent Red Brolly Inn: Sausage, eggs, chips & beans plus a pot of tea: £7.90. Lovely staff too, You should go.

Ballinluig’s petrol station type shop. I don’t think this petrol pump works these days.

Left the town and headed in the general direction of Kirkmichael where I had a parcel of goodies waiting for me. Came across a couple of young Challenge virgins, Joanna and Oliver. They were having a blast and were both determined to return to the Challenge in 2019, maybe dragging their fathers along with them.

Joanna and Oliver walked with us and we camped together by Lochan Oisinneach Mor at NO029552.

Joanna & Oliver…you might need to look carefully!

Lochan Oisinneach Mor at NO029552

I was interested to see the solar chargers that Joanna and Oliver were carrying. Oliver’s was quite a large affair that charged a device directly – ie it didn’t rely on charging it’s own internal Lithium Ion battery so would only charge a device in when exposed to light. Joanna’s was a 2 panel Power Monkey charger, very similiar in size to my rather cheaper charger.

Both declared that they were pleased with their chargers. Interestingly, although Joanna’s Power Monkey had it’s own internal battery, she kept it connected to her phone whilst walking along – that’s something I’ll try with mine….when it’s not raining of course!

DofE Ignorance

Whilst pitched up we were passed by two separate DofE parties. Although they were separate it looked like they were from the same group – their kit was very similar.

Perhaps part of the DofE training should include developing social skills in the hills. Neither party acknowledged our presence, in fact they ignored our existence completely in spite of us waving and shouting ‘hellos’….even though they passed us so closely that they really couldn’t have missed us.

Perhaps is ignoring fellow walkers & backpackers is included in the syllabus.

Anyway…

The breeze over Lochan Oisinneach Mor was chilly. Even so I was all horribly sticky and smelly so I indulged myself: a top-to-toe wash down in my tent got rid of the old JJ and replaced him with a fragrant and not at all sticky JJ. Nice….well I thought so.

By 6.30pm the cloud had thickened and the wind had changed direction so I stayed put in my tent, feasted on home-made and home dehydrated lamb casserole (seriously yummy), drank camomile tea and listened to BBC R4….that damned wedding.

I wandered up the hill to get a 4G signal to check the weather, view some online porn (solar chargers!), and to attempt to make a phone call or two.

All was quite well in my Challenge world.

TGO Challenge 2018, Going over the top. Day 5

In which I lighten my load…

Up at 7am to start packing, I had breakfast in thew hotel - £10 for a full English Welsh Irish Scottish, good value for what I had: all the usual stuff you get with a hotel breakfast, but rather having a fry-up I opted for smoked salmon and scrambled eggs. It was probably the best hotel breakfast I’ve ever had. I’ll be using the MacDonald Hotel campsite again – it’s better than other commercial sites I’ve used in the town.

I joined John Jacklin for breakfast, he’d planned a similar route to mine – whatever that was!

The view up the loch from the campsite was quite stunning – the morning light was just right.

Up and away via the Post Office (to send some stuff home) and the Co-op to buy choccy and bread.

JJ, Mike and I left town at 10am for the long slog up to Devil’s Staircase.

Lots of kilt comments (mostly complimentary) and loads of requests for photographs….we should start charging! The vast majority of the walkers we saw were on the WHW, some hoping to get to Fort Bill that day whilst others seemed content to stop in Kinlochleven.

Miffed that the cafe at the top was shut

It got a gloomy as we climbed, then it got gloomier still as we climbed some more – then waterproofs were needed as the wind drove rain in. It got quite cold too. This was the second and final time that I walked in rain on TGOC2018 – quite a record.

As late as 4pm some WHW walkers were still heading north, it would be quite late before they got to KL.

The rebuilding of Kingshouse

Once past Kingshouse the kilt comments virtually dried up. We were now off the WHW and we didn’t come across any other walkers for what remained of the day.

The rain had now stopped but the cold wind remained, at least it dried the outer shell of my Velez quite nicely.

Black Corries Lodge

I’d intended to camp before Black Corries but it felt right to continue on beyond the lodge. And so we did.

A mile or so later, at NN322552, we came across a nice flat spot with an abundant supply of water – just what we needed. It was adjacent to a LRT but we really weren’t mithered about that.

Tents up and brew on – just in time for the Archers on BBC R4 LW.

I had an excellent meal of home made and home-dehydrated beef & ale plus Idaho mashed potatoes – these are now my favourite packet mashed potatoes, they’re delicious.

Pudding was a good sized (= big!) piece of chocolate, an Eccles Cake and a mug of tea. I was replete.

After a top-to-toe wash down in my tent I slid into my sleeping bag and wrte up the day’s diary….ie what you’re reading here.

Looking over the lochan in the fading light was really quite relaxing. The snow-covered tops added to the beauty of the scene. The sky was clearing so I expected a cold night ahead. Because I’d loaned Eden some of my lighter-weight stuff I was carrying my winter sleeping bag – cold was not on my list of worries that night.

Eden was doing his DofE Bronze expedition at the same time as my TGOC, I didn’t want the poor lad to be weighed down with a pile of heavy kit.

Whinge warning:

On the subject of DofE, which I’ve commented on previously (causing some knee-jerk reactions by those who couldn’t be arsed to read my words thoroughly – or just want to argue / disagree with my P.o.V.):

There are some absolutely brilliant and very experienced DofE expedition ‘intructors’ out there (you know who you are) but there are also some who clearly don’t have much idea at all. They probably don’t know who they are.

Expedition instructors can’t be held fully responsible for their teachings, the recommended expedition kit list can be viewed here – I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions….but we’ve all taken pity on overloaded DofE teenagers. I’m surprised that so many return to the outdoors.

Some fellow Backpackers Club members, including me, have offered some local DofE groups help and advice but as far as I know, and certainly in my experience, our offers haven’t been taken up.

End of whinge.

I slept badly, not because of the cold, I was actually VERY warm, it was just a load of crap going through my head that wouldn’t allow me to wind down. A mug of camomile tea, a listen to the BBC World Service and a bit of time spent taking photos helped take my mind of the rubbishy stuff and eventually my mind found neutral and I drifted off.

The view from my tent at 4.10am

Cuckoo count: 3 (poor)

Other wildlife encountered: Not much at all really, a just few birds lurking around the lochan. Not even any Challengers.